Real Madrid retain title as Europe’s most valuable club for the second year running

Real Madrid is still Europe’s most valuable football club, according to a report published by analysts Football Benchmark.

The report released Thursday, May 26 ranks Europe’s 32 most prominent clubs, and calculates their value based on their annual financial statements and squad financial values.

Real Madrid came out on top for the fourth consecutive year of the report, with a valuation of 3.184 billion euros ($3.4 billion).

It is still short of their valuation in 2020, just before the pandemic, of nearly 3.5 billion euros, although the report points out that they were one of few clubs to register a net profit in both seasons impacted by the pandemic.

“Real Madrid have extended their lead at the top due to continuous sporting and commercial success,” says the report’s author, Andrea Sartori.

The report said Madrid lost 84 million euros due to the absence of matchday revenues with supporters shut out due to the pandemic.

However, Real “made the most of the restrictions…accelerating works on the Bernabeu. It will be ready at the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023 and will certainly give them a massive revenue boost and potentially a competitive advantage”.

Manchester United (2.9 billion euros) and Barcelona (2.8 billion euros) make up the list, with Bayern Munich fourth and Liverpool fifth (2.556 billion euros).

Of the 32 most valuable clubs, only four (Ajax, Galatasaray, Porto and Benfica) are outsude the big five European leagues of England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France, ten of the top 32 are English.

“What is pushing English clubs towards increased continental glory is their success on the financial side,” the report acknowledges.

“The Premier League’s aggregate operating revenues of 5.1 billion euros put them comfortably at the top,” while “what really sets them apart are highly remunerative broadcasting agreements”.

Paris Saint-Germain boast the highest overall growth in value over the seven years since the first Football Benchmark report, up 153 percent to now more than two billion euros.