Real Madrid retained the first place on the Forbes list of the most valuable football clubs in the world, and the value of the 30 leading clubs reached a total of 87 billion dollars.
Real Madrid and in 2026 it is the most valuable football club in the world, according to the new Forbes list. The value of the Spanish giant is estimated at 9.5 billion dollarswhich kept him at the top of the list for the fifth year in a row.
Forbes states that Real Madrid during the 2024/2025 season generated income from 1.27 billion dollarswhich is a growth of 12 percent compared to the previous year. With this, the Madrid club set a new record among football clubs, but also surpassed the revenues of some of the most valuable sports franchises in the USA.
Although Real Madrid finished behind the last two seasons Barcelona in the Spanish championship and was eliminated from European competitions in the quarter-finals both times, the financial indicators of the club remained extremely strong.
Barcelona second, Manchester United third
It is on the second place of the Forbes list Barcelonawhose value is estimated at 7.5 billion dollars. Last season, the Catalan club became only the second football club in history to exceed one billion dollars in revenue, excluding player transfers.
He takes the third place Manchester Unitedestimated at 7.2 billion dollarswhile they are still among the five most valuable Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain.
The Forbes list confirms the strong dominance of the biggest European clubs, but also the increasing interest of investors in football, especially from the United States of America.
The most valuable football clubs in the world
According to Forbes, these are the ten most valuable football clubs in 2026:
- Real Madrid – 9.5 billion dollars
- Barcelona – 7.5 billion dollars
- Manchester United – $7.2 billion
- Liverpool – 6.2 billion dollars
- Paris Saint-Germain
- Bayern Munich – 5.7 billion dollars
- Manchester City – 5.5 billion dollars
- Arsenal – 5.4 billion dollars
- Chelsea – $4.2 billion
- Tottenham Hotspur – 3 billion dollars
The total value of the 30 clubs on the list reached 87 billion dollarswhile the average value of one club 2.9 billion dollars. This is a 21 percent increase compared to last year.
The Premier League has the most clubs on the list
Although Spanish clubs hold the top two spots, the most represented league among the 30 most valuable clubs is English Premier Leaguewith 11 representatives.
American is next Major League Soccer with seven clubs, while the Italian one Serie A has four representatives. Germany Bundesliga it is represented by three clubs, and the French Ligue 1 and the Portuguese Primeira Liga have one representative each.
Forbes states that the increase in the value of clubs is linked to greater investor interest, income from stadiums, commercial deals and increasingly lucrative European competitions.
American investors are increasingly entering European football
One of the important trends in football is the increasingly strong entry of American capital into European clubs. According to Forbes, more than half of Premier League clubs this season were majority owned by Americans or US-based investment companies.
A similar trend is visible in Italy, where Americans or Canadians controlled nine of the 20 Serie A clubs.
Despite the great growth in value, European soccer is still different from American sports leagues. Clubs face the risk of relegation, a weaker television rights market compared to American leagues and high player salary costs.
Nevertheless, investments in stadiums, the growth of income from European competitions and the growing interest of investors show that the value of the biggest football clubs continues to grow.
(www.jabuka.tv | Photo: Real Madrid)
