In an open market: 5 most valuable players in the world?

[Oly Francis]

So no. Foden isn't close to this list. Gavi is a phenomenal 18 year old midfielder who is a better player than Foden already. Guy is overhyped because he plays a different way to most English players when he's not even one of the very best current English talents. Also arguably the most punchable face in football.

Not even close. Gavi has huge consistency issues (which isn't a big deal if you take into account his age but that's not the point here) on top of behavioural issues on the pitch. Gavi's games in the CL were mostly underwhelming (and so was he in europa league). Pedri is phenomenal (but has injury issues, probably due to the fact that he's too valuable for his team so totally overworked by his coaches), not Gavi.

I do agree with the position argument though, modern football requires depths and Foden has a LW wouldn't bring that to the table, so unless he can play consistently in the midfield or his paired with an overlapping left back, it can be an issue to fit him into a team.

 

[adexkola]

I don’t think he made them better either. He will get you goals naturally but I’d rather have someone like Kun who will score a bit less yet show up when it matters the most.

Why are you correlating less goals with showing up when it matters the most?

And many have (wrongly) called Aguero a player who "couldn't do it when it matters" solely judging by no CL on his resume.

 

[SAFMUTD]

Mbappe
Haaland
Vinicius Jr
Saka
Pedri

 

[Kush]

Mbappe is the best player in the world. Haaland is a freak goalscorer but Mbappe is simply a better and more rounded player who can add a lot more to his side.

It's Henry vs RVN all over again, one was simply a better player even though a lot of us tried to convince ourselves that Ruud was at his level. I was definitely not one of them

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Honestly I’d have Haaland above Mbappe.

Mbappe is clearly a more talented footballer but Haaland is just a goal scoring freak of nature and goals are the most valuable asset in football. Nobody else in the world can do what Haaland does.

As others have said, Mbappe can do what Haaland does - score plenty of goals. But Haaland can’t do what Mbappe does and his game is utterly mediocre aside from that.

 

[Theonas]

Honestly I’d have Haaland above Mbappe.

Mbappe is clearly a more talented footballer but Haaland is just a goal scoring freak of nature and goals are the most valuable asset in football. Nobody else in the world can do what Haaland does.

True but Mbappé needs less support to score, don't you think? If a game is cagey and tight, Mbappé is the better bet to get you the goal or assist. He can render defensive structures useless with his talent. I think that's always been the most valuable currency in the game.

 

[Theonas]

Why are you correlating less goals with showing up when it matters the most?

And many have (wrongly) called Aguero a player who "couldn't do it when it matters" solely judging by no CL on his resume.

Depends who you compare Agüero to though. He isn't in the league of Henry or even Suarez when it comes to changing the direction of a game on his own. He was a brilliant player and easily stands next to the likes of RvN, Shearer and Drogba in the list of great PL strikers but a game changer on the level of the very elite like Henry, he was not.

 

[Strelok]

Mbappe
Rashford
Haaland
Vinicius
Saka

Skills, age, personal brand, CV all taken into consideration. Personally imo Mbappe and Rashford are better footballers than Haaland. They could score goals themselves and create as well. And both are fantastic dribblers with insane pace. Haaland is a freak but he won't score without services and scoring aside his general play is a bit meh. I might be a bit biased toward Rashford though but truth is he has even a better records in the top matches than Mbappe. World Cup aside I can't remember Mbappe doing much against the top teams.

 

[Changeisgood]

The figures aren't quite as high for his position but how much do you figure Cavinga may be worth now?

 

[colombianmancunian]

1. M’Bappe.
2. Majin Buu.
3. Osimhen.
4. Rashford.
5. Vinicius.

 

[colombianmancunian]

Gavi/Pedri over anyone not named Mbappe

Overrated due to uefalona’s brand. They are good, just not generationa players as some say.

 

[cesc's_mullet]

Outside of Mbappe and Haaland I'd go (in no particular order):

Osimhen
Pedri
Musiala
Saka
Kvaratskhelia
Bellingham
Foden
Gavi
Vincius Jnr.
Rashford

Personally I believe Martinelli, Odegaard and Saliba would fetch huge fees too at this moment.

 

[Gabriel Djemba-Bebe]

He didn't necessarily make them better, but this City team is worse than a few years back, but it has nothing to do with Haaland. I'd probably have Agüero over him too, but then again he's one of my favorite players ever.

The guy who gave most United fans their most painful ever memory is one of you're favourite ever players? You're 100% a City fan.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

The guy who gave most United fans their most painful ever memory is one of you're favourite ever players? You're 100% a City fan.

For some reason I never found this moment that painful. Maybe it’s because I refused to get my hopes up that day but it wasn’t one of those sporting moments that scarred me.

