6 hours ago
1
156 players updated
©TM/IMAGO
After market value updates in Spain and Italy, France’s Ligue 1 becomes the third of the five top leagues in Europe to receive an intermediary market value update. Overall, 156 players playing in France’s first division received new market values. The most valuable player is once again Ousmane Dembélé, but after an upgrade of €10 million from €90m to €100m, the forward no longer shares first place with other players. Dembélé is now the only player with a market value of €100m or more in Ligue 1.
“His Ballon d'Or win had to be celebrated with a market value rise,” Transfermarkt Area Manager France Ronan Caroff said. “He's now the sole leader of his team in value, instead of having to share first place with two of his teammates. It is also the first time he has reached the €100 million mark since the 2018/19 season, when he was 22 years old. His start to the season was great, but a hamstring injury is keeping him off the pitch for more than a month, a throwback to his many injuries at Barcelona. Without the worries about his long-term fitness, his market value would have gone up perhaps a bit more.”
Although Dembélé has left the €90m club, the group of players with that market value has grown from three to four. The reason for that is that both Vitinha and João Neves saw their market value increase by €10m to €90m. They join teammates Désiré Doué and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia as the second most valuable players in the league. “Both started the season with the UEFA Nations League, but despite the additional games kept their fitness,” Caroff said. “Vitinha is now one of the vice-captains at the club and has been productive on the pitch. Neves hasn’t always been fit lately, but before that was one of the best and spectacular players in the league.”
PSG market values: Ilya Zabarnyi up – Ups and downs for young stars
Another player with a significant increase in market value among PSG’s top stars is new signing Ilya Zabarnyi. “PSG only spent money on two transfers this summer, €40m on goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier (+€10m to €40m), and €63m +€3m on Zabarnyi,” Caroff said. The transfer fee was a big part of Zabarnyi’s 31% market value increase from €42m to €55m. “The Ukrainian's new value market doesn't quite reach his transfer fee just yet, but a €13m rise still highlights this change of status, as he's so far the most used center-back this season by PSG.”
The biggest winner by percentage among PSG players is 17-year-old forward Ibrahim Mbaye. Mbaye saw his market value increase by 400% from €3m to €15m. “His progression continues; he is already closing in on his total amount of minutes played from last season,” Caroff said. “At 17 years old, he has already established himself in the first team, a rarity for players out of the PSG academy. Of course, he hasn't shown the statistical impact of his U19 games (15 goals, 19 assists in 36 games) yet. But Luis Enrique started him as a right-winger against Barcelona over Kang-in Lee.”
Mbaye isn’t the only teenager with a change in market value. But while Senny Mayulu (+€10m to €25m), saw his market value increase, the crisis continues for Warren Zaïre-Emery. The 19-year-old playmaker was once considered the biggest talent in world football, and his market value rose accordingly to €60m quite quickly. But the meteoric rise has been stopped, and Zaïre-Emery has now seen his market value downgraded twice in a row. Dropping to €55m in June, the playmaker has managed just 781 minutes in 16 games across all competitions with zero goals and assists. With that in mind, another downgrade by €5m to €50m was inevitable.
Ligue 1 market values: Upgrades for Americans – Strasbourg on the up
Overall, it has been a good market value update for US men’s national team players playing in Ligue 1. At Olympique Marseille, Timothy Weah saw his market value increase by €3m from €17m to €20m. “Already back in France after two years at Juventus, Weah looked good in his first few games for Marseille,” Caroff said. “He stood out, especially in the big games. He was crucial in the 1-0 win over PSG but also played well in the 1-0 defeat to Lyon, and then showed a valiant effort against Real Madrid, where he scored OM's goal in a 1-2 loss.” Signed on loan with a conditional obligation to buy worth up to €20m, Weah’s new market value now also reflects his potential transfer fee.
Over at Olympique Lyon, Weah’s USMNT teammate Tanner Tessmann saw his market value increase by 66.7% from €6m to €10m. “There were fears about Lyon’s midfield stability after Thiago Almada (Atlético Madrid) and Nemanja Matić (US Sassuolo) have left the squad and Orel Mangala went down with a knee injury,” Caroff said. “Lyon had no money to invest in new players. Instead, the solution came from within the squad. Tessmann wasn’t a first-choice last season, playing just 20 games and 1840 minutes. This season, he’s yet to miss a Ligue 1 minute. He has also scored two goals and overall deserves an upgrade.
Also, US-related is the development at BlueCo-owned Strasbourg. The unofficial farm team of Premier League club Chelsea, Strasbourg, once again have a squad full of promising talent and experienced a market value increase of around €20m. “This time we focused on players whose transfer fee was higher than their previous value,” Caroff said. “Lucas Høgsberg climbs from €3.5m to €10m, Joaquín Panichelli from €7m to €12m, Martial Godo from €0.6m to €4m, and Rafael Luís from €1.2m to €4m. Some of it is also performance-based. Those players include Valentín Barco (+€3m to €15m) and Samuel Amo-Ameyaw (+€2m to €6m). Some homegrown talents also get their share. Abdoul Ouattara saw his market value rise from €1.2m to €4m, and Samir El Mourabet went from €50,000 to €2m after his first four pro starts in a very stacked midfield.”
Ligue 1 market values: Egan-Riley down - Cresswell up
Two young English defenders had different outcomes as part of this most recent Ligue 1 market value update. At Marseille, CJ Egan-Riley saw his market value drop from €16m to €15m. “The is no massive concern yet despite his €1m downgrade, as Roberto De Zerbi seems to be trying many different options depending on the opponent team,” Caroff said. “But Egan-Riley hasn't been given a start in the whole month of September, after being in the starting XI for the first three games in August, the red card against Lyon might have put him in the doghouse. The competition promises to be very fierce on the center-back position, as most of his teammates in this position are older and more experienced than him.”
Meanwhile, at Toulouse, a former Leeds United defender saw his market value increase by 20% from €10m to €12m. “Charlie Cresswell had a big market last summer, including from Roma, Liverpool, Dortmund, and West Ham,” Caroff said. “The "TéFéCé" wanted €17m for the center-back, a price tag that wasn’t met, but Cresswell gets a logical rise, from this growing attraction around him. The 23-year-old won his second U21 European Championship title with England this summer and is a crucial player and leader for Toulouse.
How Transfermarkt market values work
The Transfermarkt market values are calculated, taking into account various pricing models. A major factor is the Transfermarkt community, whose members discuss and evaluate player market values in detail. In general, the Transfermarkt market values are not to be equated with transfer fees.
The goal is not to predict a price but an expected value of a player in a free market. Both individual transfer modalities and situational conditions are relevant in determining market values. Examples of this are listed below. Transfermarkt does not use an algorithm (you can find the detailed market value definition here).
