Study: Harry Kane Has More Transfer Value Than Lionel Messi

England striker Harry Kane is reportedly more valuable to Tottenham Hotspur than five-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi is to Barcelona.

An algorithm constructed by the CIES Football Observatory (h/t Daily Mail's Adam Shergold) appraised players based on the biggest gap between their current value and the fee paid for them.

Both players count as homegrown to their respective clubs having arrived as youths, but Kane is said to command a fee of £175 million, while Messi was priced at £173 million.

It would be unsurprising to see the two positioned so closely together were one analysing the 2017-18 campaign alone, as Belgian football writer Kristof Terreur highlighted they sit level on goals this term:

Messi's value takes a hit compared to his Spurs counterpart due to the fact he's set to turn 31 in June, while Kane is six years his junior and won't turn 25 until July, offering more value for a long-term investment.

Kane joined Tottenham's academy in 2004 after spells with the Arsenal and Watford youth systems, while Messi moved to Catalonia in 2001 from Newell's Old Boys in his hometown of Rosario, Argentina.

Spurs have another profitable star ranking high in the CIES study, as Dele Alli, who cost £5 million when he joined from MK Dons in 2015, comes in at an estimated cost of £139 million.

The research goes to show the value for teams investing in young, emerging talent—players who could one day go on to fetch transfer fees their clubs might have hardly dreamed of upon recruiting them.

That being said, it's unlikely Tottenham or Barcelona will be looking to sell Kane or Messi, respectively, at the end of this season, as both teams look to increase their stars' market power even more in the months to come.