Barça's next generation are increasing the squad's market value

Barça's players returned to pre-season training on Monday. Unless there are any surprise moves in the summer transfer market, the squad's overall market value will be below 800 million euros for the first time since the 2016-17 season. The Catalan club has now dropped into seventh place in the 'Transfermarkt' ranking of most valuable squads, falling behind Real Madrid for the first time in four years.

Barça's market value of 774 million is a long way off the 1.02 billion euros that Manchester City's squad is currently valued at. Also ahead of Barcelona in the ranking are Liverpool (941.5 million), Chelsea (906 million), Real Madrid (878.5 million), PSG (875.95 million) and Bayern Munich (830.5 million). Barça's squad has lost 35.5% of its market value compared to 2018-19, when it was valued at 1.2 billion euros and recognised as the most expensive squad in Europe.

The average age of the dressing room, with nine footballers (Messi, Piqué, Busquets, Alba, Griezmann, Braithwaite, Neto, Aguero and Pjanic) the wrong side of thirty and long-term injuries to younger players such as Coutinho and Dembélé have led to a reduction in the squad's market value. However, the emergence of the new generation of talent is starting to reverse this trend. In other words, Barça can be optimistic about the future.

Increase of 205 million euros

De Jong, valued at 90 million euros, is already ranked ahead of Messi as the club's most valuable player. Pedri, meanwhile, is hot on his trail, currently valued at 70 million euros. The value of these two midfielders has increased by 20 million each since the start of 2021, and these two players are leading a new generation of talent that also includes the likes of Ansu Fati, Ronald Araujo, Ilaix Moriba, Mingueza, Riqui Puig, Sergiño Dest, Eric García and Emerson.

In total, these ten footballers are now valued at 205.6 million euros more than when they made their first team debuts. This also takes into account Ansu Fati's serious injury that has led to him missing more than half a season, causing his value to drop from 80 million to 60 million.

Their overall market value has increased by 60 million this year alone, and four of these young talents - De Jong, Pedri, Ansu Fati and Dest - are now amongst the ten most valuable players in Barça's first team squad.

A market value that doesn't include Messi

Leo Messi's unusual contract situation is one of the reasons as to why Barça has dropped to seventh place in the rankings. The study by 'Transfermarkt' does not count the Argentina captain as a Barça player, as his contract officially expired on 30 June and he is yet to pen a new deal. Despite being worth much less than the 180 million euros he once was, Messi remains a highly valuable player. By adding the 80 million that correspond to the player's current value, Barça would jump Bayern Munich into sixth position and have a total squad value of only 24.5 million euros less than Real Madrid.