Kylian Mbappe heads list of most valuable under-21 stars – with three Englishmen in the top 20

Kylian Mbappe has been named as world football’s most valuable under-21 star at a staggering £170.2 million.

And that’s a massive £91.3 million more than second placed Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford who is valued at £78.9 in today’s market.

Mbappe was a shining star at the World Cup, winning the tournament with France and scoring in the final as Les Bleus beat Croatia 4-2 in Moscow.

After his heroics in Russia – where he scored four times – 19-year-old Paris St Germain striker Mbappe unsurprisingly leads the way as the world’s most prized youngster in the latest annual study of global football’s most dazzling kids.

But the Premier League has two stars in the top three with Manchester City attacker Gabriel Jesus a place behind Rashford with a valuation of £77.9million.

Just outside the top ten are eleventh placed Fulham starlet Ryan Sessegnon at £45.5 with Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold in twelfth valued at £45million.

French flyer Mbappe becomes the first player to be valued at more than £100m in the annual report which uses Prime Time Sport’s Football Value Index, to rank footballers born on or after 1st January 1997.

The report, published by Soccerex, uses the player’s age, position, current club, contract length, market value perception, international caps, minutes played, goals, injuries and technical quality as criteria to arrive at a final valuation.

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The 66% increase on valuations of the top 20 stars from the previous twelve months is said to be due to the Neymar effect – with transfer fees rocketing after his £198million move from Barcelona to PSG.

As a nation France have the most players in the top 20 with five but for the first time there are no German players in the top 20.