Cole Palmer +€45m as Arsenal star squeezes into top ten market value increases in 2024
Three England stars make the top 10 players with the greatest increase in their market values in 2024. No prizes for guessing which child leads the way.
We’ve differentiated players with the same increase in market value by the percentage increase. All data is courtesy of the wonderful Transfermarkt.
10) Riccardo Calafiori (Arsenal): €13m to €45m (+€32m)
Not quite at Kevin De Bruyne, Mohamed Salah levels, but certainly another Jose Mourinho transfer boob to add to the list. Sold by Roma to Basel for around £3m in 2022, Calafiori joined Bologna for £20m a year later and then Arsenal a year after that for £42m. An £80m target for Real Madrid next summer then, we guess.
8) Bradley Barcola (PSG): €30m to €65m (+€35m)
No Kylian Mbappe, no problem. Barcola leads the PSG goalscoring charts this season with six goals in seven Ligue 1 games and has also managed a couple for France in the Nations League.
9) Fermin Lopez (Barcelona): €15m to €50m (+€35m)
The first of three Barcelona players on this list, which bodes very well for them, particularly as neither Gavi nor Pedri made the cut despite being young and brilliant like their trio of teammates. Lopez undoubtedly benefited from injuries to his fellow midfield La Masia graduates last term, in what was a breakout season that threatened never to materialise with such outstanding competition for places in the side.
7) Pau Cubarsi (Barcelona): €1.5m to €40m (+€38.5m)
Came into the team midway through last season and it was the teenager’s display in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain that really made us sit up and take notice. Definitely easier to be a child forward than a child centre-back and the fact that he’s now first choice at Barcelona at the age of 17 is testament not just to his supreme talent but his maturity.
6) Phil Foden (Manchester City): €110m to €150m (+€40m)
Quite the feat to make the list when he was already valued at €110m but it’s hard to argue with after his 14 goals since the turn of the year for the best team in the country. Bit of a shame he was unable to carry that form into the summer with England but that was less about him and more about Bellingham and Gareth Southgate’s square pegs in round holes.
Yet to score or assist for club or country so far this season, but he’s been injured for the majority of it and those who doubt Phil Foden don’t know football.
READ MORE: Dunk to Guehi via Kane, Bellingham and Watkins: Ranking all 26 England players at Euro 2024
5) Cole Palmer (Chelsea): €45m to €90m (+€45m)
A €75m increase since the start of last season (second only to Lamine Yamal), in which he entirely carried a Chelsea side otherwise filled with new players perpetually finding their feet. He got 22 goals and 11 assists in the Premier League on his way to being named Young Player of the Season and few would bet against him producing similar numbers this term with his unbridled talent and confidence. He already has six goals and five assists in seven Premier League games, and of all the ludicrously talented No.10s Lee Carsley has to call upon, he may just be the best.
4) Aleksandar Pavlovic (Bayern Munich): €2m to €50m (+€48m)
Drafted into the team last season by Thomas Tuchel as the beneficiary of them failing to get the Joao Palhinha deal over the line, Pavlovic is quite within his rights to be questioning why Bayern felt the need to reopen negotiations and eventually land the Portugal international from Fulham after his stellar performances at the base of midfield. But he’s retained his place under Vincent Kompany despite Palhinha’s arrival, starting eight of their nine games in all competitions.
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3) Kobbie Mainoo (Manchester United): €6m to €55m (+€49m)
Quite simply, and quite irritatingly, he’s the reason not to hate Manchester United (quite so much). Very much like Bukayo Saka, Mainoo just seems like a lovely lad. Quiet, humble, desperate to improve and hugely talented, whatever they’re doing in the Premier League academies these days to produce such players, we would urge them to keep it up.
2) Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid): €150m to €200m (+€50m)
Possibly the best footballer in the world right now, though a couple of his Real Madrid teammates may beg to differ, which we’re sadistically hoping may become a problem for Carlo Ancelotti, though probably not because he’s Carlo Ancelotti. Our Premier League bias has us tipping Los Blancos’ ‘dream’ signing for the Ballon d’Or though.
1) Lamine Yamal (Barcelona): €60m to €150m (+€90m)
Absurd that the child who led Spain to European Championship glory in the summer and is now the unrivalled starboy of Barcelona made his first competitive start in August 2023. In 13 months he’s become the fifth most valuable footballer in the world from – in market terms – nothing. It’s taken him 79 senior games for club and country to be worth more than 10 current La Liga clubs.
If his start to this season is anything to go by, with five goals and five assists already to his name, at the age of 17 he may well be the most valuable footballer of all come the end of the campaign.
