Last night, I read this post by @epirela22 about the apparently crazy sum of money that Paris St Germain have spent on keeping Kyle Mbappe at their club. The rumour in the UK, is that he's signed a 3 year contract with a signing on fee of £100m and a monthly salary of £4m bringing the total value of the contract renewal to £244m (just over 1.13bn STEEM).
In the comments, it was suggested that £150m (my memory of the signing on fee) would be better spent building a squad and despite £150m not matching either the signing on fee or wages (the squad of players would also need wages), I thought I'd see what kind of team I could put together for £150m using player valuations from www.transfermarkt.co.uk.
Given that transfermarkt has Kyle Mbappe valued at £144m, I feel that this is quite a good comparison.
The Formation
This needs to be a proper, balanced team. It can't have any weak links that the opposition would be able to easily exploit (i.e. I'm not creating a Fantasy Football team here) and my initial view of transfermarkt suggests to me that an average price of £13.6m could be difficult so a defensive formation might be required but building a defensive minded 4-1-4-1 or 5-4-1 isn't my style, so the formation I've gone for is the popular, modern day 4-3-3 that you see the likes of Liverpool, Manchester City and Real Madrid line up with. It's worth noting that Liverpool's starting XI is valued at over £550m.
The Spine of the Team
I don't have a full starting XI in mind. When I initially started looking at player values, I was surprised by how expensive player valuations are so I know that this is going to be a difficult task and that's why the spine of the team is so important. For that reason, I'm going to concentrate on the spine of the team in this post - the Goalkeeper, a Central Defender, a Central Midfielder and a Match Winner - this could be the striker but could just as well be a wide player - the likes of Mo Salah and Vinicius Junior spring to mind (both valued at £90m) but their price is probably prohibitive.
It's worth noting that once you move away from the Premier League, player valuations drop significantly which will make things tricky for me. I know the Premier League inside-out so I'll need some extra research and trust some of what I learnt in my Fantasy Sports Contests.
I'll also focus my efforts on Europe's top 5 leagues (England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France).
Goalkeeper
When I think about the world's best Goalkeepers, Liverpool's Allison (£54m), Man City's Ederson (£45m) and Real Madrid's Courtois (£58.5m) are the first 3 players that spring to mind but they're clearly not an option. There are many goalkeepers though that don't necessarily play for top sides and to help me with my research, I've called on
fbref.com's Advanced Goalkeeper stats to see who this season has prevented the most goals this season (they take the quality of the shot into account for an Expected Goal figure and then use this to assess the goalkeeper's ability).
Over the course of the season, this gives me the following shortlist:
| Goalkeeper | Country | Team | Average Goals Prevented per 90 Mins | Price (£m) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manuel Riemann | Germany | Bochum | 0.35 | 0.9 |
| Mike Maignan | Italy | Milan | 0.25 | 22.5 |
| José Sá | England | Wolves | 0.25 | 12.6 |
| Stefan Ortega | Germany | Arminia | 0.22 | 5.4 |
| Édgar Badía | Spain | Elche | 0.21 | 1.8 |
| David de Gea | England | Manchester Utd | 0.18 | 13.5 |
| Alexander Nübel | France | Monaco | 0.17 | 5.4 |
| David Ospina | Italy | Napoli | 0.17 | 4.5 |
| Yassine Bounou | Spain | Sevilla | 0.16 | 13.5 |
| Martin Dúbravka | England | Newcastle Utd | 0.16 | 4.5 |
| Matías Dituro | Spain | Celta Vigo | 0.16 | 0.9 |
| Niki Mäenpää | Italy | Venezia | 0.16 | 0.2 |
| Luís Maximiano | Spain | Granada | 0.15 | 9.0 |
| Yann Sommer | Germany | M'Gladbach | 0.15 | 4.5 |
| Thibaut Courtois | Spain | Real Madrid | 0.14 | 58.5 |
| Walter Benítez | France | Nice | 0.13 | 10.8 |
| Nick Pope | England | Burnley | 0.12 | 13.5 |
| Alisson | England | Liverpool | 0.11 | 54.0 |
| Łukasz Fabiański | England | West Ham | 0.11 | 0.9 |
Maignan (£22.5m), Courtois(£58.5m) and Allison (£54m) are too expensive to consider and this is when things become incredibly subjective.
