Belgium’s VoetbalKrant are more than a little perturbed that Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld have been left off a list of the most valuable defenders in world football. Italian newspaper Tuttosport have compiled the ranking and VoetbalKrant think it’s ‘bizarre’ that neither of the Tottenham pair are featured.
Here’s the list:
1. Leonardo Bonucci (29, Juventus) – € 70 million
Jerome Boateng (28, Bayern)
3. Sergio Ramos (30, Real Madrid) – € 65 million
4. Gerard Piqué (29, Barcelona) – € 60 million
5. Raphaël Varane (23, Real Madrid) – € 55 million
Kalidou Koulibaly (25, Napoli)
7. John Stones (22, Man City) – € 50 million
8. Kostas Manolas (25, AS Roma) – € 45 million
Marquinhos (22 PSG)
10. Mats Hummels (27, Bayern) – € 42 million
11. Alessio Romagnoli (21, AC Milan) – € 40 million
12. David Luiz (29, Chelsea) – € 38 million
13. Shkodran Mustafi (24, Arsenal – € 35 million
Diego Godin (30, Atletico Madrid)
Daniele Rugani (22, Juventus)
16. Thiago Silva (32 PSG) – € 30 million
Giorgio Chiellini (32, Juventus),
Nicolas Otamendi (28, man City)
Eric Bailly (22, Manchester United)
20. Nikolas Maksimovic (24, Napoli) – € 25 million
VoetbalKrant seem like reasonable sorts and they’ve tried to work out why, even explaining that Transferamkrt only values the Spurs players at €23m for Vertonghen and €27m for Alderweireld. Even so, the latter would still have made the list, and all the other players are valued way above their Transfermarkt amounts.
The only plausible reason is that Tuttpsort forgot the Tottenham players existed, especially in the case of Alderweireld. At 27 years of age, the former Atletico Madrid and Southampton player has surely shown enough to be valued at way above some of the figures mentioned.
