Portugal is the third most valuable team of the 21 already scheduled for the 2024 European Football Championship in Germany. The qualifying phase ended yesterday, confirming Croatia as the final representative with direct entry – leaving the three remaining teams in a play-off not to be played until March.
The Portuguese team, thanks to a perfect qualifying phase with only victories (the only one to achieve this, after yesterday’s draw by France in Greece), already knows that they will be part of the group in the draw scheduled for December 2 of the seeded teams, in addition to England, Germany, France, Spain and Belgium, teams that due to this status will avoid themselves in the first phase of the competition and that are the most valuable in the tournament.
The team coached by Roberto Martínez is valued at 1.02 billion euros (this takes into account the final squad of 26 players, but includes the usual starters Diogo Dalot and Rafael Leão in place of João Mário and Bruma).
Before Portugal, and according to data from the website transfermarkt (a website specialized in player evaluation), there are only two teams: England, the most valuable of all the participants in the tournament, whose 26 players are worth a combined €1.09 billion. , including Jude Belligham, Raheem Sterling and Reece James, who were absent from the final squad due to physical problems. And France, the current champion, valued at 1.04 billion.
Of the teams included in the seed pool that Portugal avoids in the group stage, Spain (814 million), Germany (665 million) and Belgium (439.30) are on the list of most valuable.
Portugal has nine footballers worth 50 or more million euros. The most valuable quartet consists of Rafael Leão (90M), Bernardo Silva (80M), Rúben Dias (80M) and Bruno Fernandes (75M). Next up are João Palhinha (55M), Matheus Nunes (55M), João Cancelo (50M), Diogo Jota (50M), João Félix (50M) and Gonçalo Ramos (50M).
The qualifying phase for Euro2024 ended yesterday and the four pots have already been formed (see tables) that will serve as a reference for the draw that will take place in Hamburg on December 2. All that remains is to meet three teams, which will emerge from a play-off contested by twelve countries.
In Pot 1, Germany was the host team, plus the top five group winners from the qualifying phase, including Portugal. Pot 2 consists of the five worst winners from the qualifying groups, plus the best runners-up. Pot 3 has six more runners-up (from the second to seventh best of the ten groups) and Pot 4 consists of the three worst runners-up, plus the three winners of the play-off scheduled for March 2024.
The most valuable players
The national team, which has AC Milan striker Rafael Leão as its most valuable player, does not have a single representative in the top 10 most valuable stars who will be present at Euro2024, where Erling Haaland is the main absence, as Norway gets in the way .
The player with the highest market value who will be present on the German fields is the French striker Kylian Mbappé, from PSG, valued at 180 million euros.
It should be noted that the top 10 most valuable lists five England internationals, which helps to understand why England is the team with the highest market value: Jude Belligham (150M), Bukayo Saka (120M), Phil Foden (110M), Harry Kane (110M) and Declan Rice (100M).
As a curiosity, the least valuable team of the 21 already confirmed for Euro2024 is Romania (72.38 million), who qualified in first place in Group I, ahead of Switzerland, and whose player with the highest market value is defender Radu Draguçin from Genoa is. , valued at 10 million euros.
The 2024 European Football Championship will take place in Germany in a month’s time (from June 14 to July 14). It will be the second time the country has hosted the tournament – the first took place in 1988, in an edition won by the Low Countries – and the matches will be spread across 10 stadiums.
This is Portugal’s ninth appearance in the final stages of the European Championships, the eighth in a row, the highlight of which came in 2016, with winning the trophy in the final against France, where an Éder goal in extra time won the national team won. first major title.
These are the pots for the draw that will take place on December 2:
POT 1
Germany
PORTUGAL
France
Spain
Belgium
England
POT 2
Hungary
Denmark
Albania
Austria
Turkiye
Romania
POT 3
Scotland
Slovenia
Slovakia
Czech Republic
The Netherlands
Croatia
POT 4
Serbia
Italy
Switzerland
Play-off A winner
Play-off winner B
Playoff winner C
PLAYOFFS (each path clears only one selection):
Path A
Poland-Estonia, March 21
P. Wales-TBD, March 21
Final, March 26
Path B
Israel-TBD, March 21
Bosnia-TBD, March 21
Final, March 26
Path C
Georgia-Luxembourg, March 21
Greece-Kazakhstan, March 21
Final, March 26
Source: DN
