Real Madrid, whose revenues have been supercharged by the revamp of its Santiago Bernabéu stadium, has seen its valuation pull away from its major rivals.
The Spanish club was worth €6.3 billion ($7.1 billion) as of January, a 23% year-on-year increase, Football Benchmark said in its latest annual report.
The valuation is comparable to the biggest names in US sport. Last week, NFL owners approved the sale of a 6.2% stake in the San Francisco 49ers to three investor groups at an $8.5 billion valuation, the highest ever for a sports team. The Boston Celtics are currently being sold for a valuation of $6.1 billion.
Real Madrid recently undertook a €1.76 billion ($1.9 billion) renovation of its iconic stadium and has acquired players including French star Kylian Mbappe and English talent Jude Bellingham.
Real Madrid Chairman Florentino Pérez believes the 15-time European football champion is worth more than €10 billion. Real Madrid is currently a non-profit club formed by hundreds of fee-paying fans — a system that blocks private investors from owning stakes in it, as the fans don’t own shares.
Manchester United, once the most valuable football club in the world, has seen the gap with its Spanish rival widen. The UK club’s valuation grew more modestly by 4% to €5.05 billion. The slowing growth was partly explained by a 15% increase in staff costs, which outpaced revenue growth and resulted in a net loss of €132 million, the second-worst performance among the top 32 clubs in Europe after Italy’s Juventus (€199 million).
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Part-owner Jim Ratcliffe, who took over the running of the club in early 2024, has since set about slashing costs and cutting staff, in a bid to manage costs at the club. Ratcliffe said the team was even paying a “body language consultant” £175,000 a year to help the team take penalties.
The club’s valuation is expected to fall further as it prepares for the first season in a decade without European football. Last week’s defeat in the Europa Cup final against Tottenham Hotspur was a bitter blow after a disastrous season in which the team finished 15th in the Premier League. Spurs won the Europa Cup final 1-0.
Over the past decade under the Glazer family ownership, Manchester United’s valuation has grown 74%, the second-lowest of Europe’s top 10 teams, according to Football Benchmark.
In comparison, Qatari-backed Paris St. Germain, which is competing in this weekend’s Champions League final, has boosted its valuation by 346% to €3.76 billion. Inter Milan, the other finalist in the Champions League, has seen its valuation grow by 330% in the past decade.
Meanwhile, Chelsea, under the ownership of Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, dropped one spot to 10th in terms of current valuations, whereas Arsenal FC moved to seventh after a 29% year-on-year revenue increase.
There are 17 teams in Europe with an enterprise valuation exceeding €1 billion, up from just eight in 2016.
