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Ligue 1 has been dominated by Paris Saint-Germain for several years now; they seem to ease past any side that stands in their way to the inevitable Championship. However, things have started to change as of late, with other clubs around them such as Marseille and Lyon to name a couple, beginning to invest more heavily in order to keep abreast of the Parisian titans.
Granted, there isn't half as much money in Ligue 1 as there is in the Premier League, so it's difficult for sides to have large sums of money to spend without breaking Financial Fair Play regulations, but you can still see the ocassional costly signing get announced with each window as teams push on to challenge for the title.
In this list, you'll find an eclectic range of players; some names you may be expecting to see and some you perhaps weren't. With that said, here are Ligue 1's top ten most valuable players.
#10 Wissam Ben Yedder (AS Monaco) - £36.0M
Wissam Ben Yedder is a player who has always been closely watched by leading European clubs, but has never made the step up that many fans have expected him to.
In 2016, he made the impressive switch to Sevilla from Toulouse for around £8.5M and settled in quickly. Over the three seasons he spent in Spain, Ben Yedder scored a total of 38 goals in 91 league games.
Last summer, Ben Yedder was being linked with the likes of Manchester United, and it looked as if he was really about to hit his peak; instead, he signed for Monaco in Ligue 1. It was a rather anti-climactic move for a player of his ability but he's shone since joining them - scoring 15 goals and providing four assists in just 20 matches.
These stats are the reason why his market value has risen once again in recent months. Monaco paid £36M to get their man, so you can expect any club interested in buying him this summer to pay closer to £50M to pry him from Monaco's grasp.
#9 Florian Thauvin (Olympique Marseille) - £36.0M
Florian Thauvin has only played a single game for Marseille this season before being sidelined through injury. Yet his market value has remained the same at £36M. This is a testament to his ability for his value to not have dropped significantly in the time since he last played.
Thauvin has never really had the chance to settle at a club to find his true form. He was signed by Newcastle United from Marseille in 2015 but loaned back to Marseille by January until the end of the season. He would then spend the next season on loan with the French side before being sold to them on a permanent deal in the summer of 2017.
It has only been since then that Thauvin has flourished. The following summer he was part of the France squad that won the World Cup; this hiked his value up to £45M, his highest thus far. Now, it's dropped to £36M, but this is still a healthy amount for a player of his kind.
#8 Moussa Dembele (Olympique Lyon) - £36.0M
It’s easy to see why Moussa Dembele is attracting attention from leading European clubs; his stats in Ligue 1 this season are impressive, with 12 goals from 21 appearances, providing a single assist too. Dembele is still only 23 years old, so you can expect him to develop heavily in the coming years - particularly if he does make the move to a top club.
It’s the recent speculation linking him with transfers to the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United that have caused his value to spike. Just a few months ago in September, Dembele was valued at around £27M; his market value has risen by £9M in no time at all, and is likely to increase by the summer arrives.
Olympique Lyon paid Celtic £20M to bring Dembele in, and I think everyone would agree that it’s a move that’s paid off. There’s no doubting that Lyon will be able to make double what they spent, possibly by the summer.
#7 Houssem Aouar (Olympique Lyon) - £45.0M
Houssem Aouar has been a constant in Lyon’s side for almost four years now, since being promoted to the first team from Lyon’s U19s in the summer of 2016. His market value has steadily risen to the point where it’s now at a whopping £45M. There’s no doubt that Lyon would want much more than that if they were to sell him, though, as he’s vital to their set-up.
The 21-year-old has featured in 19 Ligue 1 games for Lyon so far this season, scoring twice and providing three assists from midfield. These stats don’t do him much justice, unfortunately - his work rate and contribution from the centre of the pitch is incredibly valuable to his side. So, it’s no wonder he’s being scouted and tracked by many sides across Europe.
Aouar is yet to break into France’s first team yet, but he’s often utilised in the U21s, so you can expect him to be bumped up sometime soon. And that’s when his value will rise even higher.
#6 Memphis Depay (Olympique Lyon) - £49.5M
Many neutral fans thought Memphis Depay’s career was set for a sharp decline after his disastrous tenure at Manchester United, which lasted from 2015 through to January 2017 when he was bought by Lyon for just £14M – £16M less than what United had paid PSV for him.
But credit where credit’s due, Depay has found his form in Ligue 1, particularly this season, netting 9 goals and providing two assists in just 13 appearances. He is currently sidelined with a cruciate ligament rupture and is set to return by July.
