Arsenal right-back Hector Bellerin, who has found himself to be a late addition to the Spanish national team after Dani Carvajal limped out of the Champion’s League final due to injury, has been named the most expensive defender by CIES Football Observatory, as reported by George Bellshaw for The Metro, on the 2nd of June.
If the CIES assessment is to be believed, Arsenal could make up to at least £ 43m for the 21 year old right back.
CIES, uses an algorithm that analyses a player’s worth, taking into consideration a number of criteria, such as a player’s age, length of contract, experience, performances, and specific athletic strengths among other factors.
In the same assessment of players the CIES values Bayern Munich’s David Alaba at approximately 37 million, which is 6 million short of Bellerin, proving just how valuable a player Bellerin is. Needless to say, there are several discrepancies, if not in the Arithmetic, in the global discourse on how to develop a metric by which a player’s worth can be reached.
Manchester City paid a staggering £49m for Raheem Sterling, and there is much disagreement and doubt over such a valuation within the world of football.
However, if Bellerin has been assessed alongside other world class talents like Alaba based on the same set of factors. It is only indicative of how quickly the young Spaniard has progressed through the Arsenal’s reserve teams to becoming Arsenal’s first choice right back, to being touted as one of the best young defenders in the world and eventually being called up for his national side.
This is in many ways both good as well as bad news for Arsenal. While the North London side can take utmost pride in having played a part in the player’s growth and the fact that he is now a part of Arsenal’s first team and specifically, the team’s first choice right back, they must now vary over who circles their prized asset in the summer transfer market.
Bellerin has already been linked with the likes of his former club Barcelona, who are certain to lose long-serving right-back Dani Alves, who is likely to join Juventus after 8 years at Camp Nou. Many experts and commentators have previously touted Bellerin to be an ideal replacement for the departing Brazilian.
Recent comments made by Barcelona’s sporting director Robert Fernandez as reported by ‘The Metro‘ indicate that Barcelona may after all not be looking to sign Bellerin in the summer. According to Fernandez, Barcelona are not considering signing Bellerin given the presence of Aleix Vidal.
If CIES’s valuation is accurate, and if Barcelona or any other club were to ever sign Bellerin, he would become the second most expensive defender ever behind David Luiz of PSG, who joined the French giants for £50m from Chelsea.
