Belgium has potentially the 7th most expensive football team at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, according to a study by the CIES football observatory, published on Monday. France tops the ranking in this category, which is based on the combined transfer values of each team’s players. Argentina and Brazil are the second and third most expensive teams.
"The valuations refer to the fair price that the most likely buyer should pay to sign the players,” CIES explained. “The sporting performance of both the players and their clubs of belonging are included in the algorithm. In addition, other variables such as age and contract duration are also taken into account.”
The combined transfer value of all the players who will take part in World Cup 2018 amounts to 12.6 billion euros, according to the CIES.
France, which includes three of the five biggest transfers in the history of football (Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé and Paul Pogba) tops the list. The estimated value of its players is 1.41 billion euros. Players for second-placed England have a combined transfer value of 1.39 billion euros. Brazil, which has the most expensive player in world football history, Neymar, is in third place with 1.27 billion.
Belgium is in 7th place with an estimated value of 835 million euros, behind Spain (965 million) and Argentina (925 million). Portugal (656 million) Uruguay (529 million) and Croatia (416 million) complete the top 10.
The team with the lowest combined transfer value is Panama, the Red Devils’ first adversary at World Cup 2018, whose players have a combined transfer value of 15 million euros. Tunisia, which is also in Belgium’s group, is ranked 27th with 58 million euros, while hosts Russia are only in 22nd place, with 132 million euros.
The Brussels Times