 

[RedSky]

The pokal and titles in some weak leagues. The similarities I see between him and Kane is that their impressive goal scoring benefits their individual records, but this season Haaland could win feck all just like Kane. At least his excuse is he plays for Spurs.

Alternatively he could win the treble... Kane's an excellent player but it's pretty clear that Haaland is a level above Kane. Kanes ultimate mistake was staying at Tottenham for as long as he has, it's held back his career to the point where he's now in danger of not winning a single trophy in his career. Which for a player of his calibre is borderline criminal.

 

[RoyH1]

Mbappe
Haaland
Vinicius
Osimhen
Musiala

 

[RedSky]

The guy who gave most United fans their most painful ever memory is one of you're favourite ever players? You're 100% a City fan.

He's Norwegian and the poster is Norwegian. I can understand why he'd love him. Heck, i'm English and I can't hate the guy, he comes across as a solid bloke to me. Just has poor taste.

 

[Gabriel Djemba-Bebe]

He's Norwegian and the poster is Norwegian. I can understand why he'd love him. Heck, i'm English and I can't hate the guy, he comes across as a solid bloke to me. Just has poor taste.

Aguero isn't Norwegian. Re-read what part of his post I quoted.

 

[Fortitude]

The gap between Mbappé & Håland and the rest is going to be much bigger than 20 mil. I love Kvara as much as the next guy but he's only having his break-through season now, at the age of 22. He's incomparable at the moment as a potential asset to the likes of Mbappé (World Champion at 18) & Håland (who broke probably every age-restricted goalscoring record possible) — you sign them and you're guaranteed success for the next decade or more.

There isn't any other player in the world at the moment who can give you that. Rashford, I'd imagine, is in the second tier, considering his current form, still relatively young age, media profile and, well, the club that he's representing — United will ask for an astronomical sum if someone was to come for him. I'm not sure if clubs would be willing to pay for Khvicha 150 millions this summer... although I may be proven wrong seeing the fees for Felix, Fernández & Núñez after one (and in Enzo's case, even less than that) extraordinary season. Pedri is going to cost something similar unless Barça suddenly gets dissipated... which is not a completely unrealistic scenario, weirdly enough — he's a genuine all-time great talent in his position and I can count on one hand midfielders who performed as he did at the mere age of 17-18. Same with Vinícius, who is the face of the new Madrid generation, as well as one of the best players in the world already. Not sure about Foden — his role in that City team became less important recently and with Håland's arrival he's not their Golden Boy anymore (although having a home-grown talent of his calibre still puts a huge tax on him). Osimhen and Bellingham would be at the bottom of this short-list, I'd imagine.

Regarding Kvaratskhelia. I would determine it as both his season and ability plus his age, the club he is at and the length of his contract.

It'd be like a club putting down a bid for Greenwood pre-controversy plus the extra of Kvaratskhelia's performance to date making him one of the best players active in Europe this season.

Bids for Greenwood would have been risible below £100m and I'm wondering how much a club would have had to get up to for us to have considered the offer. Kvaratskhelia is their crown jewel and it'll come at a serious premium to have them entertain the bid.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Rashford and Saka.

Saka is surely top 5??

I'd say the top 5 are him, Mbappe, Haaland, Vinicius and Pedri.

 

[RedSky]

Aguero isn't Norwegian. Re-read what part of his post I quoted.

Oh my bad, I misread his post. feck Aguero.

 

[zaafi]

The guy who gave most United fans their most painful ever memory is one of you're favourite ever players? You're 100% a City fan.

You're obsessed. Sort yourself out. Look at my posting history and tell me how I am a City fan. I literally told you yesterday I despise City. I loved Agüero back in his Atletico days, and the same for Falcao, van Nistelrooy and van Persie. I'm a sucker for these strikers. The clubs they've played for are irrelevant to me. You've really got some issues

Edit; Another favorite player of mine is Messi who single-handedly destroyed us in two CL finals. Am I a Barcelona fan now then?

 

[mshnsh]

I think Musiala has a higher ceiling than Mbappe or Haaland. If he adds more consistent end product (goals/assists) in the champions league and for Germany he will get the due recognition.

 

[Enigma_87]

Why are you correlating less goals with showing up when it matters the most?

And many have (wrongly) called Aguero a player who "couldn't do it when it matters" solely judging by no CL on his resume.

Because the problem with Aguero was his injury record. Even if he didn’t score in CL he was threatening and his overall game in the ones I’ve watched has always been better compared to Haaland who is easily to get isolated.

his CL credentials isn’t bad at all. The reason why he didn’t want it isn’t pinned solely on him and you know that.
In PL you can’t argue that he has been instrumental in key games usually. And his record against top sides speaks volumes -

Aguero’s record against City’s big six rivals: Tottenham (11 in 16); Chelsea (10 in 14); Manchester United (8 in 11); Arsenal (8 in 14); Liverpool (7 in 13).

