Marcus Rashford has had an extremely impressive past 12 months. He has performed on the pitch - scoring important goals for a Manchester United side which sits closer to the top of the table than anyone expected - and done crucial work off it in the form of his fight against child food poverty.

He won a special recognition award at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards, and has won numerous others for his humanitarian work in a year in which he placed enormous pressure on the Tory government to feed the children of the country.

Now, his year has got even better, after he was named the most valuable footballer in the world by the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES).

CIES, an independent, research and education organisation, located in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, releases its list of the global game's most valuable players on a biannual basis.

Rashford sits first ahead of Borussia Dortmund forward Erling Haaland, Liverpool full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold, Manchester United teammate Bruno Fernandes and PSG's Kylian Mbappe in the top five.

Rashford's value is estimated at €165 million, almost £150 million, marginally higher than those around him.

Now while this may seem peculiar - Mbappe, for example, is arguably a better player than Rashford - but the value takes into account a number of factors, including age of course, but crucially length of contract remaining.

With just under 18 months left on his PSG deal, Mbappe finds himself in fifth. The remaining players in the top five have contract which run from 2024 to 2025.

The remaining fifteen places include a further five English internationals, including Jadon Sancho, Raheem Sterling, Bukayo Saka, Mason Mount and Harry Kane.

Interestingly, CIES have identified Arsenal's young winger Saka as the 15th most valuable player in the world, despite his relatively short time in first team football. He is valued at €116.2m (£105m).

The algorithm they are using is on a alternative reality, it's too bizarre to consider serious....

According to the CIES Football Observatory, it's Marcus Rashford

The idea is that TAA is the third most valuable player in the world means this list is a joke. It's not that TAA is a bad player, but some positions are simply more valuable than others. Rashford is a good, even great player, but he's not more valuable that an out and out striker.