No footballer has ever been priced this high. Lamine Yamal’s estimated transfer value stands at €225.9m in the latest ranking from FootballTransfers, produced with SciSports. In their words, “he becomes the first player worth more than Neymar’s €222m world-record move from the Blaugrana to PSG”.
The jump has been sharp. FootballTransfers had Yamal at €190.9m in July. His valuation now sits €35m higher after a September that his club called the most productive month of his career.
A career-high September at Barcelona
For Barcelona, Yamal registered six goals and six assists across five La Liga and Champions League games, with at least two goal contributions in every match: a brace at Valencia, a goal and two assists against Feyenoord, two more at Levante, another goal and two assists against Racing Santander, and two assists at Sevilla.
He added three goals and an assist in two Spain internationals. His September tally, 16 direct goal contributions across club and country, is a career high. FootballTransfers framed the run differently: “Across his last six games for Hansi Flick’s side, he has been directly involved in 14 goals.”
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The rest of the top five
The scale of the gap is the story. The next names are not close:
- Lamine Yamal (Barcelona): €225.9m
- Michael Olise (Bayern Munich): €198.1m
- Pau Cubarsi (Barcelona): €186.0m
- Erling Haaland (Manchester City): €159.3m
- Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid): €139.5m
Barcelona now hold two of the top three valuations. Ousmane Dembele, the 2025 Ballon d’Or winner, did not make the FootballTransfers list at any level earlier in the year, a quirk the model has been questioned on.
The CIES Football Observatory, which runs a separate algorithmic valuation, has placed Yamal even higher in its own 2026 rankings, at €343m. The two models disagree on the number; they agree on the name at the top.
Clasico and the Ballon d’Or in the next four weeks
Yamal has two significant dates in the next four weeks. Barcelona host Real Madrid at Spotify Camp Nou on Sunday 25 October, with kick-off at 9pm local time, confirmed by Real Madrid. The following evening, the Ballon d’Or ceremony will be held for the first time at the London Palladium on Monday 26 October, marking the award’s move from Paris in its 70th year.
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FootballTransfers tied the valuation directly to that race, writing that his recent run underlines “why he is considered to be one of the favourites for the Ballon d’Or”.
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