Top 20 revealed
©TM/IMAGO
While the footballing season in most major countries is only a few months old, we’re now roughly 80% of the way through the calendar year and, as such, a lot has changed across Europe’s major leagues. Specifically, many of the continent’s biggest clubs have seen their market values rise and fall, due to Transfermarkt’s regular market value updates. Last week concluded the last tweaks and changes to player market values in Europe’s top five leagues and we can now take a look at which clubs have gained the most market value since the start of the year. And there are undoubtedly some surprising names near the top of the list.
Naturally, squads tend to increase in overall market value when players gain market value from impressive form but perhaps a more direct way for a club to gain squad market value is by either signing valuable players or by getting promoted to one of Europe’s top flights. As we can see in the graphic below, no less than four clubs that won promotion to their respective top leagues feature in the top 20. Burnley just make it on to the list with a +€67m increase in squad market value since the start of the year, behind Paris FC (+€75m) in 16th, Como (+€184m) in fifth and Sunderland take second spot with an incredible €223m rise in squad market value. However, in each of these cases, the club squad values have also increased due to substantial amounts of money spent on new players in the summer transfer window.
This, to no great surprise, is also reflected in the clubs that spent the most money in the summer transfer window. Liverpool, who spent €483m on new players in summer, sit fourth in the list with a squad increase in squad market of €186m. Similarly, Chelsea’s €339m summer spending spree has seen their squad market value rise by €113m and places them 12th on the list, while Arsenal’s €294m on new players saw their squad gain €159m in market value and places them seventh. Curiously, despite Manchester United spending €251m on new players, they don’t feature in the top 20, but Nottingham Forest claim third spot after spending €237m on new players in the summer, alongside their impressive form in the Premier League last season.
Elsewhere, a number of European football’s big hitters also made the list. Barcelona take 15th spot with an increase of €92m in their squad market value, Atlético Madrid (+€125m) and Roma (+€119m) take 10th and 11th respectively, while Real Madrid just miss out on the top five with an increase of €168m to their squad. But no club has seen their squad increase in market value since the turn of the year more so than Paris Saint-Germain. However, rather remarkably, the Ligue 1 giants spent relatively very little on new players in the summer transfer window, which certainly suggests that much of the €297m increase in market value was due to Désiré Doué, Vitinha and Ousmane Dembélé blossoming under Luis Enrique’s tactics.