It’s that time once again, CIES have provided us with the most valuable football squads on the planet, as calculated by their formula.
There is one major eye-brow raiser in the top 95 which, for some, may discredit their entire rankings. That is that arguably the greatest player of all-time, Lionel Messi, is nowhere to be seen.
However, Messi’s contract at the Nou Camp has less than a year to run, so we can assume this is the reason for his absence. That would explain why Luis Suarez is listed as Barca’s most valuable player instead.
According to CIES’ latest rankings, Chelsea have the fourth most valuable squad in world football. They claim that the Premier League champions’ squad is worth an eye-watering €1.04 billion.
It is claimed, unsurprisingly, that our most valuable individual player is Eden Hazard, who CIES believe is worth a whopping €121 million. In the modern, inflated transfer market – that seems very low!
If we want to have any chance of retaining our crown, we need to start playing like a team that is worth over a billion euros.`