The Most Cost-Effective Football Players

You wouldn’t expect big teams like Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea to be counting their pennies…or would you? Well, in actual fact, there has been a case whereby one particular football club was encouraging their players not to swap shirts at the end of the game in a bid to save money. That’s right! Manchester United, the £2bn club, has a shirt ration too, players like Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are only allowed four shirts – two with short sleeves and two with long sleeves. Who would have thought swapping shirts is not cost effective for such a wealthy club?! That’s football for you.

Lucky for us, there is total transparency in the world of football and football players’ sky-high salaries. We all know that the pro footballers in the prestigious Premier League are making millions. They are paid handsome salaries to score, assist, tackle and save goals. But which managers are getting the most bang for their buck out of their 15-man squads? Our infographic has all the stats and costs from the 2016-2017 season (including players’ annual salary) to help you find out which footballer is the most cost-effective of them all.

Attack Away

Nowadays, big money is spent at the attacking end in football. The truth is, your team cannot win unless your strikers put in the work and score some goals up front at the weekend. Have you ever wondered how much those attacking superstars get for every goal they make? According to our careful calculations, United’s Rashford and Stoke’s Peter Crouch got approximately £200K for every five goals they made last season, whereas Bournemouth’s Jermain Defoe and Tottenham’s Fernando Llorente got more than £250K for 15 goals they scored. It’s clearly evident that Liverpool’s Divock Origi and West Ham’s Robert Snodgrass are the least cost-effective out of all the strikers listed. But who among this throng of players is the most economical? You will find top strikers the likes of Dele Alli, Romelu Lukaku, Harry Kane, Joshua King, Nathan Redmond and Benik Afobe in our infographic below.

Help When Needed

In football, players need to help their teammates score and not always go for glory. There are moments in the game when your teammate might be in a better position to score, thus the wise thing to do is to pass the ball and get brownie points for making the assist, rather than going for goal yourself with the likely chance of messing it up and failing. Here we have many talented players with fancy footwork like Wijnaldum, De Bruyne, Barkley, Sigurdsson, Iwobi, Zaha, Phillips and Erikson. With just five assists, Southampton’s James Ward-Prowse is the most expensive player here who landed £450K per assist last season. The question remains, which player from the bunch is the most profitable? You’ll find the top five players in this category in our infographic.

Take Him to the Ground

During the game, it is the duty of the outfield players, in particular, to prevent the opposing team from scoring goals and keep a clean sheet for their team. Defenders must do their job the only way they know how – by tackling their opponent and, in doing so, getting the ball back into possession. Fuchs, Boyd, Idrissa Gueye, Lowton, McClean, Fabio, Clayton and Stephen and Joel Ward (FYI, they share the same surname but aren’t actually brothers) have all made the final cut, but only one player has proven to be the most profitable for his club. Head to our infographic to find out who that may be. You’ll also be able to see how much these players roll in for each tackle they make. Here’s an example; Sheffield’s winger, George Boyd is in fifth place in our top five with 36 appearances and a total of 87 tackles, which he pocketed £16,736 for each one. Who’s the number one cost-effective defender then? With so many great players this season, could Sheffield turn around and surprise us? No chance like the present to make a bet…

Save that Ball

If your opponent gets through mid-field and outwits your defenders, it’s up to your team’s goalkeeper to save the day and secure your team’s position in the top half of the league table. In general, goalkeepers tend to be the best value for money players. Based on their wages, which goalie is worth every penny? – A mere £9,220 per goal to be exact. It’s good to see that at least ten of the league’s top goalies are there, including Wayne Hennessy, Joel Robles, Ben Forster, Victor Valdes, Tom Heaton, David de Gea, Kasper Schmeichel and Petr Cech. So, who will it be?

As always, there can only be one winner overall. And the award for the most cost-effective footballer in the Premier League goes to…
You’ll have to look at our infographic to find out!

About the author

Eric Roberts

Sports Journalist

Eric has been a sports journalist for over 20 years and has travelled the world covering top sporting events for a number of publications. He also has a passion for betting and uses his in-depth knowledge of the sports world to pinpoint outstanding odds and value betting opportunities.