Football Researchers Name Surprising Leicester Star as Foxes Most Expensive Player at €55m
Leicester City's most expensive player has been identified, but he isn't who many of you might think.
Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez are the club's most popular figures, with the pair having combined their attacking skill to help the Foxes win the Premier League title last year.
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Vardy turns 31 in January, so one would expect Mahrez to be the most valuable asset at Leicester, but according to the Football Observatory, an international centre for sports studies based in Switzerland, he's actually third on the list, with Vardy still above him in second place (H/T the Leicester Mercury).
Wilfred Ndidi, as it happens, emerged as the Foxes' most expensive player with a valuation of €55.4m, while Vardy is believed to command a price tag of €50m and Mahrez €49m.
Ndidi cost Leicester just £17m when he joined the club from Genk in January, but with the Football Observatory having taken performance data from OptaPro into account, as well as age, contract length, and the state of the current transfer market, his value has gone up by £36.27m.
Here's the full list below:
1. Wilfred Ndidi 55.4m
2. Jamie Vardy 50m
3. Riyad Mahrez 49m
4. Harry Maguire 31.6m
5. Demarai Gray 23m
6. Islam Slimani 22.1m
7. Marc Albrighton 19.4m
8. Kasper Schmeichel 19.3m
9. Kelechi Iheanacho 19m
10. Daniel Amartey 18.2m
11. Ahmed Musa 14.6m
12. Vicente Iborra 11.6m
13. Ben Chilwell 11m
14. Wes Morgan 9.7m
15. Christian Fuchs 8.4m
16. Danny Simpson 8.4m
17. Shinji Okazaki 7.9m
18. Andy King 6.6m
19. Robert Huth 6.5m
20. Leo Ulloa 2.3m
Leicester's total value, according to the Football Observatory, stands at €417m, making the King Power side the 19th most valuable club in Europe.
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The continent's most expensive player turned to be Neymar (no surprise here), who is valued at €216m, €4m less than Paris Saint-Germain actually paid for him, while Spurs hotshot Harry Kane was priced at €186m.
