Every Europa League team's market values ranked: Celtic and Rangers around mid-table in terms of squad assets
A look at how the Europa League group phase table would look based on the team’s market values
Celtic will face a tough away tie against Red Star Belgrade on Wednesday night while Rangers face Genk at Ibrox on Thursday.
Celtic fans held up banners at Firhill at the weekend regarding all the important European games they’ve lost under Peter Lawwell. Brendan Rodgers will be hoping Crvena Zvezda aren’t added to that list on Wednesday night. Despite fan unrest, The Hoops have performed well domestically of late, as they hope to emulate their SPFL form on the European stage.
As for the anomaly that is Rangers, despite three years of domestic failures, the Govan side always seem to save their best performances for the Europa League. With the mounting pressure on Russell Martin, he will be hoping to guide The Gers to the knockout stage of the competition for the third year on the bounce. After a disastrous start to their domestic campaign, Rangers looked more like themselves again, in their 2-0 League Cup victory over Hibs.
As both side’s gear up for their opening European fixtures, here’s a look how Rangers and Celtic compare to their Europa League rivals financially, based on their ‘current market value’ on Transfermarkt:
Every Europa League team’s market value
1. Nottingham Forest (£493m)
2. Aston Villa (£477m)
3. AS Roma (£339m)
4. Porto (£318m)
5. VFB Stuttgart (£272m)
6. Fenerbahce (£259m)
7. Bologna (£231m)
8. Feyenoord (£183m)
9. Real Betis (£179m)
10. Lille (£169m)
11. OGC Nice (£152m)
12. Olympique Lyon (£140m)
13. SC Freiburg (£130m)
14. Celtic (£119m)
15. KRC Genk (£117m)
16. Red Bull Salzburg (£113m)
17. Celta Vigo (£106m)
18. SC Braga (£100m)
19. Rangers (£90m)
20. PAOK (£80m)
21. Panathinaikos (£80m)
22. Red Star Belgrade (£74m)
23. FC Midtjylland (£68m)
24. Basel (£63m)
25. BSC Young Boys (£63m)
26. GNK Dinamo Zagreb (£61m)
27. FC Utrecht (£58m)
28. SK Sturm Graz (£46m)
29. Ludogorets Razgrad (£41m)
30. FCSB (£41m)
31. Viktoria Plzen (£41m)
32. Ferencvarosi TC (£38m)
33. Malmo FF (£31m)
34. SK Brann (£27m)
35. Go Ahead Eagles (£25m)
36. Maccabi Tel Aviv (£23m)
Celtic and Rangers middle of the road
With Celtic sitting in 14th and Rangers in 19th, on paper, both sides should make it through to the knockout stages, however history tells us that market value isn’t everything on European nights. Celtic’s market value was ten times that of Kairat Almaty, however it was the Kazakhstan minnows that ended their Champions League dream.
Unsurprisingly, the two English clubs have the highest squad values in the competition, however both sides have struggled for form so far this season. Nottingham Forest sacked manager, Nuno Espirito Santo after a poor run of results while Aston Villa sit in the English Premier League’s relegation zone.
Both Old Firm sides will face Roma in the League Phase, who have the most expensive team in the competition in mainland Europe. Israeli side, Maccabi Tel Aviv go into the Europa League as the biggest underdogs with the lowest team value.