Cristiano Ronaldo equals the top 100 players in Romania

The fabulous EUR 125 million offer that French football club Paris Saint-Germain is willing to pay for Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo would make him again the most expensive transfer in the world, according to Spanish newspaper Marca. For comparison, the cumulated value of the top 100 players in Romania’s top football league is EUR 126 million, according to data available on football intelligence website transfermarkt.com. The total value of the 530 players in Liga 1 is EUR 245 million. The most valuable club is Steaua Bucharest, whose players are valued at EUR 37 million, and the most valuable player is Steaua’s attacking midfielder Alexandru Chipciu, valued at EUR 3.5 million. According to transfermarkt.de, Cristiano Ronaldo and Argentinian Lionel Messi are currently the world’s most valuable football players, with an estimated value of EUR 120 million each. Ronaldo and Messi have also been battling in the past year for FIFA’s Ballon d’Or, the trophy awarded yearly to the best football player in the world. The 30-year old Portuguese midfielder got the trophy three times, including in 2013 and 2014, while Messi won four times. Cristiano Ronaldo has been playing for Real Madrid since 2009 and scored 310 goals in almost 300 matches for the club. In this year’s season of Primera Division, Ronaldo scored 45 goals, more than the top three goal scorers in Liga 1 together. Real paid EUR 94 million to Manchester United for Ronaldo’s transfer, which made him the most expensive transfer in the world at that time. He was surpassed by Gareth Bale who moved from Tottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid in 2013 for EUR 100 million. Romanian football coach Lazslo Boloni was the one who launched Cristiano Ronaldo into professional football, at Sporting Lisbon. Then it was Sir Alex Ferguson who noticed him and brought him to Manchester United making him a world class superstar. editor@romania-insider.com