At 40 years old, Cristiano Ronaldo no longer appears among the world’s most valuable footballers, according to the latest data from Transfermarkt. A new generation is taking over the rankings, while Ronaldo and Messi drift further down the list—even as their legendary legacies remain untouchable.
Fresh data from Transfermarkt reveals a dramatic shift in how the global market evaluates player value. At the top of the list stands 18-year-old sensation Lamine Yamal, who has rapidly become Barcelona’s newest attacking pillar. Transfermarkt currently values the teenager at an astonishing €200 million—the highest ever recorded for a player his age.
Right behind Yamal is Kylian Mbappe. The French superstar reached the same valuation back in 2018, when he dazzled at the World Cup and emerged as the new face of European football.
Meanwhile, football’s two modern legends—Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo—have slipped far from their former positions of dominance. Messi now ranks seventh, with his peak valuation hitting €180 million in 2017, at age 30, when he remained the heartbeat of Barcelona.
Ronaldo’s drop draws even more attention. He has fallen to 30th place, a stark contrast to his peak in 2014, when his market value reached €120 million. It was during that period that Ronaldo shined brightest at Real Madrid, driving the club’s historic era of success.
Despite this decline, Ronaldo’s €94 million transfer from Manchester United to Real Madrid in the 2009–2010 season remains a watershed moment in modern football. That blockbuster deal helped usher in the era of mega-transfers, laying the foundation for the explosive market that followed.
Today’s player value rankings take into account multiple factors—age, developmental trajectory, and projected long-term impact. For that reason, while Ronaldo and Messi have been surpassed by the younger generation in pure market valuation, their influence remains unmatched. For nearly two decades, the duo has shaped the landscape of 21st-century football in ways that numbers alone can never fully capture.