Since leaving United, Depay’s market value has risen by £27M! When you look at his stats though, you can begin to understand why that is. The Premier League simply didn’t work for Memphis; his style of football is more technical and fluid, which rarely works in a league where defenders won’t hesitate to batter you off the ball. The standard was simply too high in the Premier League for Depay to do anything worthwhile, which is perhaps somewhat offputting for clubs who might have an eye on him this summer. Yes, he can do it in Ligue 1, but can he replicate that form in other top leagues?
#5 Marquinhos (Paris Saint-Germain) - £58.5M
Signing Marquinhos from Roma for around £28M was perhaps one of the best deals Paris Saint-Germain have ever pulled off. He has been a constant fixture in their first team ever since and has cemented himself as one of their best defenders. His market value has soared to almost £60M in the seven years since that deal.
In the 16 Ligue 1 appearances Marquinhos has made this season, he’s managed to register nine clean-sheets, which is, of course, no mean feat. However, Paris Saint-Germain are a cut above virtually every side in that division, so realistically they should be getting clean sheets all the time anyway.
What also makes Marquinhos such a valuable player to have is the fact he can also play as a defensive midfielder - a role that is difficult for centre-backs to adjust to in most cases, but the Brazilian has managed it well, and will have likely led to the hike in his market value over the past few years.
#4 Mauro Icardi (Paris Saint-Germain) - £67.5M
Mauro Icardi played his best football during his time with Inter Milan, who he signed for back in the summer of 2013 for around £12M. However, last summer things began to turn sour as he fell out with the manager, essentially forcing through a loan move as he had desire to play for the Azzurri any longer, which is how he ended up in a PSG shirt this season. He’s set to return to Inter in June, but many think that he’ll sign permanently for the Parisian titans instead.
Interestingly, since his loan move to Paris Saint-Germain, Icardi’s market value has decreased from £81M to £67.5M – a £13.5 drop. This is somewhat surprising as he’s still playing very well and has scored nine goals and provided three assists in 15 games for PSG so far this season - and is still only 26 years old, so has some room to improve.
Perhaps once he joins Paris Saint-Germain on a permanent basis, as many are expecting him to, his market value will stabilise and gradually rise once again.
#3 Marco Verratti (Paris Saint-Germain) - £67.5M
Marco Verratti signed for Paris Saint-Germain from Pescara eight years ago for around £10M and has been a permanent fixture in the first team ever since. This is a testament to just how consistent the Italian midfielder has been over the years. He’s now 27-years-old and continues to dictate play from the centre of the field.
Verratti has featured in 16 Ligue 1 games for PSG so far this season, providing five assists. His market value of £67.5M is fair when you consider how much he contributes to his side. He would easily cost a buying club close to £90M in order for them to pry him away from Paris.
But it is doubtful that he would even consider leaving PSG at this stage in his career; he’s more than comfortable with his current role and it’d be a gamble deciding to go elsewhere when things are going so well at the moment. Only time will tell.
#2 Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain) - £144.0M
Now, here’s a name you were definitely expecting to see in this list; Neymar has been one of the best players in Ligue 1, by far, since his £200M move from Barcelona back in the summer of 2017. And he hasn’t disappointed either, scoring 13 goals and providing six assists in 14 matches.
Neymar is just as vital to the Brazilian national team, for whom he’s scored 61 goals in 102 games for. All of this together has meant that his market value has risen to the astronomical figure of £144M! And that’s a base value, too, so any club looking to buy him wouldn’t be fortunate enough to just pay that for him; no, an interested club would have to fork out closer to £200M to attract the forward.
However, £144M wasn’t his highest ever value - in January 2018, Neymar’s market value peaked at a staggering £162M. It’s decreased over time as he’s gotten older, but he’s still only 27 years old, so has plenty of time left to return to those lofty heights.
#1 Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain) - £180.0M
Kylian Mbappe looks to have done it all already - and he’s just 21 years old! He won the World Cup with France in the summer of 2018 and has been on fire for Paris Saint-Germain since his £130M transfer around the same time. He has won a plethora of awards too - the Golden Boy award (2017), Fifa World Cup Best Young Player award (2018), and Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year award (2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19), to name a few.
Mbappe could easily become the very best player in the world in years to come, so his £180M valuation is about right. You can expect it to probably even surpass £200M in a couple of years if he keeps up his current form.
In 16 Ligue 1 games so far this season, Mbappe has scored 14 goals and provided six assists. It would be interesting to see if he could replicate those stats in a tougher division though - like the Premier League, for example. For us, no player has been truly tested until they’ve competed in a league like that. Ligue 1 is arguably unbalanced in terms of quality in teams; the same handful at the top batter the teams in mid-table and below week in, week out. Mbappe should look to challenge himself in the future by moving elsewhere.
