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2020 will definitely go down in history as one of the worst years. This is because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has hit the world in the worst ways and the most-watched sport in the world has not been spared either. The football world has been thrown into disarray and left with financial consequences that could forever change the game.
The pandemic caused matches to be suspended, resulting in lots of income to be lost. The long-lasting impact will definitely be seen on the transfer market which could lead to future damage.
Before resumption of football, players had to sit idle at home as their contracts running down, star assets of various clubs have seen their values constantly falling. Before the pandemic and after the pandemic struck, the value of a player can’t be near their true value. So, how has the market value of football players changed so far?
State of football players’ market value as per now
Let us take for instance, the most-watched football league in the world: Premier League; in recent times, it’s been reported that Premier League squads dropped more than £1.6 billion because of the coronavirus shutdown. As a way of working out the scale of damage caused by the coronavirus shutdown, players born in 1998 or later are devalued by 10% and the rest are devalued by 20%. Basing on these statistics, it means that the top four football leagues in England have lost £1.8bn just in transfer values alone.
From the above figure, £1.6bn is from the 20 Premier League clubs. This is about a loss of 20 percent of the value of their players. Some transfer market analysts suggest that the prices in the football stock market have collapsed. Threats of insolvency and uncertainties may face clubs due to the transfer plans being on a standstill.
As of now, it is hard to think that players’ transfer fees will continue to increase, as has been the case in the last few years in the near future. Clubs such as Manchester City are suffering major losses as many of its players are quite expensive and are at the peak of their careers. The club has only a single player-Phil Foden, born later than 1998 and is worth £54m. This means that the club’s losses are at the 20 percent mark.
It is claimed that the value of Manchester city has dropped from £1.14bn to an estimated £917m. This is a drop of approximately 19 percent. Major losses have come from players like Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne since they are the club’s most valuable assets because of their age, ability and contract length.
Players such as Raheem Sterling have witnessed their values drop by a whooping £28.8m to £115.20m because of the coronavirus shutdown. Right now, the value of Kevin De Bruyne is worth £108m.
Liverpool have not been spared so much either, with their star right-back player Trent Alexander-Arnold just slightly below the 10 percent because of age. Being the third most valuable in Liverpool, his price has dropped from £99m to £89m.
The real losses for Liverpool come in their most expensive players: Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Virgil Van Dijk. The trio resulted in losses of about £72m, making the club’s value drop from £1.08bn to £870m.
Super star players such as Paul Pogba and Harry Kane have not had big deals over the summer because of a reduction in their values. Manchester United Coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted that the coronavirus crisis would positively impact the club as they are known to be big spenders to acquire transfer targets for lower prices than what they were to pay initially.
Chelsea have recently acquired young players as an addition to the squad, which means the club could be spared financially. Players such as Christian Pulisic, Mason Mount and the rest being on the 10 percent mark, the club has had its value drop by just 18per cent. Other clubs such as Crystal Palace, Leicester and Newcastle have all dropped in value all at 20 percent.
Every other football league around the world has been affected as well. Spanish sides Barcelona and Real Madrid are all feeling the effect. Real Madrid has had its value drop from £972m to £800m. which is 18 percent under the value of the club. This value is lower compared to the Barcelona side since they have young players such as Vinicius Junior.
In Germany, Bayern Munich has had their value drop from £842m to £680m while Borussia Dortmund has had its value drop by 15.2 percent which is a bit fair. The statistics continue around other football leagues in the world as players’ values are depreciating, which affects the club’s value.
Bottom line
Football being the most-watched sport globally, fans, club owners and other stakeholders will have to bear with the constant changing market value of players. Most importantly they will have to continue enjoying the sport.
Overall, it is safe to say that the corona virus has heavily shaken up the players’ market values which has both advantages and disadvantages for the football clubs. As a consequence, some football fans and financial experts could experience some exciting recent months on the football stock market where they can trade, buy and sell players using real money. So even though the pandemic has resulted in financial losses for a lot of clubs, as the charts show here, the vast market value fluctuations did have some benefits for many casual people trading at the Football Index.