He has the best goal to minutes ratio in PL history (Haaland might pass that might not)

The biggest thing for me though is that with Kun, Henry I was always bricking it when we faced them at their heyday. The fear they striked was something I can’t say I feel when I see Haaland on the team sheet. It’s much easier to isolate him compared to either.

 

[mshnsh]

Whereas Haaland has come into an absurdly dominant side and made it worse.

If City had Mbappe instead of Haaland I personally think they'd be doing better in the league and Mbappe would have a similar number of goals to Haaland.

Both players rely on pace and generally run behind the defence. Mbappe obviously has more to his game but is still a vertical player so no guarantee he'd better a team that plays non vertical football. I'd say the kind of team he'd make better would be Man Utd or Liverpool.

 

[mshnsh]

Mbappe is the best player in the world. Haaland is a freak goalscorer but Mbappe is simply a better and more rounded player who can add a lot more to his side.

It's Henry vs RVN all over again, one was simply a better player even though a lot of us tried to convince ourselves that Ruud was at his level. I was definitely not one of them

What are you basing this on?

He has been underwhelming this season.
As for the WC, he was anonymous in the QF, SF and until his penalty in the final.

But otherwise I agree. Mbappe is the better footballer. Its like Henry vs RVN or Messi vs Cristiano.

 

[harms]

What are you basing this on?

He has been underwhelming this season.
As for the WC, he was anonymous in the QF, SF and until his penalty in the final.

I really like this “anonymous until his penalty in the final” (I’ve seen this argument quite a lot, hence me commenting on it). More often than not players who score a hat-trick start performing much better after the first goal.

Haaland had been average before his first goal against Leipzig, for example.

 

[justsomebloke]

The gap between Mbappé & Håland and the rest is going to be much bigger than 20 mil. I love Kvara as much as the next guy but he's only having his break-through season now, at the age of 22. He's incomparable at the moment as a potential asset to the likes of Mbappé (World Champion at 18) & Håland (who broke probably every age-restricted goalscoring record possible) — you sign them and you're guaranteed success for the next decade or more.

There isn't any other player in the world at the moment who can give you that. Rashford, I'd imagine, is in the second tier, considering his current form, still relatively young age, media profile and, well, the club that he's representing — United will ask for an astronomical sum if someone was to come for him. I'm not sure if clubs would be willing to pay for Khvicha 150 millions this summer... although I may be proven wrong seeing the fees for Felix, Fernández & Núñez after one (and in Enzo's case, even less than that) extraordinary season. Pedri is going to cost something similar unless Barça suddenly gets dissipated... which is not a completely unrealistic scenario, weirdly enough — he's a genuine all-time great talent in his position and I can count on one hand midfielders who performed as he did at the mere age of 17-18. Same with Vinícius, who is the face of the new Madrid generation, as well as one of the best players in the world already. Not sure about Foden — his role in that City team became less important recently and with Håland's arrival he's not their Golden Boy anymore (although having a home-grown talent of his calibre still puts a huge tax on him). Osimhen and Bellingham would be at the bottom of this short-list, I'd imagine.

Just quibbling here, but it's not "Håland", it's "Haaland". In Norwegian "aa" is basically completely equivalent to "å" in terms of pronounciation. Both are used in names (ie, there are other people called "Håland", which is pronounced exactly the same as "Haaland"). If you have a family name that begins with "Aa" then it's treated as an "å" for purposes of alphabetical sorting.

They're not freely interchangeable though - if your name is spelled using "aa", then that's how it's spelled.

 

[Hammondo]

I really like this “anonymous until his penalty in the final” (I’ve seen this argument quite a lot, hence me commenting on it). More often than not players who score a hat-trick start performing much better after the first goal.

Haaland had been average before his first goal against Leipzig, for example.

True but its a long time for him to be nonexistent. Personally I feel both of them are overrated.

 

[Tom Cato]

Mbappe is a more complete player than Haaland, that's not up for debate. He's also sharing the spotlight with arguably two of the greatest and most marketable forwards in world football.

You can starve Haaland of service and he'd look very poor - as he did a couple of months ago. But score 5 against mediocre opponents in the CL and everyone is losing their shit.

I missed the part where Haalanad has scored against every single CL team he has ever played against exccept for Ajax (1 game) and City (2 games)

Mbappe is of course a better all-round player. Haaland is a significantly better goalscorer than anyone playing the game of football today.

 

[Dumbstar]

Saka is surely top 5??

