The 10 most valuable teenagers in the world

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 14 Jul 2023 04:04 CDT
• 3 min read

The biggest clubs in the world are always seeking to steal a march of their rivals by signing up the game’s brightest talent at as young an age as possible.

While clubs like Barcelona have made their academy an integral part of their identity for others, such as Borussia Dortmund, it is a vital part of their business strategy. Signing up youngster and developing them into world-class talent is a profitable enterprise for clubs like BVB, who have notably performed the trick with Jude Bellingham, Erling Haaland and Jadon Sancho in recent seasons.

REVEALED: The world’s most valuable footballers

Bellingham, the most valuable teenager in the world for a long time, recently turned 20 and thus drops out of this list which leaves Barcelona youngster Gavi as the sole leader of our top 10 - and by quite some margin, too.

FootballTransfers' in-house Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) uses hundreds of in-game data points to analyse the performance of thousands of players the world over and comes up with the players' values.

Football’s most valuable teenagers

Father Time is relentless and the past 12 months have seen a whole host of high-profile players exit their teenage years. Eduardo Camavinga, Jamal Musiala and Pedri are all in their 20s now. With such an illustrious crop of youngsters dropping out of contention, it leaves some surprising and perhaps unrecognisable names in this list.

Benfica's Antonio Silva has enjoyed a steep rise over the past year and he is expected to make the step up to a higher-level league in the near future. Despite losing Bellingham - in terms of age and in terms of a transfer - Dortmund are, inevitably, still on the list, represented by Youssoufa Moukoko, who made his senior Black and Yellow debut just one day after turning 16.

Chelsea-bound Angelo Gabriel makes the list, as does Arsenal and Liverpool-linked Romeo Lavia. French talents Lucas Gourna-Douath and Momo Cho complete the top 10.