Lionel Messi is the most valuable player in the world and it's not even close

Lionel Messi

(Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Lionel Messi of Barcelona FC in Spain's La Liga is the most valuable soccer player in the world, according to the latest valuations released by Football-Observatory.com.

Messi was determined to have a transfer value of $287.6-315.5 million (€255.3-280.9 million). That's more than a $100 million greater than any other player in the world.

While fans will argue about whether Messi or Ronaldo is the best player in the world, the one huge advantage Messi has over Ronaldo in terms of value is age. Messi (27) is three years younger than his Real Madrid rival. Ronaldo is one of just seven of the top 100 players who has already celebrated his 30th birthday, and he fell to No. 3 on this year's list behind Chelsea's Eden Hazard.

In addition to age, the player values are determined based on a formula that considers a player's performance, position, contract status, and experience, as well as his current team's performance and competition level, while factoring recent trends in spending in the transfer market.

Here are the 20 most valuable:

1. Lionel Messi (Barcelona) — $287.8-316.6 million

2. Eden Hazard (Chelsea) — $152.7-167.9 million

3. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) — $127.7-140.6 million

4. Neymar (Barcelona) — $101.0-111.0 million

5. Sergio Agüero (Manchester City) — $88.2-97.0 million

6. Raheem Sterling (Liverpool) — $83.1-91.3 million

7. Paul Pogba (Juventus) — $79.3-87.2 million

8. Diego Costa (Chelsea) — $78.8-86.7 million

9. Alexis Sánchez (Arsenal) — $76.4-84.1 million

10. James Rodríguez (Real Madrid) — $70.5-77.6 million

11. Luis Suárez (Barcelona) — $67.6-74.4 million

12. Antoine Griezmann (Atlético Madrid) — $66.5-73.2 million

13. Cesc Fàbregas (Chelsea) — $66.2-72.7 million

14. Isco Alarcón (Real Madrid) — $64.5-70.9 million

15. Harry Kane (Tottenham) — $60.3-66.4 million

16. Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) — $57.8-63.6 million

17. Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool) — $56.8-62.6 million

18. Thibaut Courtois (Chelsea) — $56.7-62.4 million

19. Oscar dos Santos (Chelsea) — $53.6-59.0 million

20. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) — $50.3-55.4 million

See the full list at Football-Observatory.com

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