For a club that has won more La Liga and Champions League titles than any other team on the planet, the past two seasons have been disappointments for Real Madrid, which finished behind archrival Barcelona in the Spanish league standings in back-to-back years and crashed out of European competition in the quarterfinals each time. Yet for all of the hand-wringing among the team\u2019s exacting fans, business has never been better for Los Blancos.<\/p>\n
During the 2024-25 season, Real Madrid posted $1.27 billion in revenue, up 12% from its mark the year prior, already a record for a soccer club. In fact, the new figure just edges the Dallas Cowboys\u2019 $1.23 billion<\/a> from the 2024 NFL season for the highest revenue total for a sports team ever measured by Forbes (without adjusting for inflation).<\/p>\n So even with Real Madrid sitting out Saturday\u2019s Champions League final\u2014where Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain will battle for an extra $29 million in prize money\u2014Los Blancos are the world\u2019s most valuable soccer team for the fifth year in a row, and the tenth time in the past 13 editions of Forbes\u2019 annual ranking. Real Madrid is now valued at $9.5 billion\u2014a $2 billion lead on No. 2 Bar\u00e7a, which last season became the only other soccer club ever to have surpassed $1 billion in revenue (excluding player trading).<\/p>\n Despite the Spanish dominance at the top, La Liga has only one additional club represented among the 30 most valuable soccer teams, leaving it behind England\u2019s Premier League (11), the United States\u2019 Major League Soccer (seven) and Italy\u2019s Serie A (four) in its representation in the valuation ranking. Germany\u2019s Bundesliga also has three clubs among the top 30, and France\u2019s Ligue 1 and Portugal\u2019s Primeira Liga each have one to fill out the list.<\/p>\n On average, the 30 teams are worth $2.9 billion, a 21% increase from 2025\u2019s record $2.4 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n One notable omission from the ranking is Serie A club Napoli, which recently fielded an unsolicited offer of around $2.3 billion<\/a> from sports-focused private equity firm Underdog Global Partners, according to a report from the Athletic citing unnamed sources. (In an email to investors reviewed by Forbes, Underdog did not explicitly deny making the bid but said, \u201cAnything you read in the press should be taken for what it is at this stage\u2014pure speculation.\u201d)<\/p>\n Such a price\u2014at roughly 11.7 times Napoli\u2019s $197 million in 2024-25 revenue, excluding player trading\u2014would be an extreme outlier in European soccer. For instance, the sale of La Liga\u2019s Atl\u00e9tico de Madrid to Apollo Sports Capital, which closed in March and was priced at roughly $2.95 billion at the current exchange rate, including debt, came at about six times the team\u2019s revenue the previous season. In the Premier League, meanwhile, Forbes values five top teams between 6.0 and 8.3 times trailing-year revenue and most other clubs below 4x. At a multiple between 3x and 4x, in line with marquee Italian clubs like Inter Milan and AS Roma, Napoli would be worth less than $800 million.<\/p>\n The math works quite differently in MLS, where the average multiple is 8.9x<\/a>, and in other major North American sports leagues, including the NBA (12.9x<\/a>), the NFL (10.7x<\/a>), the NHL (8.9x<\/a>) and even MLB (7x<\/a>). The gap is a result of numerous challenges that make European soccer clubs less enticing to investors, starting with the promotion-relegation model. In England, for example, the three teams that are demoted from the Premier League to the second-tier Championship each year see their annual revenue decline by tens of millions of dollars\u2014a threat that looms over even well-established clubs like Tottenham Hotspur, which narrowly avoided relegation this season.<\/p>\n European leagues have also been confronted with a more tepid market for media rights than many of their American counterparts and must grapple with a less commercialized sporting culture more broadly. Liverpool, for instance, is dialing back planned ticket price increases<\/a> in the face of fan protests after charging an average of $99<\/a> in 2025\u2014more than most of its European rivals but less than half the comparable figure for top NFL franchises. In addition, European soccer lacks a salary cap, and the arms race for the most talented players has traditionally made the sport a fairly unprofitable enterprise<\/a>.<\/p>\n Those factors, among others, help explain why Real Madrid lags well behind the $13 billion valuation<\/a> of the NFL\u2019s Cowboys even though it has the edge in revenue.