A-League market value update: Melbourne City remain most valuable club despite decrease

With the A-League approaching its mid-season, Transfermarkt have carried out their latest market value update for the league. Melbourne City remain the most valuable club in the league despite their squad value dropping by €700,000. Adelaide United’s squad value increased by 21.2% (€1.25 million), mainly due to many of their young players getting more game time. 

After a slow start to the campaign, Melbourne are now in fourth place and are unbeaten in their last six games. Nonetheless, their squad value drops slightly from €11.4m to just below €10.8m. Their no.9, Jamie Maclaren had some niggling injury issues at the start of this season and only scored four goals in nine games, before scoring a hat-trick in their 8-1 humiliation over Brisbane Roar. His market value drops slightly from €2m to €1.8m. In comparison, former Beşiktaş and Udinese playmaker Tolgay Arslan shone with 10 goals and four assists across all competitions, but his value dropped from €1.4m to €1.2m due to his age of 33.

The surprise player of the season so far has to be Melbourne Victory’s Bruno Fornaroli. With the club still unbeaten after 11 games, Fornaroli’s goal scoring number this season has been incredible, scoring 13 goals in the first 10 league games, including two four-goal hauls against Newcastle Jets and Western Sydney Wanderers. As a result, his market value rises slightly from €450,000 to €500,000, despite being 36 years of age. He even earned his Socceroos call-up by the national team and is included in Australia's 2023 Asian Cup squad this month.

How Transfermarkt market values work

The Transfermarkt market values are calculated, taking into account various pricing models. A major factor is the Transfermarkt community, whose members discuss and evaluate player market values in detail. In general, the Transfermarkt market values are not to be equated with transfer fees. 

The goal is not to predict a price but an expected value of a player in a free market. Both individual transfer modalities and situational conditions are relevant in determining market values. Examples of this are listed below. Transfermarkt does not use an algorithm (you can find the detailed market value definition here).