No Nigerian or African made the top 20 ranking of the World’s most Valuable U21 players for the year 2018.
The list drawn up by Soccerex was based on Football Value Index which takes into account a player’s age, position, current club, contract length, market value perception, international caps, minutes played, goals, injuries and technical quality.
World Cup winner and French youngster Kylian Mbappe, who was also voted the best young talent at the World Cup in Russia, topped the list and is estimated to worth €192.3m.
Marcos Rashford [€89.2m England | Man United], Gabriel Jesus [€88.0m Brazil & Man City], Ousmane Dembele [€84.3m France & Barcelona] and Malcom [€64.6m Brazil & Bordeaux] al make up the top five.
Meanwhile, of the 20 players listed by the research, only five represented their countries at the World Cup in Russia.
Nigeria presented three players in between 21 and under – Wilfred Ndidi, Chidozie Awaziem and Francis Uzoho – at the tournament in Russia and two were started and played all three group stage matches before the Eagles were bundled out.