<\/p>\n Still, the Atl\u00e9tico sale, along with some transactions involving lower-profile teams outside the 30 most valuable soccer clubs, shows that investors\u2019 interest may be growing. Just last year, Forbes valued Atl\u00e9tico at 3.8 times revenue, and the average multiple of the European clubs in the top 30 was 5.1x, compared with 5.6x this year.<\/p>\n Stoking the enthusiasm, teams that finish high in their domestic league\u2019s standings gain access to increasingly lucrative continental tournaments such as the Champions League, which is reportedly poised for a 20% increase<\/a> in its media rights fees for the cycle that begins in 2027, and a wave of new and renovated stadiums should help revenue continue to grow at the local level. Real Madrid and England\u2019s Everton are among the clubs that have recently unveiled significant venue upgrades, and projects are expected to be completed over the next few years at Barcelona, Manchester United and AS Roma and in Milan, where AC Milan and Inter Milan are collaborating to replace the historic San Siro.<\/p>\n However, the biggest driver of valuations right now is the influx of American investors desperate to break into sports ownership. This season, more than half of the clubs in the Premier League were majority-owned by Americans or U.S.-based firms, and Americans or Canadians controlled nine of Serie A\u2019s 20 teams, as well as three clubs in La Liga after Apollo\u2019s purchase of Atl\u00e9tico. U.S. investors have also begun to buy up teams in lower divisions and in other countries, such as Mexico, where Atlanta-based Innovatio Capital acquired Liga MX\u2019s Quer\u00e9taro<\/a> in July and New York\u2019s General Atlantic took a 49% stake in Club Am\u00e9rica in December.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are just so many Americans with cash who like sports, and the American market is kind of closed off to a lot of these owners,\u201d one European soccer insider says. \u201cIf you\u2019re an American millionaire from North Carolina, you\u2019re probably priced out of your local USL club, and you\u2019re definitely priced out of an MLS club\u2014that is like cash billionaires now.<\/p>\n \u201cBut if you can buy an English football club\u2014maybe even though they\u2019re all the way down the system\u2014at one times revenue, when a USL club is probably trading at anywhere from seven to 15 times revenue, that\u2019s probably a no-brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n The World\u2019s Most Valuable Soccer Teams 2026\n<\/p>\n #1. $9.5 billionLeague: Spanish La Liga | One-Year Change: 41% | Revenue: $1.265 billion | Owners: Club members#2. $7.5 billionLeague: Spanish La Liga | One-Year Change: 33% | Revenue: $1.063 billion | Owners: Club members<\/p>\n Javier Borrego\/Europa Press\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #3. $7.2 billionLeague: English Premier League | One-Year Change: 9% | Revenue: $865 million | Owners: Glazer family<\/a>, Jim Ratcliffe<\/a><\/p>\n Richard Sellers\/Sportsphoto\/Allstar\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #4. $6.2 billionLeague: English Premier League | One-Year Change: 15% | Revenue: $911 million | Owners: John Henry<\/a>, Tom Werner<\/a>#5. $5.8 billionLeague: French Ligue 1 | One-Year Change: 26% | Revenue: $912 million | Owner: Qatar Sports Investments<\/p>\n Patrick Smith\/FIFA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #6. $5.7 billionLeague: German Bundesliga | One-Year Change: 12% | Revenue: $938 million | Owners: Club members#7. $5.5 billionLeague: English Premier League | One-Year Change: 4% | Revenue: $900 million | Owner: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan#8. $5.4 billionLeague: English Premier League | One-Year Change: 59% | Revenue: $895 million | Owner: Stanley Kroenke<\/a>#9. $4.2 billionLeague: English Premier League | One-Year Change: 29% | Revenue: $637 million | Owners: Todd Boehly<\/a>, Clearlake Capital<\/p>\n Justin Setterfield\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #10. $3 billionLeague: English Premier League | One-Year Change: -9% | Revenue: $733 million | Owners: Joseph Lewis Family Trust<\/a>, Daniel Levy#11. $2.95 billionLeague: Spanish La Liga | One-Year Change: 74% | Revenue: $488 million | Owners: Apollo Sports Capital, Quantum Pacific, Ares Management#12. $2.4 billionLeague: Italian Serie A | One-Year Change: 12% | Revenue: $458 million | Owner: Agnelli family<\/p>\n Daniele Badolato\/Juventus FC\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #13. $2.2 billionLeague: German Bundesliga | One-Year Change: 7% | Revenue: $579 million | Owners: Bernd Geske, Evonik Industries<\/a>#14. $1.85 billionLeague: Italian Serie A | One-Year Change: 23% | Revenue: $447 million | Owner: RedBird Capital Partners#15. $1.8 billionLeague: Italian Serie A | One-Year Change: 57% | Revenue: $586 million | Owner: Oaktree Capital Management#16. $1.4 billionLeague: English Premier League | One-Year