Lionel Messi tops the list of Europe’s 100 most valuable footballers with Eden Hazard in second

The summer transfer window is yet to get in full swing, but we're fairly certain a host of Premier League clubs will pursue a prudent policy of developing young talent splurge lots of cash on some of the best players around.

The JOE team would argue it's pretty much impossible to put a price on the god-like talent of Lionel Messi, but the clever folk at CIES Football Observatory have crunched the data to come up with a list of Europe's most valuable players. Unsurprisingly, Barcelona's Argentine genius is at the top, but it's interesting to see where other players rank. Position, age, contract, experience, performance, achievements, results and competition level were all taken into account when deciding the rankings. It's probably a surprise to see Eden Hazard in second place if you consider value strictly in terms of current end-product, but it backs up Jose Mourinho's claim that the Belgian could be worth £200m... (Click to enlarge)