Gareth Bale’s £80million price tag when he moved from Tottenham to Real Madrid last summer caused plenty of eyebrows to be raised, and now a new report suggests the Spanish giants paid almost £30m more than the Welshmen is currently worth - even after becoming a Champions League winner. Experts at the Swiss-based CIES Football Observatory have placed ‘market values’ on top players from around Europe based on a wide range of ‘objective’ factors from age and contract expiry date to position, performance data and international experience. They calculate that Bale, 24, is worth ‘only’ £50.9m at market rates based on what a buyer should reasonably pay for him if he moved this summer. That is £29.8m LESS than Real Madrid paid for him last summer.
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Gareth Bale is valued at £50.9m, according to experts at the CIES Football Observatory
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Monaco's Radamel Falcao and Asier Illarramendi of Real Madrid complete the top three most over-valued plyers
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Premier League players Marouane Fellaini, Erik Lamela, Fernandinho, Willian and Roberto Soldado also feature
This finding reflects the fact that Real Madrid clearly paid over the odds to convince @placeholder to release the player.’