The Most Expensive Teams in Qatar

The FIFA World Cup 2022 kicked off in Qatar this week. Over the course of the month, 32 teams from around the world will face off to determine who will take home the most prized cup in men's soccer. Many of the sport’s greatest talents will take to the field to showcase their footballing prowess and worth for the exorbitant sums of money they earn in the profession. The following chart takes a look at how a handful of countries playing at the World Cup have especially valuable teams, when considering the combined market value of their players.

England's national team pays tribute to its country, the birthplace of the sport, by being the highest-valued team at the 2022 World Cup. Its players are worth a total of 1.26 billion euros, according to data from the Transfermarkt website. This figure is worth the gross domestic product of a small country such as Grenada or the Seychelles. Meanwhile, if we were to hypothetically combine the national teams of Argentina and Spain, for example, where we sell all their players at market value, that sum could cover UNESCO's total budget for a year, at around US$1.5 billion.

Three Latin American countries are among the top ten teams in terms of market value at the Qatar World Cup. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Brazil, whose team is valued at more than 1.1 billion euros, comes in first place. The Argentine national team is seventh globally and second regionally, with a squad worth around 633 million, just over half that of its neighbor and traditional soccer rival, Brazil. Meanwhile, the Uruguayan national team is arguably among one of the most surprising in this ranking, with a value of 450 million euros, ranking tenth among the most expensive teams that will play in Qatar 2022.