REVEALED: The 20 most valuable football clubs in the world

Cameron Smith

• Updated: 10 Jul 2023 11:49 CDT
• 3 min read

Real Madrid are now the world’s most valuable football club, according to American business magazine Forbes.

Los Blancos top the list of the most valuable clubs in 2023, with Barcelona falling from first to third in just 12 months. The Blaugrana have not only been leapfrogged by their El Clasico rivals, but Manchester United are now deemed to be a more valuable club too.

In 2022, Forbes valued Barcelona at $4.76 billion, which was enough to take top spot. However, despite the fact they have risen to a valuation of $5.51B in 2023, they have dropped below Real Madrid and Man Utd.

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Forbes published their list of 2023’s most valuable football clubs in May and said: “The world’s 30 most valuable soccer teams are worth an average of $2.17 billion. A year ago, we valued 20 teams, which had an average appraisal of $2.53 billion. In contrast, this year’s top 20 teams have an average value of $2.89 billion — 14% higher.

“The increase in values wasn’t fueled by revenue, which increased just 2.5%, to an average of $496 million per team, but rather by the higher enterprise multiples (enterprise value divided by revenue) that buyers are paying for teams. The average enterprise multiple for the 20 most valuable teams this year is 5.9, compared with 4.8 a year ago.”

Behind Real Madrid, Man Utd and Barcelona comes Liverpool, who are valued at $5.29B by Forbes. Manchester City are fifth with a reported valuation of $4.99B.

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Bayern Munich ($4.86B), Paris Saint-Germain ($4.21B), Chelsea ($3.1B), Tottenham Hotspur ($2.8B), and Arsenal ($2.26B) round out the top 10.

There are three Major League Soccer teams included in the top 20, however. LAFC are the 17th most valuable football club in the world, while LA Galaxy and Atlanta United are 18th and 19th respectively.

The world’s 20 most valuable football clubs in 2023