Most Valuable Bundesliga Players 16/17: Kimmich Makes A Breakthrough – RB Immediately Runner-Up

20 years of market values ​​at TM

A new era began in the Bundesliga in the 2016/17 season. Not because FC Bayern once again dominantly brought the championship trophy to Munich, but because RB Leipzig appeared in the upper house for the first time. Since then, the club from Saxony has divided football fans in Germany and is still viewed very critically by traditionalists. In terms of sport, the Bundesliga adventure began successfully: the runner-up title was won in the first year. At that time, no Leipzig player was among the most valuable players in the league. The then 22-year-old Naby Keïta was valued the highest, increasing his market value to 27 million euros over the course of the season.

As part of the 20th anniversary of market values ​​at Transfermarkt, we are looking at the most valuable professionals of each season since 2004 in a series. There was no getting around the stars of FC Bayern in 2016/17. Nine players in the most valuable eleven are occupied by the record champions. Only Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Sokratis Papastathopoulos, both at Borussia Dortmund, made it into the top eleven with 65 and 28 million euros respectively.

In addition, many faces from previous years maintained their place. As in the previous year, the Bayern block remains composed of Robert Lewandowski (€80 million), Thomas Müller (€75 million), David Alaba, Jérôme Boateng, Manuel Neuer (all €45 million) and Arturo Vidal (€40 million). €). Mats Hummels is also still there, but now in the Munich jersey instead of the black and yellow jersey. And making their debut are Thiago Alcántara (€40 million) and Joshua Kimmich (€25 million), who replaced Philipp Lahm in terms of market value a year before the end of his career and celebrated his breakthrough.

Aside from the record champions, who clinched the title on matchday 31 with a 6-0 win at VfL Wolfsburg, TSG Hoffenheim and 1. FC Köln were among the season’s winners in fourth and fifth place. The Kraichgauer team played their best season in terms of points in the club’s history under Julian Nagelsmann, but failed to qualify for the Champions League against Liverpool FC. This should only be achieved next year with third place. Cologne reached the Europa League, only to be relegated as bottom of the table the following season.

Ousmane Dembélé played his way into the international spotlight in 2016/17 and brought BVB a windfall of 135 million euros with his move to FC Barcelona – the highest transfer fee in Bundesliga history to date. In addition, 63.75 million euros were raised for Aubameyang, which was reinvested in, among others, Andriy Yarmolenko and Maximilian Philipp, but also in Jadon Sancho.

Archive: The most valuable Bundesliga professionals 2015/16