Marcus Rashford: Manchester United striker tops most-valuable players list

Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford has been ranked as the most valuable footballer in Europe’s major leagues by research group CIES Football Observatory.

The biannual list of the ‘big-five’ league players with the greatest transfer values factors in age and contract length.

Rashford’s estimated value is £150.1m given the 23-year-old England international has more than two years remaining on his current contract, plus the option of a further year.

Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold (£137.4m) is third on the list behind Borussia Dortmund forward Erling Haaland (£137.8m), while Rashford’s team-mate Bruno Fernandes is fourth (£136.9m).

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Kylian Mbappe (£135.4m) had previously headed the list, but with 18 months left on his current deal the Paris Saint-Germain striker’s estimated value has seen him drop to fifth.

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England trio Jadon Sancho, Raheem Sterling and Bukayo Saka have all been deemed to have values of more than £100m, with Mason Mount, Harry Kane and Mason Greenwood all above the £90m-mark.

Top 20 per CIES Football Observatory

There is no place in the top 100 for Cristiano Ronaldo (£42.6m), the 35-year-old Juventus forward is 131st due to his expiring contract in June 2022, while 33-year-old Lionel Messi (£48.9m) is 97th given his deal at Barcelona runs out this summer.

The most valuable XI

Taking CIES’ values into consideration and using a 4-3-3 formation, Manchester City’s Ederson would feature as the goalkeeper having been valued at £72.14m.

Ahead of him, Alexander-Arnold would be right-back, Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies (£126.2m) left-back, with Manchester City’s Ruben Dias (£114.9m) and Juventus’ Matthijs de Ligt (£94.3m) the centre-back pairing.

Fernandes is the highest-valued midfielder, with CIES listing Chelsea’s attacking midfielders of Kai Havertz (£122.4m) and Mount second and third respectively.

The highest defensive midfielder on the list is Barcelona’s Frenkie de Jong (£95.8m), with City’s Rodri valued at £88.5m.

Up front would be the trio of Rashford, Haaland and Mbappe.

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