FC Barcelona boasts the world’s most expensive soccer player according to the CIES Football Observatory, which rates its talented teenager Lamine Yamal at an astounding $415 million (€358 million) as per a report shared by Mundo Deportivo.
The 18-year-old heading to the World Cup with Spain finished ahead of his nearest rivals Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe by some distance.
While Manchester City striker Haaland was second on $264 million (€227 million), third-place Real Madrid number 9 Kylian Mbappe has been valued at $193 million (€166 million).
Of these three players, it is worth noting that only Mbappe has been transferred for a significant fee.
Granted the Frenchman fled to the Bernabeu on a free after his Paris Saint-Germain contract expired in June 2024.
Yet the moneyed back-to-back holder of the Champions League paid an astounding $209 million (€180 million) for him from Monaco in 2017, which in turn made him the second-most-expensive player and most expensive teenage player of all time.
Paris Saint-Germain have tried to snatch Lamine away from Barcelona too
The Catalans and Parisians still share the world’s most expensive transfer from the latter mentioned year, 2017.
In the same summer Mbappe arrived at the Parc des Princes on an initial loan before being bought permanently, PSG triggered Neymar’s $258 million (€222 million) FC Barcelona release clause and the transfer market was never the same again.
As Barça President Joan Laporta has already explained, though, PSG have been prepared to smash the world transfer record, and that for the most expensive teenager, in one swoop by coming in for Lamine.
Because the number 10 came through the academy, any potential sale would represent pure profit. Despite Barça’s well documented financial issues, though, Laporta won’t budge and sell a generational talent.
“When PSG offered us €250 million ($291 million) for Lamine Yamal, and we rejected it, he was 17 years old. Some people thought we were crazy,“ Laporta told Jijantes.
At the club since the age of seven, Lamine has been clear about wanting to spend his life in Blaugrana.
“Yes. Hopefully yes,” he answered, when recently asked about retiring at the Spotify Camp Nou.
“At the end of the day, I think I’m at the best club in the world. I enjoy every day very much, every training session. I’m in the best city in the world and hopefully I can stay here my whole life,” Lamine added.
As he’s tied down on a contract until June 30, 2031, anyone interested in taking Lamine Yamal from Barcelona should pay his PSG-proof $1.16 billion (€1 billion) release clause.