Change: 56% | Revenue: $490 million | Owners: Wes Edens<\/a>, Nassef Sawiris<\/a>#17. $1.35 billionLeague: MLS | One-Year Change: 13% | Revenue: $200 million | Owners: Jorge Mas<\/a>, Jose Mas, David Beckham<\/a><\/p>\n Chris Carter\/MLS\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #18. $1.32 billionLeague: MLS | One-Year Change: 6% | Revenue: $167 million | Owners: Bennett Rosenthal<\/a>, Brandon Beck<\/a>, Larry Berg, Peter Guber<\/a>#19. $1.25 billionLeague: English Premier League | One-Year Change: 14% | Revenue: $435 million | Owners: Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund#20. $1.08 billionLeague: MLS | One-Year Change: 8% | Revenue: $106 million | Owner: Philip Anschutz<\/a>#21. $1.02 billionLeague: MLS | One-Year Change: 17% | Revenue: $90 million | Owner: City Football Group (Sheikh Mansour)#22. $1 billionLeague: MLS | One-Year Change: 3% | Revenue: $105 million | Owner: Arthur Blank<\/a>#23. $960 millionLeague: Portuguese Primeira Liga | One-Year Change: N\/A | Revenue: $252 million | Owners: Club members<\/p>\n Octavio Passos\/UEFA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #24. $940 millionLeague: Italian Serie A | One-Year Change: 16% | Revenue: $242 million | Owner: Friedkin Group<\/a>#25. $930 millionLeague: English Premier League | One-Year Change: N\/A | Revenue: $255 million | Owner: Friedkin Group<\/a>#26. $920 millionLeague: English Premier League | One-Year Change: 8% | Revenue: $253 million | Owner: Shahid Khan<\/a>#27. $910 millionLeague: English Premier League | One-Year Change: 6% | Revenue: $295 million | Owner: Tony Bloom#28. $880 millionLeague: German Bundesliga | One-Year Change: N\/A | Revenue: $323 million | Owners: Club members#29. $860 millionLeague: MLS | One-Year Change: 8% | Revenue: $100 million | Owner: Adrian Hanauer#30. $855 millionLeague: MLS | One-Year Change: 4% | Revenue: $94 million | Owners: Anthony Precourt, Eddie MargainMETHODOLOGY<\/p>\n Forbes\u2019 global soccer team valuations are enterprise values (equity plus net debt) based on historical transactions and the future economics of each league and each team. For teams based in Europe, estimates of revenue and operating income (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) reflect the 2024-25 season and are rounded to the nearest $1 million. For U.S. clubs, figures reflect the 2025 regular season and are taken from Forbes\u2019 annual MLS team valuations, published in February<\/a>.<\/p>\n The team values reflect the economics of each team\u2019s stadium but do not include the value of the stadium real estate itself. Equity stakes in other sports-related assets and mixed-use real estate projects are also excluded.<\/p>\n Forbes excludes player trading and disposals of player registrations from its operating income and revenue tabulations. For MLS clubs, playoff games and shared distributions from the league are also omitted.<\/p>\n Debt is measured in terms of interest-bearing borrowings due in more than one year (including stadium debt). Because enterprise value is a capital-structure-neutral metric, it allows Forbes to compare teams with different debt and equity structures.<\/p>\n Where necessary, revenue and operating income numbers are converted to U.S. dollars based on the average exchange rate during the season (\u20ac1 = $1.09, \u00a31 = $1.29, \u00a31 = \u20ac1.19).<\/p>\n No one-year valuation changes are listed for Benfica, Everton or VfB Stuttgart, which were not included in Forbes\u2019 2025 ranking of the 30 most valuable soccer teams.<\/p>\n The information used to compile Forbes\u2019 valuations came from teams\u2019 annual reports and documents, team executives, soccer team investors, credit rating agency reports and sports bankers, as well as the annual Deloitte Football Money League report<\/a> and the soccer finance reporter known as Swiss Ramble<\/a>.<\/p>\n More From ForbesForbesThe Most Valuable MLS Teams 2026By Justin Birnbaum<\/a>ForbesNew Billionaire David Beckham On His Family And LegacyBy Maneet Ahuja<\/a>ForbesMexican Soccer Team Sells For More Than $120 Million To American-Led GroupBy Brett Knight<\/a>ForbesThe World\u2019s 10 Highest-Paid Athletes 2026By Brett Knight<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a club that has won more La Liga and Champions League titles than any other team on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,74370,342485,342490,74371,342487,342484,342483,342488,342486,342489,85],"class_list":["post-703612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-football-team-values","tag-football-team-worth","tag-football-valuations","tag-most-valuable-football-teams","tag-most-valuable-soccer-teams","tag-richest-football-teams","tag-richest-soccer-teams","tag-soccer-team-values","tag-soccer-team-worth","tag-soccer-valuations","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}