Most valuable players in 2021/22: Erling Haaland in Kylian Mbappé's footsteps

Real Madrid (squad value: €750m) showed their comeback qualities in 2021/22 to win the Champions League. At Barcelona (€626m), a new era kicked off after Lionel Messi left, and Robert Lewandowski would enter his final year at Bayern Munich (€770m). As part of 20 years of market values on Transfermakt, we have reviewed the most valuable players of every season since 2004. 

Even though Kylian Mbappé from Paris Saint-Germain (€818m) was downgraded to €160m, he remained the most valuable player in the world. With 39 goals and 26 assists, he became Europe’s top scorer, ahead of Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema, who was directly involved in 59 goals that season and led Real Madrid to a Champions League title. The PSG forward closed in on Dortmund’s Erling Haaland, who, due to injuries, managed just 30 games but was still involved in 37 goals. The market value of the Norwegian rose to €150m, and he would join Manchester City (€959m) in a deal worth €60m. 

Alongside Haaland, Man City’s Rúben Dias was also new to the most valuable XI; he replaced Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk. One year after his transfer from Benfica, his market value increased from €50m to €75m. With Dias and Kevin de Bruyne, the English champions had two players in the most valuable XI, as many as PSG, Bayern, and Liverpool (€928m). The market value fell from €1.19bn to €1.07bn. 

Lewandowski leaves Bayern – Grealish most expensive transfer

The biggest spending team was Arsenal (€521m), who paid €167m in transfer fees for, among others, Ben White (€58.5m) and Martin Ødegaard (€35m). The club with the second most spending was Manchester United (€774m), who paid €142m in new players. The most expensive transfers were all conducted by Premier League clubs: Jack Grealish moved from Aston Villa to Man City for €117.5m, and Chelsea (€869m) paid €113m to bring back Romelu Lukaku. Man United paid €85m to sign Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund.