Swiss study prices the world’s top players and Lionel Messi outranks Cristiano Ronaldo by €87million

Should be of interest to Chelsea...

Just as speculation about Lionel Messi leaving Barcelona hits the papers, the annual CIES Football Observatory has come out. The Swiss body, backed by FIFA, were set up to monitor and report on the labour market of the game and part of that is putting a transfer value on the world's best players. There is no surprise in the top two but there is in the gap between them. Lionel Messi comes in at a reasonable €220 million but Cristiano Ronaldo is a relatively lowly €133m. On their site they say that: The transfer values are calculated using an exclusive algorithm developed on the basis of over 1,500 fee paying transfers occurred since 2009. The variables included in our exclusive econometric model refer to player performances (matches, goals, dribbles, etc.), their characteristics (age, position, contract duration, etc.), as well as competition level and results achieved by their teams (clubs and national sides). That's all well and good and, as he is two years younger,  Messi should be more valuable but €87m is a big gap. Third on the list is Eden Hazard at €99m while his Chelsea team-mate Diego Costa is fourth at €84m. Fifth is Juve's Paul Pogba at €72m, followed by Sergio Aguero at €65m and Raheem Sterling, yes that Raheem Sterling, at €63m. Gareth Bale comes in tenth at €60m, €40m less than was paid for him 18 months ago. The full list is here and it makes for fascinating reading, especially in transfer window season. We're definitely bookmarking this to see who gets a bargain and who pays over the odds over the next 12 months. By the way, Seamus Coleman doesn't make the top 120, meaning they value the Donegal man at less than €21m. If he does leave Everton, he'll surely go for more than that.