Raheem Sterling the most valuable U21 player: study

A study on the 20 most valuable U-21 players released by Soccerex recognised Raheem Sterling as the most valuable player in the Under-21 bracket. They valued him at a whopping £35.05m or over €49m which is close to Liverpool’s valuation of the English winger.

Liverpool’s pacy youngster outshone his competitors by a country mile. The next player on the list Paris Saint Germain’s Marquinhos was valued at a relatively modest £27.84m and was closely followed by the new Manchester United recruit Memphis Depay carrying a £23.8m price tag.

While Sterling sat atop the list, three other English players also made it, Manchester United’s Southampton recruit Luke Shaw made it to ninth place (£17.77m) despite his less than convincing outings for the Red Devils. He was accompanied by Everton defender John Stones (£11.8m) and another Southampton recruit in the form of the now Arsenal defender Calum Chambers (£10.54m).

Both Shaw and Chambers made the list but intriguingly, the clubs in both cases ended up paying over their valuation when they brought the Englishmen in from the Saints. It could be attributed to a higher premium associated with the players due to their homegrown status. Going by the same logic, the same can be expected when the likes of Sterling and Stones are sold.

Overall, 9 players from the English Premier League made the top-20 list. Joining Sterling and co. were Chelsea’s Kurt Zouma (11th), Liverpool’s Emre Can (15th), Divock Origi (18th) and Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin (20th).

While, not all of them may play in the Premier League next season, it is an indication that some Premier League clubs may be looking towards the future while making their investments. The chief executive of Soccerex, Duncan Revie said: “This report demonstrates the hugely talented pool of players under the age of 21 available to our European clubs.

“Ultimately, the lifeblood of any successful club is the players they are able to develop and nurture and the report identifies the premium that clubs place on this kind of exciting young talent.”

Most valuable U21 players

Position	Player	Club	Valuation
1	Raheem Sterling	Liverpool	£35m
2	Marquinhos	Paris Saint-Germain	£28.3m
3	Memphis Depay	Manchester United	£23.9m
4	Domenico Berardi	Sassuolo/Juventus	£21.7m
5	Jose Gimenez	Atletico Madrid	£21.5m
6	Hakan Calhanoglu	Bayer Leverkusen	£19.5m
7	Mateo Kovacic	Inter Milan	£18.6m
8	Jose Luis Gaya	Valencia	£18.4m
9	Luke Shaw	Manchester United	£18m
10	Aymeric Laporte	Athleltic Bilbao	£17m
11	Kurt Zouma	Chelsea	£16.2m
12	Youri Tielemans	Anderlecht	£13.8m
13	Alexsandar Mitrovic	Anderlecht	£12.9m
14	Anderson Talisca	Benfica	£12.9m
15	Emre Can	Liverpool	£12.1m
16	John Stones	Everton	£12m
17	Anthony Martial	AS Monaco	£11.3m
18	Divock Origi	Liverpool	£10.9m
19	Calum Chambers	Arsenal	£10.7m
20	Hector Bellerin	Arsenal	£10.5m