Cristiano Ronaldo Falls in Top 100 Transfer Values, Lionel Messi Exceeds $300M

Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is now worth less than Chelsea's Eden Hazard in terms of transfer value, according to a new study from the Football Observatory of the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES).

Barcelona's Lionel Messi remains the most valuable player inside the top 100, with youngsters such as Liverpool's Raheem Sterling and Juventus' Paul Pogba now considered among the most valuable transfer commodities in football.

CIES provides the top 20 in euros, converted to U.S. dollars and pound sterling below:

Rank	Player	Club	Age	Transfer Value in Millions (USD)	GBP Value
1	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	27	288.4-317.1	188.2-206.9
2	Eden Hazard	Chelsea	24	151.8-168.2	99.0-109.7
3	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	30	127.9-140.7	83.5-91.9
4	Neymar	Barcelona	23	101.0-111.0	66.0-72.6
5	Sergio Aguero	Manchester City	27	88.2-96.9	57.7-63.4
6	Raheem Sterling	Liverpool	20	83.1-91.3	54.3-60.0
7	Paul Pogba	Juventus	22	79.3-87.1	51.8-57.0
8	Diego Costa	Chelsea	26	78.8-86.7	51.5-56.7
9	Alexis Sanchez	Arsenal	26	76.4-84.1	50.0-55.0
10	James Rodriguez	Real Madrid	23	70.4-77.5	46.1-50.7
11	Luis Suarez	Barcelona	28	67.6-74.4	44.2-48.6
12	Antoine Griezmann	Atletico Madrid	24	66.5-73.1	43.5-47.8
13	Cesc Fabregas	Chelsea	28	66.1-72.7	43.3-47.5
14	Isco	Real Madrid	23	64.5-70.9	42.2-46.4
15	Harry Kane	Tottenham Hotspur	21	60.3-66.4	39.4-43.3
16	Gareth Bale	Real Madrid	25	57.8-63.6	37.8-41.6
17	Philippe Coutinho	Liverpool	22	56.8-62.6	37.1-40.9
18	Thibaut Courtois	Chelsea	23	56.7-62.4	37.1-40.8
19	Oscar	Chelsea	23	53.6-59.0	35.0-38.6
20	Karim Benzema	Real Madrid	27	50.3-55.4	32.9-36.2

You can view the full 100 here.

In correspondence sent to Bleacher Report, CIES notes the rankings are designed to show "the probabilities of fee paying transfers for big-5 league players." It cites "a major achievement of the research work carried out by our academic team during the last year."

Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

Messi's value remains well above the rest, and with good reason. Not only is the Argentinian the most important player in Barca's treble-winning side, he continues to score goals, break records and make himself a commercial juggernaut.

The Argentinian netted 58 goals across La Liga, the Copa del Rey and Champions League during the 2014-15 season. He's likely to play a key role in Argentina's assault on the Copa America, and at 27 years old, he's got plenty of era-defining quality left in him.

This is where Ronaldo's worth perhaps falls below Hazard's. The former is 30 and didn't win any team trophies this year (despite landing the Ballon d'Or and 2015 Golden Shoe). Hazard captured the PFA Player of the Year prize en route to leading Chelsea to the Premier League title. He's still young, possesses a lengthy contract and is only likely to improve as he nears his peak.

He wants to follow in the footsteps of the two great players, as told to the Sun (h/t Harry Sherlock of Goal.com):

"

This has always been my dream, when I first arrived at the training centre of Lille, I said to my coach, Jean-Michel Vandamme, that one day I would become the Ballon d'Or winner.

Unfortunately, there are two extraterrestrials in football, Messi and Ronaldo, and it will be hard to dislodge them. I'm working hard for that.

"

Alex Caparros/Getty Images

In the next few years, it's entirely possible Hazard, or perhaps Neymar, will topple Ronaldo's quality on the pitch, too. The Portuguese superstar is destined to slow down soon.

It's perhaps interesting to note Pogba ranks below Sterling. Both are currently linked with moves away from their clubs, reported by Joe Bernstein of the MailOnline.

Pogba has won numerous trophies with Juve and recently appeared in the Champions League final defeat to Barca. Sterling is yet to win a trophy, but traditionally, attackers cost more than players in other positions, which is something that isn't going to change soon.

We can expect the likes of Hazard, Sterling and Pogba to continue rising in value over the coming seasons. Transfer prices are becoming increasingly inflated—hence why Gareth Bale cost more in 2013 than Ronaldo did in 2009—a trend that is likely to continue.