The International Center for Sports Studies (CIES) has placed Egyptian star Mohamed Salah, Liverpool's top scorer, in a surprising position among the most expensive players in the English Premier League, despite his outstanding performance last season. CIES estimated Salah's market value at €55 million, ranking him 34th among the most expensive Premier League players and 80th globally.
The report noted that the statistical model for estimating player transfer values in the top five European leagues was based on a sample of 1,790 transfers between July 2012 and January 2020. It did not clarify why Salah's value is low, despite his remarkable achievements and dominating most of last season's awards, beginning with the PFA UK's Player of the Year, then the Golden Boot for the Premier League's top scorer with 23 goals, the Playmaker of the Year with 13 assists, the Goal of the Season award, and the Fans' Player of the Season award from the English Professional Footballers' Association.
This is a shock for Salah, who has not yet reached an agreement with Liverpool to extend his contract due to his reported demand for a high salary.
Players that outranked the Egyptian star include Norwegian Erling Haaland, who recently transferred from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester City (€152.6 million), his English teammate Phil Foden (€124 million), Colombian Luis Díaz, also from Liverpool (€110 million), and English Jadon Sancho and Portuguese Bruno Fernandes from Manchester United (€103 million and €97 million, respectively), as well as English Harry Kane of Tottenham (€78.1 million) and Portuguese Diogo Jota of Liverpool (€85 million).
Salah has also been surpassed in the list of the most expensive players in the Premier League by other defenders and goalkeepers, such as Portuguese Bernardo Silva (Manchester City), Belgian Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea), Belgian Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City), German Timo Werner (Chelsea), Brazilian Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City), Brazilian Alisson Becker, Liverpool's goalkeeper, English Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dutch Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool), Portuguese Rúben Dias (Manchester City), and his compatriot goalkeeper Ederson.
Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappé, aged 23, topped the list of the world's most expensive players, valued at €205.6 million. Brazilian Vinícius Júnior, who scored the "golden" goal for Real Madrid against Liverpool in the Champions League, came in second at €158.3 million, followed by Erling Haaland in third place, valued at €130.4 million.
