Most valuable players in 20/21: COVID-19 impacts market values - Chelsea win UCL

In 2020/21, football was still overshadowed by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Clubs invested less money, and market values started to drop. Chelsea (squad value: €858m) beat Manchester City (€1.03bn) to win the Champions League, and England was defeated by Italy in the European Championship final. As part of 20 years of market values on Transfermarkt, we are looking back to this season. 

The most valuable XI had a combined value of €1.4bn in 2019/20, but because of the pandemic, it dropped to €1.19bn. The most valuable player was once again Kylian Mbappé from Paris Saint-German (€847m), but his market value fell by €20m to €180m. His teammate Neymar dropped by €52m to €128m. The market value of the Brazilian would drop to €100m by the end of the season. Behind Robert Lewandowski, who would be directly involved in 57 goals across 40 games, breaking Gerd Müller’s Bundesliga goalscoring record, Mbappé managed the second most scorer points in Europe with 42 goals and 11 assists. 

Lionel Messi, who went into his last season with Barcelona (€781m), ranked fourth with 52 direct goal involvements. The Argentine saw his market value drop to €80m and, as a result, his place was taken by Mohamed Salah from Liverpool (€913m). Like PSG, Bayern Munich had two players in the most valuable XI: Joshua Kimmich and Alphonso Davies. The Canadian wing-back increased his market value from €15m to €80m within one year. 

COVID-19 impact – Haaland reaches €100m market value

The COVID-19 pandemic would impact the transfer market as games behind closed doors meant less revenue. The previous season, the clubs in Europe’s top five leagues invested €6.68bn in new players; in 2020/21, that dropped to €3.89bn. While the Serie A and Bundesliga invested around €500m less, investments in LaLiga dropped by more than €1bn.  

Chelsea were the club with the biggest investments. The London-based club paid €247m for new players, including €80m for Bayer Leverkusen’s Kai Havertz and €53m for Timo Werner from RB Leipzig. Havertz became the most expensive player in German history and would pay back his investment by scoring the winner in the Champions League final. The only player more expensive that season was Arthur Melo, for whom Juventus (€601m) paid €80.6m to Barcelona. The team with the second highest expenses was Manchester City, who paid €173m for new players.