September 23: FC Porto midfielder Victor Froholdt (pictured) has been valued at €83.7m by the CIES Football Observatory, making him the most valuable player currently operating outside Europe’s top five leagues.
The 20-year-old Dane sits comfortably at the top of the latest CIES rankings, which use their statistical model to estimate transfer values following recent market movements and price inflation.
Benfica striker Vangelis Pavlidis is second on €65m, while newly acquired Al-Hilal winger Gabriel Martinelli rounds out the top three on €63.6m.
Portugal, unsurprisingly, is well represented.
Sporting’s Luis Suárez is fourth with €62.9 million, Porto’s Oskar Pietuszewski is seventh with €60.7 million, Benfica winger Gianluca Prestianni is eighth with €57.9 million and Sporting defender Gonçalo Inácio follows him with €57 million.
This gives the Portuguese league six of the ten most valuable players on the overall list, underlining how the country’s top clubs continue to occupy the European transfer market.
On the other hand, the striker of Club Brugge Nicolò Tresoldi is valued at around 61.5 million euros and leads the Belgian ranking, just ahead of the controversial Englishman of Fenerbahçe, Mason Greenwood, with 61 million euros as the most valued player in Turkey. Greenwood is a bit of a political grenade for top clubs, given a history that saw him disgraced at his boyhood club Manchester United in 2022.
Palmeiras striker José Manuel López is Brazil’s top player with €53.9 million, while Ajax youngster Jorthy Mokio leads the Netherlands with €53.4 million.
CIES also broke down the numbers by position. Porto goalkeeper Diogo Costa is the most valuable goalkeeper outside the big five with €49.3 million, while Inácio leads the center back category with €57 million. Samuel Dahl of Benfica heads the wide defender with 52.7 million euros.
The rankings are a useful snapshot of where transfer value is building outside of England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France, and where those clubs are likely to be shopping in January. And once again, Portugal is doing a lot of work.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at harry.ewing@insideworldfootball.com
