Tottenham’s Kane: Fifth Most Valuable Footballer in Europe

LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 10 : Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur applauds after the Barclays Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United at White Hart Lane on April 10 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 10 : Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur applauds after the Barclays Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United at White Hart Lane on April 10 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images) /
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Six Tottenham Hotspur players have made the top 100 list for Most Valuable Players in Europe according to a study. Five out of the six Spurs players were regulars on Mauricio Pochettino’s starting XI this past season and came inside the top 70.

It’s hard to know exactly how a player is considered valuable. Is it based on how much they earn? Their current value? The statistics that they put up for the past couple of seasons? How about future projections of what they could possibly do? Is it all four combined? Whatever the answer actually is, this CIES Football Observatory study is bound to be heavily debated for quite a while.

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Because there are 100 players to wade through, the Mirror has compiled an entire list from the top five European leagues and how much each player is currently valued.

Spoiler alert: Lionel Messi of Barcelona fame, is ranked first at £163 million.

Now that that is out of the way, let’s get to the six Tottenham players who have made this annual list. Obviously it’s best to start from the bottom and work our way to the top, so let’s get right to it.

Coming in at 76th is the South Korea international, Son Heung-Min, is valued at £27 million. Which oddly enough, is just £5 million more than Spurs ended up spending last summer.

Again, these valuations are more about the players themselves compared to their peers in the other top European leagues, and what CIES deems appropriate in their number crunching data. It’s not how much they’re actually worth in terms of their transfer value… or is it?

STOKE ON TRENT, ENGLAND - APRIL 18: Dele Alli of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates with his team-mates after scoring a goal to make it 0-4 during the Barclays Premier League match between Stoke City and Tottenham Hotspur at Britannia Stadium on April 18, 2016 in Stoke on Trent, England (Photo by James Baylis - AMA/Getty Images)
STOKE ON TRENT, ENGLAND – APRIL 18: Dele Alli of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates with his team-mates after scoring a goal to make it 0-4 during the Barclays Premier League match between Stoke City and Tottenham Hotspur at Britannia Stadium on April 18, 2016 in Stoke on Trent, England (Photo by James Baylis – AMA/Getty Images) /

In any event, the fifth Tottenham player to make the list is Érik Lamela who sits in 69th place at £29 million. You know, maybe these numbers aren’t actually too far off of how much they’re actually worth should a team feel inclined to sign them during this summer’s transfer window.

Because at just under £30 million, Spurs paid roughly this same amount in the summer of 2013. And with an okay first year, good second year and tremendous third year, Lamela’s stock continues to rise with each passing season.

Moving on, we’re inside the top 40 with the Danish playmaker, Christian Eriksen sitting at 40th with a value of £36 million which could literally be his price tag if clubs want to sign him and Tottenham were willing to sell.

Perhaps CIES’ algorithm is a combination of the aforementioned factors above: how much they earn, their current value, past seasons’ statistics and future projections, because the higher up the list we go, the more accurate — you could say — some of these footballers’ values are worth if they were for sale.

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Continuing on, Tottenham and England’s youth, for that matter, are well represented with a trio of future stars Eric Dier (36th, £37 million), Dele Alli (14th, £57 million) and Harry Kane (5th, £87 million) are inside the top 40.

With Alli and Kane breaking into the top 15 this clearly means that their values will only increase should they continue on their current pace. For Alli his debut Premier League season was a year to remember and is now the bar that will be set for players coming up into the top flight division with no previous experience in the Premiership.

As for Harry Kane, his spectacular 2014-15 season which actually began in November and wasn’t even a full year was the standard he ironically followed this past season — starting slowly. Two years ago, Kane wasn’t a starter, so his Spurs career did in fact start off slow under Mauricio Pochettino.

The 22-year-old’s valuation of £87 million makes him the highest valued Englishman in the top five, as well as the top 10. Which is quite an accomplishment for Harry Kane.

With Lionel Messi (1st, £163 million), Neymar (2nd, £155 million), Cristiano Ronaldo (3rd, £106 million), Antonie Griezmann (4th, £93 million), Anthony Martial (6th, £86 million), Luis Suárez (7th, £81 million), Paulo Dybala (8th, £80 million), Sergio Agüero (9th, £75 million) and Paul Pogba (10th, £70 million) rounding out the ten most valuable footballers from this past season.

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And as mentioned, Tottenham were well represented with six players making the top 100 list. That is quite the feat although it’s actually considered a snub that Toby Alderweireld and especially Hugo Lloris wasn’t considered in this list.

Perhaps they’re aren’t as valued as they should be, but certainly these two players are much needed on Mauricio Pochettino’s squad to help Tottenham reach the top of the mountain and claim some trophies within the next few years.