Ranking the 10 Best Value Goalscorers in World Football
Some clubs have the capacity to pay ungodly amounts of money for footballers: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Bayern Munich being six of a select few.
Other clubs, however, cannot be so frivolous. Teams around the European continent—and the world in general—must find ways to compete without breaking the proverbial bank.
Goals are the lifeblood of football; as such, every club prowls for players who can routinely place the ball in the back of the net. Here we review 2014/15's goalscorers, locating hidden gems and/or discounted game changers.
Methodology
1 of 12
What is a ranking without a few rules?
The requisite amount to be included in this list is 10 league goals in 2014/15.
We are looking only at the five major leagues in Europe, namely the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga.
As the nature of this particular game is finding value in the transfer market, academy products will not be found here, likewise players who have transferred for free.
Casualties from these four stipulations include Lionel Messi, Harry Kane, Saido Berahino, Alexandre Lacazette, Robert Lewandowski, Demba Ba and Jackson Martinez.
Transfer fee ÷ goals scored creates our ratio and we round to the nearest ten thousand.
The Least, Least of These: 23-11
2 of 12
*Claudio Beauvue (Guingamp) Fee: *Transfer Data Unavailable Goals: 11 Ratio: ? | 17. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) Fee: £30.8 million Goals: 13 Ratio: £2.37 million per goal |
23. Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) Fee: £85.3 million Goals: 10 Ratio: £8.53 million per goal | 16. Sergio Aguero (Manchester City) Fee: £39.6 million Goals: 17 Ratio: £2.33 million per goal |
22. Neymar (Barcelona) Fee: £50.25 million Goals: 17 Ratio: £2.96 million per goal | 15. Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid) Fee: £26.4 million Goals: 14 Ratio: £1.89 million per goal |
21. Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal) Fee: £35 million Goals: 12 Ratio: £2.92 million per goal | 14. Diego Costa (Chelsea) Fee: £32 million Goals: 17 Ratio: £1.88 million per goal |
20. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) Fee: £80 million Goals: 29 Ratio: £2.76 million per goal | 13. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Paris Saint-Germain) Fee: £18.48 million Goals: 11 Ratio: £1.68 million per goal |
19. Gonzalo Higuain (Napoli) Fee: £32.56 million Goals: 12 Ratio: £2.71 million | 12. Mario Mandzukic (Atletico Madrid) Fee: £19.36 million Goals: 12 Ratio: £1.61 million per goal |
18. Robin van Persie (Manchester United) Fee: £24 million Goals: 10 Ratio: £2.4 million per goal | 11. Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich) Fee: £21.12 million Goals: 16 Ratio: £1.32 million per goal |
10. Papiss Demba Cisse
3 of 12
Club: Newcastle United (Premier League)
Goals: 10
Transfer Fee: £10.56 million
Ratio: £1.06 million per goal
Only playing 836 minutes in the Premier League this season, Papiss Cisse's inclusion on this list might come as a surprise to some, but the striker tends to score goals when called upon.
Known for their vast scouting network in France, Newcastle went to Germany in the 2012 January transfer window—snapping up Cisse for an assumed £10.56 million from SC Freiburg.
Scoring 22 league goals in 32 appearances for the Bundesliga side in 2010/11, the Senegalese came with a reputation for goalscoring and has mostly lived up to the hype at the turbulent, tempestuous St. James' Park.
9. Andre-Pierre Gignac
4 of 12
Club: Olympique de Marseille (Ligue 1)
Goals: 14
Transfer Fee: £14.08 million
Ratio: £1.01 million per goal
Olympique de Marseille are seven points ahead of AS Monaco for the last UCL spot in Ligue 1 and four points off the league's top spot. A large component of Marseille's third-place position is striker Andre-Pierre Gignac.
Fourteen goals in 26 matches this season have secured l'OM 12 league points and kept Les Olympiens atop the French standings for 14 matchdays. Scoring six headed goals, the France international is a terror in the 18-yard box.
Bought for just over £14 million, Gignac has proven great value for money this season—should Marseille qualify for the 2015/16 Champions League, he will pay his fee back in full.
8. Paulo Dybala
5 of 12
Club: Palermo (Serie A)
Goals: 12
Transfer Fee: £10.47 million
Ratio: £870,000 per goal
Promoted from Serie B, Palermo have enjoyed their mid-table existence in Serie A this season. The source of that happiness can be largely attributed to Argentinian wunderkind Paulo Dybala.
The 21-year-old striker—due to his position and heritage—has been dubbed "the next Sergio Aguero" by his club's president Maurizio Zamparini, via the Daily Mail's Elliott Bretland.
Thought to be a summer transfer interest of Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain, per the Express' Anthony Chapman, it seems Palermo have secured both cost efficient goals in the short term and developed an expensive gem long term.
7. Mauro Icardi
6 of 12
Club: Internazionale (Serie A)
Goals: 14
Transfer Fee: £10.56 million
Ratio: £750,000 per goal
A member of Barcelona's famed La Masia starting at age 14, stardom has always been in the cards for Mauro Icardi.