I'd say the top 5 are him, Mbappe, Haaland, Vinicius and Pedri.

I double checked Saka's stats just to be sure. He has been playing for four full seasons now. FOUR!!

In those, he has scored 3, 4, 12, 12 goals. He's absolutely in a good trajectory right now but you don't blow your top 5 load just on promise or a clear purple patch. Or if you do then you're a dunce (Darwin, Antony, etc).

 

[Gabriel Djemba-Bebe]

You're obsessed. Sort yourself out. Look at my posting history and tell me how I am a City fan.

*looks at posting history*
"United should sign Iheanacho". Yep, you're a Blue. A striker who averages 5 goals a season really shouldn't be considered as a transfer target by any sane United fan. Although I know that must be tough to hear as him and Foden are literally the only players of any note to have made it out of City's academy.

I loved Agüero back in his Atletico days, and the same for Falcao, van Nistelrooy and van Persie. I'm a sucker for these strikers. The clubs they've played for are irrelevant to me. You've really got some issues

Edit; Another favorite player of mine is Messi who single-handedly destroyed us in two CL finals. Am I a Barcelona fan now then?

You can't claim to be a United fan and say one of your favourite ever players is a Man City legend. Imagine a Spurs fan saying Henry is one of their favourite ever players, or a Sunderland fan saying they loved Shearer as a player

 

[zaafi]

*looks at posting history*
"United should sign Iheanacho". Yep, you're a Blue. A striker who averages 5 goals a season really shouldn't be considered as a transfer target by any sane United fan. Although I know that must be tough to hear as him and Foden are literally the only players of any note to have made it out of City's academy.

You're the most childish, ignorant posters I've had a discussion with on this forum. At this point it seems you're just trolling. Talk about taking posts out of context and make your own post of it to strengthen your argument, when in fact it just makes you look like a child. First of all, Iheanacho hasn't played for City since he was 20. That's 6 years ago. Secondly, I suggested him as a back-up to the striker we're signing (hopefully Osimhen) because his contract expires next summer so he would be very cheap, he has a lot of experience in Premier League and he would actually be able to play games as opposed to Martial who is injured 9 out of 10 games. And you seriously need to look at the games played/minutes played before saying stuff you're clueless on. Not saying he is better than Kane, of course, but he has a higher xG per 90 than Kane, so he's not as bad as a striker as you make him out to be. He's a decent back-up.

Imagine thinking that a United fan that suggests signing ex-City players is automatically a City fan. Did you make your account just to troll or something?

 

[Siorac]

For some reason I never found this moment that painful. Maybe it’s because I refused to get my hopes up that day but it wasn’t one of those sporting moments that scarred me.

Same. The Everton 4-4 and the miserable defeat at Wigan were far worse for me. That's when you could feel the title slipping away.

 

[Nish115]

I double checked Saka's stats just to be sure. He has been playing for four full seasons now. FOUR!!

In those, he has scored 3, 4, 12, 12 goals. He's absolutely in a good trajectory right now but you don't blow your top 5 load just on promise or a clear purple patch. Or if you do then you're a dunce (Darwin, Antony, etc).

But his role wasn't always a goal scorer. He was LB first season.

He was more a creative winger the next. Then the last 2 he's been improving his finishing hence the improved returns.

 

[Red Star One]

Haaland, Mbappe, Vini are certain, 4th and 5th a bit more trickier, between Pedri, Saka, Fede Valverde or Musiala. None of these players would be allowed to leave if there came an 120-130m offer (maybe Pedri for Barca being a mess). I'm not having Bellingham in the top5 because I doubt anyone will pay 110m+ for him, very young and exciting, but I'm not fully buying into the hype just yet.

 

[Tom Cato]

I think Musiala has a higher ceiling than Mbappe or Haaland. If he adds more consistent end product (goals/assists) in the champions league and for Germany he will get the due recognition.

He is behind both at the same age in terms of production. Are there any factors im not aware of that would indicate that is about to change?

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Same. The Everton 4-4 and the miserable defeat at Wigan were far worse for me. That's when you could feel the title slipping away.

Yeah that one was like a kick in the nuts. After that and the loss to City (can’t recall the order) I didn’t have expectations for that season.

 

[Sarni]

Well Pedri won't be under contract come the summer, so not sure how expensive he'll be

He signed a deal until 2026 like two years ago.

 

[zaafi]

You can't claim to be a United fan and say one of your favourite ever players is a Man City legend. Imagine a Spurs fan saying Henry is one of their favourite ever players, or a Sunderland fan saying they loved Shearer as a player

So, hypothetically, if Messi went from Barcelona to Man City, and he scored a goal that ensured them winning the title over us, he couldn't be one of my favorite players without me being a City fan?