Jude Bellingham ranked world's most valuable footballer as Aston Villa quartet feature in top 100
Real Madrid and England star Jude Bellingham is regarded as the most valuable player in world football - according to CIES Football Observatory.
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The Stourbridge-born midfielder pipped Manchester City sharp shooter Erling Haaland to the post to spearhead a list of the top 100 footballers which is factored by both age and contract length.
CIES value 21-year-old Bellingham at a whopping £209 million, with his former Borussia Dortmund teammate Haaland trailing behind in second at £184 million.
Villa quartet Morgan Rogers (£80.9m) and Jhon Duran (£74.5m), Ollie Watkins (£64.1m) and Amadou Onana (£61.1m) also feature on the list.
Rogers and Duran sit 55th and 66th, with Watkins and Onana placed slightly lower in 93rd and 99th respectively.
Bellingham, who started his meteoric rise at Stourbridge Juniors, has taken European football by storm since breaking on to the scene as a 16-year-old at Birmingham City in the Championship in 2018.
He scored 23 goals in 42 matches during his debut campaign at European juggernauts Real in 2023-24, winning both La Liga and the Champions League, with the latter coming in a 2-0 win over his former club Dortmund at Wembley.
The young prodigy, who already has 40 caps for England under his belt, then scored twice, including a memorable overhead kick against Slovakia in the round of 16, as the Three Lions finished runners-up at Euro 2024.
Bellingham has registered eight goals and seven assists in all competitions for La Liga leaders Real so far this season.
His dramatic 96th-minute winner at Valencia last Friday propelled Los Blancos back to the league summit after his assist for Luka Modric's equaliser proved the catalyst for a stunning comeback for 10-man Real.
