The extraordinary difference in squad values between Rio Ave and AC Milan
Yesterday Rio Ave came incredibly close to causing one of the big shocks of this year’s Europa League, coming within seconds of knocking out AC Milan.
With such a significant discrepancy in finances, it would have been a monumental achievement for the Portuguese outfit to prevail, and that they came so close to doing so without reward is both impressive and painful. To fall at the last hurdle, having had so many opportunities to complete the giant-killing, is tough to take.
But it is important to have some context and realise just how exceptional the fact they came so close to doing so really is - and there is no better way to do that than compare the valuations of the respective starting XIs.
Rio Ave, for example, according to Transfermarkt, fielded a starting XI with a total estimated player valuation of just £12.7million - just a little over 1 million pounds per player on average.
Compare that to Transfermarkt’s valuations for AC Milan’s overall starting XI: £203.5million. An extraordinary sum of money, 16 times more than the overall squad valuation of Rio Ave. In fact, the likes of Bennacer alone are considered to be more valuable than the entirery of the Rio Ave squad, which only further illustrates the magnitude of Rio Ave’s efforts.
Rio Ave valuation by player: Kieszek (£270k); Pinto (£1.35M), Borevkovic (£2.25M), Santos (£2.25M), Monte (£900k); Augusto (£1.35M), Tarantini (£90k); Piazon (£810k), Lopes (£1.8M), Mane (£1.35M); Moreira (£270k).
AC Milan valuation by player: Donnarumma (£54M); Hernandez (£40.5M), Kjaer (£6.3M), Gabbia (£4.05M), Calabria (£9M), Bennacer (£25.2M), Kessie (£24.3M), Calhanoglu (£20.7M), Saelemaekers (£7.2M), Castillejo (£11.7M), Maldini (270k).
Donnarumma. Photo author: Doha Stadium Plus Qatar from Doha, Qatar. License link.
