Market values ​​Paraguay: Roque Santa Cruz at 41 still a top performer

League with Santa Cruz & Co.

The top players of Clausura champion Club Olimpia are the big winners of the market value update of the Paraguayan Primera División, while Club Libertad in particular loses squad value. Player of the season Derlis González has added a new second most valuable player in Paraguay behind club Cerro Porteño’s defender and captain Alexis Duarte (4m). The 28-year-old increases by one million to 3.8 million euros.

González became the top scorer – 12 goals, level with Lorenzo Melgarejo – and, according to coach Julio Cáceres, sparked interest in Europe, where he had played for Benfica, FC Basel 1893 and Dynamo Kyiv until 2020. Having been on the decline in recent years and slowed down by a cruciate ligament rupture at the end of 2020, the striker achieved his best form for a long time in the 2022 calendar year and returned to the Paraguay national team after almost three years. Cáceres recently spoke about an offer from Europe in the amount of around 4 million US dollars – whether Olimpia would accept this is still open.

Teammate Fernando Cardozo was also raised by one million, but to 3 million euros. The 21-year-old winger is one of the most interesting young players in the Primera División and not only played a major role in the 46th championship with five assists, but also impressed in the Copa Libertadores until the summer. In the market value ranking, only Duarte, González and Ángel Cardozo Lucena (Cerro Porteño; 3.5 million) are now ahead of Cardozo.


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This is also because Iván Franco is again the big loser of the update. The 22-year-old left winger is one of a number of Libertad players to be significantly devalued – in his case from €3m to €1.5m. Once regarded as the biggest talent in Paraguay and attracting interest from top clubs in Europe, Franco struggled with injuries in the years that followed and never regained his peak form. The minus is his sixth in a row. Franco is reportedly looking to leave Libertad around January to get his career back on track. There are loose rumors about a move to Argentina.

While in addition to Franco from the Apertura champions squad, Héctor Villalba (-0.2 to 1.5 million), Camilo Mayada (-0.7 to 0.5 million) or Pablo Aguilar (-1.1 to 0 .3 million) are downgraded, midfield talent Diego Gómez defies the trend at “La Guma”. The 19-year-old is the great discovery at Libertad and not only a top performer, but also a national player. Gómez is adjusted up by €1.5m to €2m – the biggest upgrade in this update.

The best-known players in the league are also on the ball at Libertad: Roque Santa Cruz, who extended his contract again at the age of 41, and Óscar Cardozo (39) remain at their market values ​​of 250,000 and 200,000 euros respectively. The veterans continue to play an important role at the Asuncion club.

This is how the Transfermarkt market values ​​work

The Transfermarkt market values ​​are created taking into account various pricing models and a strong involvement of the Transfermarkt community, which deals with the values ​​in detailed discussions. The transfer market market values ​​are not to be equated with the transfer fees actually paid.

The goal is not to predict a price, but an expected value. When determining the market value, both individual transfer modalities and situational framework conditions are relevant to a certain extent. Examples of this are listed here. Transfermarkt does not use an algorithm (for detailed market value definition).

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