I'm building a team that I want to be successful for at least 3 years so age has to become a factor. This rules out Dituro (34), Mäenpää (36) and Fabiański (36) in my opinion and I'm not sure I want to spend the money on a player older than 30 (32 appears to be the most popular age) which would remove Riemann, Ospina, Dúbravka and Sommer.
This still leaves me with 9 to choose from so another filter that I could easily apply is consistency. I've shortlisted based upon this season's data but a Goalkeeper might have had an unusually good season (or conversely, matured as a player). Alex Nübel stands out here as this is his first season out-performing his xGA but... it's also his first full season as a starting Goalkeeper (having been at Schalke and Bayern Munich) so it would perhaps be unfair to dismiss him. In addition, historic data is not available for all goalkeepers on this list (e.g. José Sá) which makes it even more difficult to choose.
I want to be sure of my decision though, so if I remove players where only 1 season's worth of data is available or where they've been inconsistent, I'm left with the following 4 options
| Goalkeeper | Country | Team | Average Goals Prevented per 90 Mins | Price (£m) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stefan Ortega | Germany | Arminia | 0.22 | 5.4 |
| David de Gea | England | Manchester Utd | 0.18 | 13.5 |
| Walter Benítez | France | Nice | 0.13 | 10.8 |
| Nick Pope | England | Burnley | 0.12 | 13.5 |
And I'm going to go with the Goalkeeper I know best - David De Gea.
👉 David De Gea (£13.5m)
Central Defender
Well, I didn't expect that to take so long and to be so difficult which means that I should probably speed things up a bit (well done if you're still with me).
For my first central defender, I want somebody reliable who reads the game well. The kind of stats I'm looking for are a high tackle percentage and perhaps more importantly, interceptions. If they're intercepting a lot, then they're reading the game well. I want more than this though - I want somebody comfortable with the ball. A player who the opposition will want to press and a player that won't mind if this happens - so mistakes also need to be kept to a minimum. The ability to play a direct ball and get a counter-attack started would be ideal. I'm thinking along the lines of a modern day Rio Ferdinand.
I'll use data from whoscored.com for this to create a long list which was originally 30 long. I removed all players with a successful tacking percentage less than 70, those who failed to make 1 or more interceptions per game, those price over £25m and anybody 32 or older to get the following short list:
| Player | Country | Team | Accurate Long Balls | Price (£m) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joachim Andersen | England | Crystal Palace | 7.7 | 19.8 |
| Lucas Martínez | Italy | Fiorentina | 6.6 | 13.5 |
| Konstantinos Mavropanos | Germany | VfB Stuttgart | 6.4 | 15.3 |
| Hiroki Ito | Germany | VfB Stuttgart | 6.3 | 2.7 |
| Florian Grillitsch | Germany | Hoffenheim | 6.2 | 14.4 |
| Duje Caleta-Car | France | Marseille | 5.6 | 14.4 |
| Brendan Chardonnet | France | Brest | 5.5 | 4.1 |
| Alexander Djiku | France | Strasbourg | 5.5 | 8.1 |
| Florian Lejeune | Spain | Deportivo Alaves | 5.4 | 2.3 |
| Warmed Omari | France | Rennes | 5.1 | 7.2 |
Unfortunately, I'm so unfamiliar with so many of these players but Joachim Andersen is a player I've seen a lot of and fits the bill perfectly. He's solid, reliable and an excellent passer of the ball - he was great at Fulham and is also doing the business at Crystal Palace. He's a bit on the pricey side so I'll need to save elsewhere but I wanted a strong spine and this gives me it so far.
👉 Joachim Andersen (£19.8m)
Whilst I'm here - it makes sense to look for my other centre back and with Andersen being right footed, I'll see if any of the players in my list are left footed... Hiroki Ito is the only option in my list. Not somebody I know enough about to include in my team so I'll leave it for now and search for a left footed option later. The ball skills won't be as important for the 2nd centre back.
