With the group stage of Euro 2024 complete at the time of writing, the media is awash with opinion as to who has the strongest side going into the Round of 16 stage. England may have topped Group C by the skin of their teeth, but with a total squad value of £1.3bn and the highest collective value of midfielders and strikers at £559m and £440m respectively, one might have expected more than a stalemate against Slovenia or a 1-1 draw against Denmark.
UCFB’s Football Finance experts, Claire O’Neill and Christopher Winn, have calculated the market value of each team by collating individual values on a player-by-player basis, using data extracted from Transfermarkt.co.uk.
Overall, approximately £9.7bn of playing talent has been included in the 24 squads for the tournament, a 2% increase on Euro 2020.
The five highest value squads - England, France, Portugal, Spain and Germany contribute c.50% of the total value of squads competing at the tournament, a feature which is unchanged since Euro 2020, demonstrating the concentration of high quality talent amongst these nations in recent tournaments.
The top eight squads by market value have a cumulative value of £6.5bn, meaning the top third of squads make up two thirds (68%) of the total value on show. In contrast, Romania carry the smallest squad market value (£78m), followed by Albania (£94m) and Slovenia (£120m).
England’s squad at this summer’s European Championships is once again the most valuable in the tournament, totalling almost £1.3bn, an increase of 12% compared to the squad that reached the Euro 2020 final.
England (£1.3bn) and France (£1.0bn) are the only two squads to exceed the billion pound valuation mark, with England possessing four of the eight players on show this summer carrying a £100m+ valuation.
Jude Bellingham (England) and Kylian Mbappe (France) lead the way as the highest valued players at the tournament, both valued at £152m.
They are joined in the £100m+ category by England’s Foden (£127m), Saka (£119m) and Rice (£102m), German pair Wirtz (£110m) and Musiala (£102m), and Spain’s Rodri (£102m). In contrast, only Kane and Mbappe recorded values of this magnitude at Euro 2020.
Indeed, Bellingham, Foden, Rice, and Saka have a combined value of c.£500m, 30% greater than the value of the Serbian and Slovenian squads combined.
Per UEFA’s player classifications, England’s midfield and forward positions carry the greatest market value across all the squads (£559m and £440m respectively), collectively showcasing £1bn of playing talent.
As was the case three years ago, France continue to boast the highest value collection of defensive players (£304m), whilst Spain possess the highest total value in the goalkeeping department (£76m).
While value does not always equate to victory, predictions were made of the outcomes of the knockout stages through to the finals where market value wins throughout.
Commenting on the wider implications of these statistics, Christopher Winn, Lecturer in Football Finance, stated, “Major tournaments such as the European Championships often provide a shop window for players looking to progress their careers, and clubs looking to steal a march on their rivals. However, such exposure can often mean large premiums are added to transfer fees, as clubs look to cash in on strong tournament performances. The extent to which this summer’s tournament will derive anywhere near the record £2.4bn gross transfer expenditure recorded in the Premier League last summer remains to be seen.”
Claire O’Neill, Senior Lecturer in Football Finance added, “With so much ‘high value’ talent on display at Euro 2024, at club level the temptation to splash the cash in the summer transfer window is simply not an option. In light of recent breaches of financial regulation, never have English clubs been more mindful of the need to balance their hunger for talent with their obligations to comply with ‘UEFA Financial Sustainability Regulations’ (for those competing in European Competition) and the ‘Profitability and Sustainability Rules’ domestically.”
Claire O’Neill is Course Leader for BA (Hons) Football Business and Finance, Manchester campus. To find out more about our BA (Hons) Football Business and Finance course, or other undergraduate degree courses on offer, click here.
Christopher Winn is Course Leader for MSc Football Business. To find out more about our MSc Football Business course, or other postgraduate degree courses on offer, click here.
