Europe’s Priciest Soccer Players Lose Value in Pandemic

(Bloomberg) -- Europe's two most valuable soccer players lost more than 20% of their potential sale price after the French league decided to cancel the competition because of the coronavirus, according to estimates by KPMG.

Squads across the continent's biggest leagues risk similar drops even if they continue their seasons, the accounting firm said in a report.

While Paris Saint-Germain was awarded the French championship with the country only beginning to emerge from lockdown, the value of France international star Kylian Mbappe and Brazil's Neymar dropped by a combined 86 million euros ($93 million) as Covid-19 hit player valuations.

Europe's richest competition, the English Premier League, last week decided to find a way to finish the season as player contracts run down and concern rises in the industry over the viability of some less affluent clubs. Germany is already planning to resume games, as is Spanish football, while the completion of Italy's Serie A remains up in the air.

Much of the focus has been on broadcast revenue and ticket sales, with matches set to resume in closed stadiums. Yet, the players are among the clubs' most valuable assets, with English champion Manchester City's squad, for example, valued at 1.24 billion euros in February by KPMG.

KPMG estimated PSG's total squad value fell 25.4% as a consequence of the pandemic and the decision by the French authorities to abandon games. Spanish giant Barcelona will have a larger decrease, 28.9%, if La Liga decides to cancel its competition. Players in the Spanish top league were due to resume training this week with a view to a restart.

One issue for Barcelona is that it has an older squad relative to other clubs, according to the report. It's also running down the contract of its most valuable star, Lionel Messi. It expires in June 2021.

KPMG said that player valuations have been eroded by three factors in particular. Clubs impacted by a loss of revenue since the start of the pandemic have less money to spend on new players. The players themselves also have been unable to train as they would normally and not being able to compete in matches means they are no longer in the shop window.

Player values plummet further if seasons are canceled. According to the report, the combined value of squads in the five biggest leagues would decline by 26.4% from February compared with 17.6% if they were to resume playing.

Clubs who are used to selling players to make their business models work will be the most impacted, said KPMG. France's Monaco and Olympique Lyonnais, Portugal's SL Benfica and Athletic Club Bilbao in Spain had the highest player sales between seasons 2016/17 and 2018/19, the report said.