Barcelona named the most valuable club in football as Man Utd drop out of top three

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 23 May 2023 08:39 CDT
• 3 min read

Barcelona is the most valuable club in world football, with a worth of $4.76 billion with Manchester United dropping out of the top three, according to a study by Forbes.

The Catalans have knocked major rivals Real Madrid off top spot, with the Bernabeu side valued at $4.75bn.

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While Bayern Munich complete the podium, Manchester United are the highest placed Premier League team in fourth, worth $4.2bn.

Indeed, despite the global pandemic, which has played havoc with finances the world over, the value of the leading 20 clubs in the Forbes list are up on average 30% over the last time that the study was completed, in 2019.

This charge has been spearheaded by Paris Saint-Germain, whose value has more than doubled to $2.5bn over the last couple of years, jumping by an incredible 129%.

Borussia Dortmund, whose value has jumped to $1.9bn from 112%, are the other team to have enjoyed a growth that has more than doubled.

Football’s most valuable clubs

These figures illustrate that football has been resilient to the global pandemic to some extent, although it should be stressed that average revenue fell 9.6% from the 2017/18 campaign, while operating income dropped more than 70% last term. Indeed, these figures are expected to be even bleaker this term, with most clubs having enjoyed little or no matchday revenue.

Meanwhile, Barcelona fall short of the world’s most valuable sports team, which is reported to be the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, who are worth an estimated $5.7bn.

How are these values estimated?

Forbes reports that the “values are enterprise values (equity plus net debt) and include the economics of the team’s stadium but exclude the value of the real estate”.