Sold to Sampdoria in 2012 and again to Inter Milan a year later, the 22-year-old striker has come into his own at the San Siro. Icardi's nine goals in 22 Serie A appearances in 2013/14 has been improved upon by 14 goals in 23 league games this term.
As reported by Jamie Sanderson of Metro Sport, the Argentinian's form has the vulture-like eyes of Chelsea upon him, valuing the striker at an alleged £22 million.
6. Carlos Tevez
7 of 12
Club: Juventus (Serie A)
Goals: 14
Transfer Fee: £7.92 million
Ratio: £570,000 per goal
Well known to Premier League observers after spells at West Ham United, Manchester United and Manchester City, Carlos Tevez has likewise become acquainted with Serie A goalkeepers.
Sold to Juventus for an initial fee of around £8 million by Manchester City, the Argentina international has taken to Italian football like a fish to water: His 33 goals in 54 league games as evidence.
The €9 million deal agreed upon by Juventus and City was thought to include add-ons, the Guardian's Jamie Jackson suggested Tevez's fee could be worth up to €15, but nothing is known concretely.
In any event, Juve would probably have paid double were their crystal ball working.
5. Bas Dost
8 of 12
Club: VfL Wolfsburg (Bundesliga)
Goals: 11
Transfer Fee: £6.16 million
Ratio: £560,000 per goal
At the beginning of February, Bas Dost was a relative unknown to those unfamiliar with the Eredivisie.
Kevin De Bruyne and Andre Schurrle were the headliners for VfL Wolfsburg, but Dost is on a Messi-like scoring tear. Since 7 February, the Dutch "No. 9" has scored nine goals in all competitions, specifically seven goals in three Bundesliga fixtures.
Netting four goals in one game vs. Bayern Leverkusen, Dost has climbed Germany's scoring charts in rapid succession—his name lying above Robert Lewandowski, Mario Gotze, Marco Reus and Thomas Muller.
Class or form?
To be determined.
T3. Carlos Bacca
9 of 12
Club: Sevilla (La Liga)
Goals: 14
Transfer Fee: £6.16 million
Ratio: £440,000 per goal
In 2013/14, Sevilla striker Carlos Bacca found the net 14 times in 35 La Liga games; this season, Bacca has done the same in nine fewer games.
Sevilla are comfortably in the top half of La Liga, resting on 50 points—their Colombian hitman scoring one-third of their league goals, per WhoScored.
The Belgian Pro League's top scorer with 25 in 2012/13, then heading to Andalusia in the summer of 2013—winning the Europa League last season—Bacca has certainly enjoyed his football over the past 36 months.
T3. Luciano Vietto
10 of 12
Club: Villarreal (La Liga)
Goals: 11
Transfer Fee: £4.84 million
Ratio: £440,000 per goal
If Real Madrid, Barcelona and, to a lesser extent, Atletico Madrid are Spain's top tier, Villarreal hover around La Liga's second tier. Currently sixth in the Spanish first division, and qualifying for the 2015/16 Europa League, they are on pace to repeat their performance from last year.
Helping El Submarino Amarillo maintain their hold on sixth is 2014 summer transfer Luciano Vietto. Bought for a bargain from Racing Club, Vietto has given his new club 11 vital goals.
As the fourth and final Argentinian in our ranking, it would seem if you are a footballing institution: Set up a scouting network in Argentina. The country is rife with top-level talent at relatively cheap prices.
2. Charlie Austin
11 of 12
Club: Queens Park Rangers (Premier League)
Goals: 14
Transfer Fee: £4.09 million
Ratio: £290,000 per goal
Making his way from non-league through the tiers of English football, Charlie Austin is a success story.
A League One player in 2009-10, six seasons later—in his first Premier League campaign—Austin has almost single-handedly kept Queens Park Rangers from being a sure relegation candidate. The 25-year-old striker has scored 14 of QPR's 27 total EPL goals and has added two assists.
Harry Redknapp's eye for talent is often hit-and-miss, but the former R's manager was spot on with his assessment of Austin as a Premier League goal getter.
Chris Ramsey finding similar success with Austin will determine both his fate and his club's.
1. Alexander Meier
12 of 12
Club: Eintracht Frankfurt (Bundesliga)
Goals: 14
Transfer Fee: £572,000
Ratio: £41,000 per goal
Alexander Meier is the gold standard of the "value purchase" in Europe's top leagues.
Bought for less than £600,000, Meier has scored 92 league goals for Eintracht Frankfurt since his move in 2004. In 2012/13, the German attacker scored 16 goals in 31 Bundesliga games, but failed to break 10 league goals last season.
This year, however, Meier has yet to go three domestic games without finding the target, and his 14 goals place him only behind world-class Bayern Munich winger Arjen Robben (16 goals) in the Bundesliga charts.
Not a bad place to be in truth.
*Stats via WhoScored.com; transfer fees via Soccerbase.com and TransferMarkt.co.uk where not noted.
