SP. The 30 highest-valued players in football history – ranked in order

Money makes the world go round, and the same can be said for football. As the sport continues to grow financially and with transfer fees adjusted for inflation, players are becoming more expensive than ever. The likes of Lamine Yamal and Bukayo Saka are among the highest-valued players today, but where do they rank in the all-time list?

Thanks to the experts at Transfermarkt, fans are able to see the highest-valued players in football history. Dating back to the early 2010s, the German website has found the highest value of 250 of football’s biggest stars and ranked them based on how exorbitant they were at their peak. GIVEMESPORT has narrowed this down to a top thirty, with some of the game’s biggest franchise players coming in surprisingly low.

30-21

Cristiano Ronaldo is only 26th

The top thirty kicks off with two of the Premier League’s top talents in the form of Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold and Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard. While the Norwegian’s highest value comes from this year, Alexander-Arnold’s current valuation falls far short of his best, largely due to his expiring contract.

Lautaro Martinez and Rodrygo come 28th and 27th respectively, before the biggest shock of them all. Despite his five Ballon d’Or victories, Cristiano Ronaldo finds himself ranked just 26th, with his £100m value dating all the way back to 2014 when he was at his peak.

Ousmane Dembele is also tagged with the same price as the Portuguese legend, this coming two years after he became one of Barcelona’s most expensive signings. Midfielders Declan Rice and Federico Valverde have seen their current market worth push them into the top 20, although Victor Osimhen’s peak valuation dates back to 2023, before his move to Galatasaray.

The final man to feature in the bottom third of the list is 17-year-old superstar Lamine Yamal, whose rise to fame at the Camp Nou has coincided with an incredible jump from €25m in August 2023 to €120m less than a year later.

20-11

Three England stars included

More often than not, it is attacking players who are handed the biggest contracts and cost teams the most money. So Rodri’s position at number 20 is a testament to his quality prior to his devastating ACL injury. Jadon Sancho may be on the comeback trail regarding his career, but in 2020, he was still one of Europe’s hottest prospects, hence his extraordinary valuation.

Bundesliga duo Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz follow, with Arsenal starboy Bukayo Saka sitting right in the middle at 15th. All three of these young superstars are currently at the top of their game, and it’s because of that their current value is the highest it’s ever been.

In the polar opposite camp, Eden Hazard and Philippe Coutinho will be looking back at 2018 and wondering what happened. Now, the Belgian has retired, while his Brazilian counterpart is back in his homeland at just 32.

Kevin De Bruyne, Antoine Griezmann, and Harry Kane are still either world-class or just short of being so, depending on who you ask. Like Hazard and Coutinho, they also reached the apex of their value six years ago.

10-1

Lionel Messi only sixth

It is no shock that the top 10 highest-valued players in football history were, at least at one point, the very best on offer. Back in 2018, Mohamed Salah was preparing to lead Liverpool to their first Champions League title since 2005, while his teammate Sadio Mane helped the Reds claim their first Premier League title in three decades the following year.

Phil Foden’s PFA Player of the Year-winning 2023-24 season helps him slot into 8th, just above the Merseyside pair. Incredibly, his former teammate Raheem Sterling reached a valuation £8 million more than City’s current star. Back in 2017, the former Chelsea man was an integral part of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side, routinely scoring upwards of 20 goals per campaign.

In sixth is the forever record-breaking Lionel Messi. Despite his dominance on the world stage and status as the greatest player of all time, inflation has ultimately meant that five names sit above him on the list. One of those is his former teammate Neymar, with the Brazilian forward being valued £49m shy of the amount PSG spent on bringing him to the club in 2017.

Real Madrid duo Vinicius Jr and Jude Bellingham are among the favorites to win the Ballon d’Or following their domestic and European triumphs over the last 12 months. As such, their highest values are taken from those periods. They are beaten to the punch by new teammate Kylian Mbappe, who was worth £167m after joining PSG to form one of the most lucrative front threes in world football at the time.

There can only be space for one at the top though, which in this case goes to Erling Haaland. The six-foot-four goal machine made an electric start to the 2024-25 season and was rewarded with a valuation that is the highest in the sport’s history. And there’s nothing to say that he can’t push to go even higher in years to come.