The Price of Talent: Data Driven Football Player Valuation

The valuation of football players represents a central and still unresolved challenge at the intersection of sports economics, finance, and management. The growing economic significance of football, together with the increasing complexity of transfer markets, has made player valuation a crucial topic for both academic research and managerial decision-making. Nevertheless, existing studies remain fragmented and often lack a coherent theoretical foundation and standardized methodological practices. This thesis aims to address this gap by systematically reviewing and critically analyzing the main theoretical and empirical approaches developed to estimate and interpret football players’ value. The research begins by examining the theoretical underpinnings of valuation, distinguishing among the notions of use value, market value, and transfer fee. These concepts are explored through economic and financial frameworks, showing how player value can be interpreted both as a measure of sporting contribution and as a tradable financial asset. The analysis then extends to managerial and strategic perspectives, incorporating theories such as signaling, bargaining, property rights, and business valuation to better understand how value is generated and perceived in football markets. A systematic literature review, conducted following the PRISMA methodology, provides a comprehensive synthesis of empirical findings. The study identifies and classifies the main determinants influencing player valuation, encompassing individual, collective, contextual, and market-related factors, while also addressing the methodological heterogeneity that characterizes this research area. Special attention is given to the increasing role of digital platforms such as Transfermarkt, whose estimations have become widely adopted proxies in both research and practice, despite their limitations in terms of transparency and methodological consistency. By integrating insights from diverse disciplinary perspectives, the thesis highlights the need for a more coherent and interdisciplinary framework for player valuation. The final section identifies key research gaps and proposes methodological guidelines aimed at improving consistency, robustness, and practical relevance in future studies, ultimately contributing to a clearer understanding of how talent is transformed into economic value in modern football.