The Most Expensive Football Players - 2016 Summer Transfer Market

The CEIS Football Observatory published a list of 100 highest value players from a transfer fee perspective. The research takes into account things like performance statistics, player age, current contract length etc.

Only players who currently play in Europe's Big-5 leagues were considered. The stats show that the correlation between what the CEIS algorithm predicts and what has come true in recent years is in the area of 80%.

Here is the list of most expensive football players heading into the 2016 summer transfer market:

Lionel Messi (Barcelona) - €211m
Neymar (Barcelona) - €202m
Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) - €138m
Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid) - €120m
Harry Kane (Tottenham) - €113m
Anthony Martial (Man Utd) - €112m
Luis Suarez (Barcelona) - €106m
Paulo Dybala (Juventus) - €105m
Sergio Aguero (Man City) - €97m
Paul Pogba (Juventus) - €90m
Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) - €81m
Eden Hazard (Chelsea) - €78m
Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal) - €76m
Dele Alli (Tottenham) - €74m
Thomas Muller (Bayern) - €74m
Raheem Sterling (Man City) - €73m
Robert Lewandowski (Bayern) - €68m
Alvaro Morata (Juventus) - €64m
Toni Kroos (Real Madrid) - €62m
Gonzalo Higuain (Napoli) - €60m
Isco (Real Madrid) - €60m
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia) - €60m
James Rodriguez (Real Madrid) - €59m
Romelu Lukaku (Everton) - €58m
Hector Bellerin (Arsenal) - €56m
Kevin De Bruyne (Man City) - €55m
Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool) - €52m
Yannick Ferreira Carrasco (Atletico) - €51m
Willian (Chelsea) - €51m
Koke (Atletico) - €50m

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The people at CEIS argue that the transfer market is rational and that it moves along the lines of the economic model they developed.

There are eight players over the €100m mark on the list, with Barcelona's Messi and Neymar leading the way. Gareth Bale is the current record-holder with his €100m transfer from Tottenham to Real Madrid three summers ago.

The top 4 most expensive players currently play in the Spanish La Liga.

Antoine Griezmann, Harry Kane and Anthony Martial are the rising stars.

Juventus has two jewels in Paulo Dybala and Paul Pogba.

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Source: CEIS Football Observatory