401 Premier Liga players updated
Transfermarkt.ru has given new market values to all 401 players in the Russian Premier Liga, awarding the biggest upgrades to Zenit St. Petersburg and Dynamo Moscow playmakers – with Spartak Moscow’s squad losing the most millions. Artyom Zavodnyk, area manager Russia, explains the upgrades and downgrades.
One of the two biggest winners of the update is Brazilian Olympic champion Claudinho from league leaders and serial title winners Zenit St. Petersburg. The playmaker was signed for €12 million in the summer and was supposed to make the style of play more versatile and creative on the attack. An investment that has fully paid off.
With eleven goal contributions, Claudinho is one of the stars of the first half of the season and also helped his team to a solid performance in the Champions League. Claudinho, in whom RB Leipzig were reportedly interested as well, quickly settled in at Zenit surrounded by his fellow countrymen Malcom, Douglas Santos and Wendel (+1 to €19 million) and increased his market value by €5 million to €16 million. He thus moves into the top 10 of the most valuable Premier Liga players.
Thanks to the signing of Claudinho, Zenit are becoming increasingly independent of Artem Dzyuba and Sardar Azmoun, whose contract expires in the summer and he will apparently leave the club no later than then. While Azmoun remains the league’s most valuable player at €25 million, Dzuyba’s age has seen him drop from €10 million to €9 million, although he remains the league’s top scorer. In 2021, the 33-year-old was the Premier Liga’s most prolific striker with 19 goals and nine assists.
One of the biggest losers of the update can also be found in the ranks of Zenit: 32-year-old Croatian Dejan Lovren loses 30% of his market value and is now valued at €7 million. The reason for this is not only his age, but also the increasing number of mistakes in defence. In Zenit’s midfield, on the other hand, Wilmar Barrios regains his career high of €20 million thanks to a €2 million upgrade and moves into the league’s top 3.
Dzyuba, Malcom & Co. – The most valuable Premier Liga players
Russia update: Many market value winners at Dynamo Moscow
The Dynamo Moscow squad can also be counted among the biggest winners. The young team coached by Sandro Schwarz plays attractive football and sits only two points behind Zenit. The squad value increases by over €17 million to around €100 million, making Dynamo the fourth most valuable team.
First and foremost, many young players have been able to develop very well under Schwarz. The biggest plus of the update, besides Claudinho, goes to Dinamo’s playmaker Sebastian Szymanski. The 22-year-old Pole has had a big impact on Dynamo’s style of play, as highlighted by his five goals and six assists. Thanks to a €5 million upgrade to €13 million, he is now the most valuable player in the squad – clubs from the Premier League and Bundesliga are said to have him on their radar.
With an upgrade of €3 million each, midfielders Arsen Zakharyan and Daniil Fomin are also among the winners. The two internationals make a big impact in the centre as well, ensuring Dynamo are unpredictable.
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Both have been given new roles under coach Schwarz and have settled into them perfectly. While Fomin is a more attack-minded box-to-box player, Zakharyan can be found in virtually all midfield positions, increasingly on the flanks. Fomin’s market value rises to €9 million and Zakharyan’s to €12 million, making him the most valuable Russian player under 21. Internationally, he is now among the top 10 most valuable U18 players.
The current top scorer in the league has also seen his market value increase: Gamid Agalarov has increased his market value by 233% to €4 million after scoring 13 goals in the first half of the season for Ufa. Accordingly, there is a lot of interest from some of Russia’s top clubs such as Lokomotiv and Zenit, but FC Basel are also said to show concrete interest in the U21 international. Ufa are not averse to start negotiations if a suitable offer comes in.
After a short low, Krasnodar goalkeeper Matvey Safonov is on the upswing again and is the number one of the Sbornaja at age 22. The current best goalkeeper in the league increases his market value by €2 million to a career high of €16 million. This puts Safonov in the top 5 of the most valuable U23 goalkeepers in the world.
His teammate Eduard Spertsyan, who also comes from the club’s youth setup, developed into one of the top performers in attacking midfield – just a year ago he was playing for Krasnodar’s farm team in the 2nd division. The rapid development of the Armenian international tripled his market value to €3 million.
Cuts at runners-up Spartak – 6 losers in the million euro range
Among the biggest losers this time are numerous players of runners-up Spartak Moscow. Despite a successful group stage in the Europa League with two wins against Napoli, the Russian record titleholders are only in 9th place in the league. This already cost head coach Rui Vitoria his job.
Last season’s top performers such as Quincy Promes (-2 to €12 million), Roman Zobnin (-2 to €11 million), Victor Moses (-1.5 to €5 million) and Aleksandr Sobolev (-1 to €9 million) have struggled recently and are among the market value losers.
However, the two biggest disappointments of the first half of the season at Spartak are the two best players of last season: goalkeeper Aleksandr Maksimenko and centre-forward Jordan Larsson. Larsson was one of the top scorers with 15 goals and a guarantee of success under Domenico Tedesco. This season, he only scored one goal in 19 matches and his market value drops from €14 million to €11 million.
Maksimenko was considered a competitor for Safonov in the national team at the beginning of this season, but during the season he even lost his regular place at Spartak to Aleksandr Selikhov (+0.8 to €2 million), who was previously injured for a long time, due to several bloopers and insecure performances. After the latter’s heroics in the Europa League, with two penalties saved in the final minutes, it does not look like the young Maksimenko will be able to reclaim his place anytime soon. Down €4 million to €9 million, he is the biggest loser of the update.
Purely due to their age, there are also devaluations for 31-year-old top players Mário Fernandes (-2 to €14 million) of CSKA Moscow and Grzegorz Krychowiak (-2 to €11 million) of Krasnodar, who are also performing well this season. Also down by €2 million is Rubin Kazan’s 20-year-old winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
After an outstanding last season, the Georgian is currently playing like a shadow of himself. The reason for this could be a failed summer transfer to a top league, as no interested party wanted to pay the €20 million demanded by Rubin. His new market value of €16 million is now more in line with the willingness to pay on the market.
How Transfermarkt market values work
The Transfermarkt market values are calculated, taking into account various pricing models. A major factor is the Transfermarkt community, whose members discuss and evaluate player market values in detail. In general, the Transfermarkt market values are not to be equated with transfer fees.
The goal is not to predict a price but an expected value of a player in a free market. Both individual transfer modalities and situational conditions are relevant in determining market values. Examples of this are listed below. Transfermarkt does not use an algorithm (you can find the detailed market value definition here).
