$745,000,000 would buy you Europe’s best soccer team

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have the heftiest price tags on the list.
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have the heftiest price tags on the list.
Image: Reuters/Juan Medina
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European soccer fans have spoken and they’ve chosen their ultimate dream team, UEFA, the sport’s governing body on the continent announced Friday. So grab your nearest Russian oligarch or Gulf investor and ask him for $745 million, because that’s how much you will need to purchase Europe’s most popular soccer players, according to estimated January 2015 transfer values.

Your mogul will have to work it out with the owners of Bayern Munich, which has four players on the list, and Real Madrid, which has three. German and Spanish teams dominate the team, with one player each from the English and French leagues. The most expensive players are FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi ($260 million) and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo ($157 million), who are also the main contenders for the Ballon d’Or, FIFA’s best player award along with Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer, the dream team’s goalie.

Here’s the full list of players, along with the price tags. It is based on transfer values for January 2015 calculated by the research group (pdf) Football Observatory, part of International Centre for Sports Studies. The Observatory provided Quartz with additional data.