The some of the best minds in the world have come together to create the CIES biannual survey of player value in the transfer market, and while most of the conclusions that they come to will not surprise you — Lionel Messi is by far the most valuable — one almost certainly will: Eden Hazard is officially more valuable than Cristiano Ronaldo.
The survey takes into account a player’s age, position, contract, international status, experience, and performance as well as their team’s competition level, results, and achievements as it formulates what their transfer value should be. Knowing this, it is easy to see the one thing that has likely contributed the most to Hazard over taking Ronaldo: age. Ronaldo is 30. Hazard is 24.
Transfer values take into account the future ability of a player just as much as their present, and Hazard still has the potential to improve, while Ronaldo is putting in the best years of his career right now. Further more, Ronaldo is likely just around the corner from an inevitable decline as Father Time begins to work his dastardly magic. Ronaldo is undoubtedly still the better player as of today, but “today” is not worth as much when evaluating a player’s worth as “tomorrow,” according to CIES.
Knowing Ronaldo, he either won’t give this result a second thought, or he will use it to turn the 2015/16 season into a Europe-wide “F*** the Doubters” campaign. Which, needless to say, would be amazing to watch for any fan. Ronaldo may not be a player for the future, but he is still a player that can put in a timeless performance, today.
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