From 1985 to 2008
©IMAGO
The most valuable players born between 1985 and 2008 have a combined market value of around 1.89 billion euros – and could form a powerful squad of 32 if there weren’t so few defenders and only one goalkeeper. The latter is Manuel Neuer, who is at the top with a market value of 4 million euros from the 1986 vintage. The 39-year-old keeper is one of four Bayern professionals who, according to the market value updates in October, have the highest valuation of all players from the year in which they were born. FC Barcelona with the most valuable player in the world, Lamine Yamal (born in 2007), and Champions League winner Paris Saint-Germain have the same number.
From the German record champions’ squad, Harry Kane (1993) and Joshua Kimmich (1995) also lead their vintages in terms of market value with 75 million and 45 million euros respectively. Lennart Karl, born in 2008 and on everyone’s lips thanks to his Champions League record goal during the week, was upgraded by 18.5 million euros to 20 million euros in the Bundesliga update. He sits at the top of his cohort alongside Atalanta’s defensive gem Honest Ahanor. Market value administrator Frederic Hillmann said as part of the update: “At 17, Lennart Karl is a supplementary player at FC Bayern and was able to show in the Bundesliga why he is considered an exceptional talent in his age group. The fact that the Munich team decided to sign fewer newcomers because of a talent like him in order to give him more playing time speaks volumes.”
The fifth Munich player in the heart is Thomas Müller (1989), who after his move to Vancouver Whitecaps FC is valued at 6 million euros at least until the end of the MLS season. Like all top players in this discipline who were born between 1985 and 1989, the Raumdeuter has a lead over his pursuers: for him it is Inter’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan with 4 million euros. There are 6 million euros between Robert Lewandowski (10 million) and Yann Sommer (4 million) born in 1988, Lionel Messi in 1987 with 18 million euros is 11 million ahead of Karim Benzema, Neuer 2.4 million euros ahead of Edin Džeko and Cristiano Ronaldo in 1985 8 million ahead of Luka Modrić (4 million).
Musiala & Co. left out despite high market value – curious case of Miura
For the younger age groups, birthdays in the same year ensure that Vinicius Junior (2000 like Erling Haaland), Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz (both 2003 like Jude Bellingham), Michael Olise (2001 like Bukayo Saka), Federico Valverde (1998 like Kylian Mbappé) or Declan Rice (1999 like Alexander Isak) are not part of this list although they have market values of 120 million to 150 million euros.
Among players born in 2009, Hertha’s Kennet Eichhorn is one of five talents who have already reached the million mark, earning 6 million euros. In front of him is Jeremy Monga from Leicester City. In the statistics of the most valuable players on Transfermarkt you can filter by year and a curiosity emerges when you scroll far down: four players born in 1980 are still listed around goalkeeper Fábio from Fluminense. Then there is a big gap without any valued footballers until 1967: “King Kazu” Kazuyoshi Miura still plays for the Japanese fourth division club Atletico Suzuka Club at the age of 58. The legendary striker has retained a symbolic market value of 25,000 euros since two years ago, when he ventured back to Europe to join the then Portuguese second division club UD Oliveirense.
This is how transfer market market values work
The transfer market market values are created taking into account various pricing models as well as a strong involvement of the transfer market community, which deals with the values in detailed discussions. The transfer market market values cannot generally be equated with the transfer fees actually paid.
The goal is not to predict a price, but rather an expected value. When determining the market value, both individual transfer modalities and situational conditions are relevant to a certain extent. Examples of this are listed here. Transfermarkt does not use an algorithm (for detailed market value definition).