Japan is lowest-valued World Cup squad left – worth six times less than Germany
Japan's World Cup heroes make up the lowest-valued squad left at the tournament ahead of their round of 16 showdown against Croatia – more than five times less and Germany who they beat in their opening game.
Hajime Moriyasu's 26-man squad includes seven stars based in their home nation as well as others from Belgium and Scotland – with Germany having 19 Champions League stars in their 26.
SportingPedia have crunched the numbers on market values left at the World Cup, as well as the biggest flops from the group stages including Belgium and Uruguay.
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Japan have the lowest ranked market value of all players combined from the remaining 12 teams at £133million – an average of just over £5m per star.
Including eliminated sides, Germany are at the other end of that scale with a whopping £762m – which works out to an average of just short of £30m per player.
Belgium can also hang their heads in shame with an average of £18m per player, with South Korea into the round of 16 with an impressive average of just £5.1m.
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Japan may now sit top of that table, but the value of Australia, who were knocked out by Argentina, was even better in terms of overachieving at just over £1m per player.
Senegal were the next biggest underdogs before England's 3-0 triumph sent them out, with Morocco punching above their weight before taking on Spain.
After Germany and Belgium, the most notable under performing countries were Uruguay, Serbia and Denmark, with the latter making the semi-final at Euro 2020.
Speaking ahead of their winnable contest against Croatia, Japan boss Moriyasu said of his players: "Japan have always been a team that can play an organised game, but unless the individual players are strong, this is not really sufficient.
"In the last four years, the individual players have become much more capable."
The winner of Japan vs Croatia will meet the winner of Brazil vs South Korea, with Netherlands or Argentina awaiting in a potential semi-final.
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