Highest market values in history: Haaland joins Messi - Osimhen catches up with Ronaldo

The record in the Italian league has been broken, the one in Spain not quite yet, and in England and France Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappé continue to dominate the top of the market value rankings. After the latest updates in the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1, three stars of the three top leagues have climbed to historic heights. The upgrade for Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior makes him the sixth most valuable player in history, while Napoli star Victor Osimhen caught up with Cristiano Ronaldo, among others. New in second place in the ranking is Man City striker Haaland, who increased his career-best value by another €10 million in the most recent Premier League update and is now rated at €180m – the same value that Neymar and Lionel Messi once had.

The transfer fees for players have continuously risen to enormous amounts in recent years. As a result, even the highest market values in history tend to be held by current top players like Mbappé or Neymar, rather than former football greats. Even the five-time Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldo is falling further and further down the rankings, while Napoli’s Osimhen is closing in on the Portuguese. The Nigerian broke the record market value of a player at an Italian club.

Complete ranking The highest market values in history Click here for overview A market value of €120m, which Ronaldo once had at Real Madrid and Osimhen now has in Italy, has so far been surpassed by only 14 players worldwide. Now, Vinicius Junior also joined the club. In the La Liga update, the Brazilian climbed to a valuation of €150m. This is not only the second-highest value ever achieved in Spain behind Messi (€180m at Barcelona in 2018), but also the sixth-highest value in market value history. His personal career-high value, however, Vini Jr. shares with seven other footballers.

How Transfermarkt market values work

The Transfermarkt market values are calculated, taking into account various pricing models. A major factor is the Transfermarkt community, whose members discuss and evaluate player market values in detail. In general, the Transfermarkt market values are not to be equated with transfer fees. 

The goal is not to predict a price but an expected value of a player in a free market. Both individual transfer modalities and situational conditions are relevant in determining market values. Examples of this are listed below. Transfermarkt does not use an algorithm (you can find the detailed market value definition here).