The CIES Football Observatory have compiled a 'price guide' for JanuaryLionel Messi would cost a whopping £172m should any of Barcelona's rivals want to whisk him away this month, according to research into the current market values of the world's leading players.

The Argentine star comfortably tops a CIES Football Observatory countdown of football's most valuable players and is worth £68m more than his Real Madrid rival Cristiano Ronaldo.The totals serve as a 'guide price' for the January transfer window, using a calculation that takes into account player performance, age, contract and the results of their team.

The top 10 features six Premier League players - Eden Hazard, Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas of Chelsea, Sergio Aguero of Manchester City, Raheem Sterling of Liverpool and Alexis Sanchez of Arsenal.

But it finds Messi far and away the most expensive player in Europe at the moment.

Ronaldo, the favourite to win the Ballon d'Or for the world's best player this month, is valued at £104.3m should someone try to prise him away from European champions Real.

Chelsea's Eden Hazard comes in at a cool £77.6m, followed by his team-mate, the free-scoring Diego Costa at £65.9m.

Paul Pogba, of Juventus and France, is fifth on the list at £56.4m while Manchester City's prolific Argentine Sergio Aguero is just above the £50m mark.

1. Lionel Messi (Barcelona) £172.6m

2. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) £104.3m

3. Eden Hazard (Chelsea) £77.6m

4. Diego Costa (Chelsea) £65.9m

5. Paul Pogba (Juventus) £56.4m

6. Sergio Aguero (Manchester City) £51m

7. Raheem Sterling (Liverpool) £49.4m

8. Cesc Fabregas (Chelsea) £48.6m

9. Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal) £47.8m

10. Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) £47m

11. Neymar (Barcelona) £45.4m

12. Angel Di Maria (Manchester United) £44.6m

13. Mario Gotze (Bayern Munich) £40.7m

14. James Rodriguez (Real Madrid) £39.1m
    = Oscar (Chelsea) £39.1m

15. Luis Suarez (Barcelona) £37.6m

16. Thibaut Courtois (Chelsea) £35.2m
    = Isco (Real Madrid) £35.2m

17. Robert Lewandowski (Bayern) £34.4m
    = Koke (Atletico Madrid) £34.4m

18. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) £33.6m

19. Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid) £32.8m

20. Toni Kroos (Real Madrid) £32.1m

21. Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich) £30.5m

22. Romelu Lukaku (Everton) £29.7m
    = Edinson Cavani (Paris Saint-Germain) £29.7m

23. Luka Modric (Real Madrid) £28.9m
    = Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) £28.9m

24. Christian Eriksen (Tottenham) £28.2m
    = Mesut Ozil (Arsenal) £28.2m

25. Jerome Boateng (Bayern Munich) £27.4m
    = Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich) £27.4m
    = Miralem Pjanic (Roma) £27.4m
    = David Silva (Manchester City) £27.4m

26. Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool) £26.6m
    = Gonzalo Higuain (Napoli) £26.6m
    = Vincent Kompany (Manchester City) £26.6m
    = Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund) £26.6m
    = Sergio Busquets (Barcelona) £26.6m

27. Willian (Chelsea) £25.5m
    = Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid) £25.5m
    = Marco Veratti (Paris Saint-Germain) £25.5m
    = Ross Barkley (Everton) £25.5m
    = Juan Mata (Manchester United) £25.5m

28. Mateo Kovacic (Inter Milan) £25m
    = Alexandre Lacazette (Lyon) £25m
    = Lucas Moura (Paris Saint-Germain) £25m
    = Yaya Toure (Manchester City) £25m
    = Jack Wilshere (Arsenal) £25m

29. Arturo Vidal (Juventus) £24.2m
    = Andres Iniesta (Barcelona) £24.2m

30. Nemanja Matic (Chelsea) £23.5m
    = Danny Welbeck (Arsenal) £23.5m
    = Andre Schurrle (Chelsea) £23.5m
    = Aaron Ramsey (Arsenal) £23.5m

31. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal) £22.7m
    = David Alaba (Bayern Munich) £22.7m
    = Santi Cazorla (Arsenal) £22.7m
    = Juan Cuadrado (Fiorentina) £22.7m

32. Radamel Falcao (Man United) £21.9m

33. Jordan Henderson (Liverpool) £21.1m
    = Alvaro Morata (Juventus) £21.1m
    = Ivan Rakitic (Barcelona) £21.1m
    = Carlos Vela (Real Sociedad) £21.1m

34. Mario Balotelli (Liverpool) £20.3m
    = Gerard Pique (Barcelona) £20.3m
    = Luke Shaw (Manchester United) £20.3m

35. Cesar Azpilicueta (Chelsea) £19.5m
    = Wilfried Bony (Swansea City) £19.5m
    = Daniel Carvajal (Real Madrid) £19.5m
    = Kevin de Bruyne (Wolfsburg) £19.5m
    = Roberto Firmino (hoffenheim) £19.5m
    = Adnan Januzaj (Manchester United) £19.5m
    = Gervinho (Roma) £19.5m
    = Iker Muniain (Athletic Bilbao) £19.5m
    = Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund) £19.5m
    = Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich) £19.5m
    = Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool) £19.5m

