The subject over who is the best African player this moment will likely spark unending debate, but not as much as who is the most expensive as numbers tend to speak louder.
A football observatory site, CIES, has been assembling data over who is the most expensive footballer in the globe. The revered site’s analysts took a lot of things into consideration including a player’s worth, the club they’re being linked with, age and performance, a long list of which 27 players commanded a transfer value of more than €100M.
Sixteen of these players are in the English Premier League, five from La Liga, three in the Serie A, two in the French Ligue1 and one from the Bundesliga with PSG Kylian Mbappe topping the list, with a €218.5M transfer valuation.
Tottenham’s and World Cup golden boot winner Harry Kane comes second on €200.3M with Brazil’s Neymar third at €197.1M.
From Africa, Mohamed Salah is ranked the most expensive and came fifth behind Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling. The Egypt international and EPL player of the year has notched in 13 goals in 19 games for the Anfield side, continuing from where he left off last season.
Saido Mane sneaks in at fourteenth place in the transfer market with his worth pegged at €137.4M. The astronomical fee represents an increase in value for the Senegalese international since his move from Southampton in 2016.
Salah’s rival for the golden boot, Gabon and Arsenal’s goal-getter Pierre Emerick Aubameyang comes in above the €100m valuation. The 29-year-old’s age certainly is cause for his decline but not his form as he headlines the ELP with fourteen goals, equal to Harry Kane’s.
France-born Aubameyang joined Arsenal from Bundesliga heavyweights Borussia Dortmund for a reported sum of £56m and scored 10 goals in his debut season last term.
Algeria’s Riyadh Mahrez, Guinea’s Naby Keita, Kalidou Koulibaly of Senegal and Ivory Coast’s Frank Kessie all failed to make the top 27 priced at €76.0M, €68.4M, €65.2M €58.3M respectively.