Central Midfielder - The Playmaker
I didn't realise how long it would take me to get this far so I'm tempted to stop but I committed to a spine so that's what I'll go with even if it takes me all day...
For this role, I'm thinking a Kevin De Bruyne (£81m) type player. Creativity, Key Passes, Assists and an occasional rocket from distance are on my mind here. I want the player who's the metronome for the team - when they pass it, they're the player that the ball goes through. This is difficult to identify at a league level - an average Man City player will be infinitely more creative than Burnley's best player so I'll need to review each team and select the stand out creative asset - I'll use whoscored again and understat.com for this and as I say, only shortlist the standouts (removing players that cost £25m or more and who are older than 32).
Stats are per 90 minutes.
| Player | Country | Team | Key Passes | xG | xA | Price (£m) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pablo Fornals | England | West Ham | 1.5 | 0.16 | 0.19 | 18.0 |
| Pascal Groß | England | Brighton | 2.6 | 0.09 | 0.25 | 6.3 |
| Christian Eriksen | England | Brentford | 2.9 | 0.14 | 0.36 | 13.5 |
You may wonder why there are only 3 players on my list... it's because the 3rd name I found is the man I want. Absolutely perfect and a transfermarkt valuation of £13.5m is an absolute bargain.
👉 Christian Eriksen (£13.5m)
The Superstar
With 3 players down and £46.8m of my £150m budget spent, I think things are looking great and my willingness to spend half of my budget on the spine of the team gives me £30m for my match winning star man.
For this player, I want goals. I want a greed to succeed, a desire to be the league's top scorer at the end of the season but also the willingness to set up a team mate. So if a player's just got goals and no (expected) assists, they're not for me. I'm thinking Mo Salah (£90m), Karim Benzema (£22.5m???), Lionel Messi (£54m) - basically all of the world's great superstars. For a budget price.
I was astounded that Benzema's listed at £22.5m and I almost decided that I wouldn't bother looking elsewhere. But at 34 years old, despite his undoubted quality - I'll keep looking.
So to start my shortlist, I'll use fbref again and look at players in each league who consistently score more than they should (goals - expected goals) - the players who have had 1 good season are also removed.
Po. = Primary Position used in 2021/22 season.
| Player | Country | Team | Po. | G-xG | xA/90 | Price (£m) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Terrier | France | Rennes | AML | 6.9 | 0.18 | 14.4 |
| Franck Honorat | France | Brest | AML/R | 6.2 | 0.19 | 9.0 |
| Benjamin Bourigeaud | France | Rennes | AMR | 5.7 | 0.35 | 13.5 |
| Gianluca Scamacca | Italy | Sassuolo | FWD | 5.0 | 0.09 | 27.0 |
| Sasa Kalajdzic | Germany | Stuttgart | FWD | 7.0 | 0.21 | 19.8 |
| Wissam Ben Yedder | France | Monaco | FWD | 5.8 | 0.21 | 25.2 |
I set a limit of £30m for my star man and Zaha nearly saw me bust the budget at £36m. If I find £6m spare at the end of this, I'll find a way to upgrade here!
Of these options, the man I know best from Fantasy Bundesliga is Sasa Kalajdzic as a bit of an all-rounder - likened to Zlatan Ibrahimovic, he's currently being linked to Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund as well as a couple of Premier League sides (Manchester United and Southampton). He's got decent feet for a bit man and fits in well - capable of holding up Andersen's long balls and making the most of Erkisen's creativity.
He's not the quickest though so when it comes to the players either side, I'm going to want pace.
👉 Sasa Kalajdzic (£19.8m)
Summary
So that's the spine of my team complete at a cost of £66.6m leaving me with £83.4m for the remaining 7 players (£11.9m per player). It's going to continue to be difficult but if I can maintain this quality, then I'm going to be very happy with my Kyle Mbappe priced team.
What do you think so far? Is there anybody I should have looked at more closely or missed altogether? Please let me know what you think in the comments - especially if you think that I shouldn't bother with part 2 (because this took me aaaaaaaaaages!)