Argentine players’ value increased sharply after the 2022 World Cup.

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Argentina has seven players with dramatic price increases on the transfer market, and Enzo Fernandez is the most notable case. With a value increase from $37 million to $58 million, Fernandez is the one who has the strongest value increase in 2022. Benfica signed the 21-year-old talent from River Plate for less than $13 million in the summer of 2021 and will likely make a significant transfer profit in the upcoming transfer windows if they decide to let him go. His contract with Benfica runs until 2027 with a release clause of $127 million.

Fenandez drew the attention of the whole world with his right-foot curl in the high corner of the goal, sealing a 2-0 victory over Mexico in the second round of the group stage. After this goal, Fernandez won a starting position in the middle of the field for the remaining five matches and was voted the best young player of the 2022 World Cup. Fernandez is worth as much as Tottenham midfielder Cristian Romero and is currently the second-most expensive player in the Argentina squad, behind Lautaro Martinez, who is priced at $80 million.

Enzo Fernadez's curl in the match agaisnt Mexico.

Julian Alvarez also moved from River Plate to Europe, where he is currently a backup for Erling Haaland at Manchester City. Transfermarkt rated Alvarez as the best substitute striker in the world, with his value increasing from $34 million to $53 million. At the 2022 World Cup, Alvarez took the place of Lautaro Martinez and scored 4 goals, including a brace in the 3-0 semi-final victory over Croatia. At 22 years and 316 days old, Alvarez became the youngest player to score a brace in a World Cup semi-final since the "football king," Pele, scored a hat-trick in 1958 (17 years and 244 days old).

Alvarez had a memorable tournament in Qatar.

Lionel Messi is valued at $53 million and is currently the most expensive player over the age of 34 in the world. In Qatar, the 35-year-old star led Argentina from a 1-2 defeat in the opening match against Saudi Arabia to a 4-2 victory in the penalty shootout against France in the final. On that journey, Messi contributed 7 goals, 3 assists, won 5 Player of the Match awards, and won the World Cup Golden Ball as the Best Player of the tournament.

The currently undervalued 2022 World Cup winners are Nicolas Otamendi ($3.1 million), Franco Armani ($3.4 million), Alejandro Gomez ($4.2 million), and German Pezzella ($5.3 million). Other notable players include best goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, who is priced at $26.6 million; Alexis MacAllister, who is valued at $34 million; Rodrigo De Paul, whose value is about $37 million; and Nahuel Molina, who is rated at $19 million.

The total value of the 26 Argentine players is now 757 million USD, compared with 688 million USD before the 2022 tournament.

The moment Messi and his teammates lifted the Golden Trophy.

"The World Cup is the stage for players to get the world's attention," said Christian Schwarz, head of the international division at Transfermarkt. "We only pay attention to players who have shown significant progress and are internationally competitive. This will lead to increased interest in the transfer market. Hence, the World Cup value update will only include the latest upgrades."

According to Transfermarkt, Haaland was the most valuable player in the world from November 3 to December 23. However, after the 2022 World Cup, Kylian Mbappe has returned to the top spot, with his value increasing from 170 million USD to 192 million USD. In this year's tournament, the 24-year-old striker won the Golden Boot as the top scorer with 8 goals, including a hat-trick in the final against Argentina.

Mbappe and Haaland are the most expensive two players in the world right now.

Meanwhile, Haaland remained at $180 million and dropped to second. The 22-year-old striker has been practicing without playing a match for more than a month, as his Norwegian team only finished the qualifying round in third place in Group G and could not even win a play-off ticket. Behind Haaland are Vinicius ($128 million), Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden ($117 million), Pedri, Jamal Musiala, Bukayo Saka, and Federico Valverde ($106 million).

Transfermarkt is based in Germany and was established in May 2000, specializing in the transfer value of players and teams. They calculate players’ values based on age, performance, potential, and contract length. However, this site emphasizes that the market value they calculate is not the same as the actual transfer fee. Transfermarkt is considered the most prestigious source of information on player value in the world today. In 2021, the site had 39 million monthly visitors, with 680,000 paying a subscription fee.