Soccer-PSG's Mbappe is world's most valuable player, study shows

(Reuters) - Paris St Germain forward Kylian Mbappe is the most valuable soccer player in the world, according Swiss research group CIES Football Observatory, followed by Real Madrid's Vinicius Jr and new Manchester City recruit Erling Haaland.

Mbappe, who turned down Real and signed a new three-year deal at PSG last month, topped the list https://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2021/wp384/en with an estimated transfer value of 205.6 million euros ($219.5 million), beating Vinicius (185.3 million euros) and Haaland (152.6 million euros).

Mbappe's PSG teammate Neymar holds the current transfer record. The French champions paid Barcelona 222 million euros for his signature in 2017.

The top five was rounded off by Barca youngster Pedri (135.1 million euros) and Borussia Dortmund's English midfielder Jude Bellingham (133.7 million euros).

The CIES Football Observatory uses such indicators as player age, performance, career progression and contract duration to arrive at a transfer value.

The latest list was dominated by Premier League players, with 41 representatives in the top 100.

City's Ruben Dias (109.6 million euros) had the highest transfer value for a defender while PSG's Gianluigi Donnarumma (73.7 million euros) led among goalkeepers.

City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne, 30, was the oldest player on the list, with a value of 57.3 million euros.

($1 = 0.9365 euros)

(Reporting by Dhruv Munjal in Bengaluru; Editing by Bradley Perrett)