36. Jose Callejon (Napoli) £18.8m
    = Samir Nasri (Manchester City) £18.8m
    = Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus) £18.8m
    = Marek Hamsik (Napoli) £18.8m
    = Julian Draxler (Schalke) £18.8m
    = Olivier Giroud (Arsenal) £18.8m
    = David Luiz (Paris Saint-Germain) £18.8m
    = Thiago Silva (Paris Saint-Germain) £18.8m

37. Marquinhos (Paris Saint-Germain) £18m
    = Calum Chambers (Arsenal) £18m
    = Edin Dzeko (Manchester City) £18m
    = Diego Godin (Atletico Madrid) £18m
    = Raphael Varane (Real Madrid) £18m
    = Medhi Benatia (Bayern Munich) £18m
    = Fernandinho (Manchester City) £18m

38. Radja Nainggolan (Roma) £17.2m
    = Carlos Tevez (Juventus) £17.2m
    = Marcelo (Real Madrid) £17.2m

39. Roberto Pereyra (Juventus) £16.4m
    = Heung-Min Son (Bayer Leverkusen) £16.4m
    = Arda Turan (Atletico Madrid) £16.4m
    = Adam Lallana (Liverpool) £16.4m
    = Adem Ljajic (Roma) £16.4m
    = Antonio Candreva (Lazio) £16.4m
    = Stevan Jovetic (Manchester City) £16.4m
    = Pedro (Barcelona) £16.4m
    = Ramires (Chelsea) £16.4m

40. Blaise Matuidi (PSG) £15.6m
    = Juan Bernat (Bayern Munich) £15.6m
    = David De Gea (Manchester United) £15.6m
    = Mauro Icardi (Inter Milan) £15.6m
    = Erik Lamela (Tottenham) £15.6m
    = Dries Mertens (Napoli) £15.6m
    = Gary Cahill (Chelsea) £15.6m
    = Eliquim Mangala (Manchester City) £15.6m
    = Henrik Mkhitaryan (Dortmund) £15.6m
    = Moussa Sissoko (Newcastle United) £15.6m
    = Thiago Alcantara (Bayern Munich) £15.6m
    = Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli) £15.6m
    = Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich) £15.6m
    = Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern) £15.6m
    = Robin van Persie (Manchester United) £15.6m
    

Matuidi is underrated, Sterling is overrated, nice stuff.

Ps : Before starting any clueless argument, Sterling hasnt shown any maturity outside England, he isnt able yet to be consistent regularly and does not have enough experience to handle CL games...The same issue as Lallana, break through season but not enough yet to have a finished product price tag.

Example : Lucas Moura. He is explosive this year but lacks something in CL big games...

By the way, Moura is the perfect Chelsea signing, spending 2 years under Mourinho and learn to handle result pressure each week...

Something ignored by most of the fans, Rakitic for example is world class but cant be reliable at 100% and one game flopped in CL final stage can make you loose the compain, he is still learning though...

@Tiki_taka About Sterling, he might be a bit overrated, but he is just 20 years old and these values are estimated by player's performance, age, contract and the results of their team. So I think Sterling would perform much better than this at another club such as Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid or Barcelona etc. and he has still a lot of time ahead of him to prove himself. As for Lucas Moura, I like the player myself and would love to have him at Chelsea. :)

Really? Neuer the same value as Pjanic? I know Pjanic is young but come on.

I would rate luka modric, neymar and azpilicueta higher,
Costa, sterling and like ramaboy said pjanic have overrated price tags

This is just market value, not actually what they would go for... Some would go for more, some would go for less...

I would rate Modric and Matuidi higher.

@Alex oh i forgot +1 :).
I may agree but why Sterling would cost double of Luas price tag ? Nothing about talent, if he wasnt English he would cost 25M just like Lucas.
Im still waiting Raheem to establish himself as Liverpool best player and make them win games they couldnt win without him, he is young, i agree, talented, i agree, skilful, i agree but not CL material yet, not PL ontenders material yet.
The price is a speculation about his future form, but he would be worth it when he will reach this maturity.

Example : Pogba, Griezmann, Varane, Koke, Kane ( yes i would rate Kane higher looks really mature for his age). All are young and mature at an early age, i dont see this maturity on Raheem and Lucas yet, Tactical discipline....

a very subjective issue.............

@Tiki_taka That's true I think he is still young for CL anyways. I think he should move somewhere but again he is still young he better stay at Liverpool for 3 more years and then this price tag will be more acceptable.

very subjective, yes. you cant just make a list this simple, so many factors to take in like age, contracts, position, injuries etc...

and BTW where are the Valencia players, several should be on the list. Even though this is extremely subjective its pure BS. Other great players from other la liga teams should also be here, La liga (except from Real, Atleti and Barca) is being overlooked, a prime example of this is Juan Bernat who is on this list only beacause he plays in Bayern, he is not playing better than with us, if he would have played with us still he would not be on this list. And before he left he was even far from our best player, maybe nr 5 or 6... So its strange that he is on this list....

****, even Transfermarkt is waaay better than this

this list is the most pathetic thing i have seen in my life