Transfer fees of star footballers drop amid COVID-19

The novel coronavirus has made a dent worth 9 billion euros in the value of global football stars. On Thursday, Transfermarkt, a website specialized in transfer of football players, said the size of transfer fess has fallen a total 9 billion euros compared from late last year.

"Numerous clubs could face bankruptcy and transfer planning has come to a standstill due to the many uncertainties at most clubs," said Matthias Seidel the founder of Transfermarkt. “It is currently hard to imagine that transfer prices will continue to rise in the foreseeable future as in previous years.”

In fact, the transfer fee of Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain), the currently most expensive footballer on earth, is 180 million euros, down 10% from 200 million euros, followed by Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain) whose value has tumbled 20% from 160 million to 128 million euros. The transfer fee for the “Football God” Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona) is slashed 20% to 112 million euros (ranked ninth). The estimated value of “Super Sonny” Song Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur) has also dipped from 80 million to 64 million euros. This is the first time that the Korean footballer’s transfer fee estimates have gone down.


Seung-Kun Lee why@donga.com