Will the most valuable 2026 World Cup squads do best?

The value of a squad is often in the conversation when looking at domestic football teams–we scrutinize each signing and debate whether that new striker was really worth paying over €100 million for.

International football is different of course, with no transfer fees or budget constraints meaning teams can be packed full of some of the sport’s top, and most expensive, talent.

France’s squad for this 2026 World Cup, for example, reads more like a shopping list of the best players in the world. Stars like Mbappé and Olise push the team’s value up over the staggering €1.5 billion mark, making France the most valuable team at the tournament.

 At Time2Play we’ve tallied up the value of all of the 48 squads featured at the 2026 World Cup and compared their performances in the group stage to find out. 

Do pennies equal points?

We’ve totalled up the values of all the squads at the 2026 World Cup and used that to work out the average price of a player in each side. Here, we’ve ranked them by their worth and compared that to the points and positions earned in the group stage of the tournament.

The average value per group place

To determine whether high squad value means a team is more likely to be successful in the World Cup, we used the table’s data to create this graph. It shows the average value of a squad finishing in first, second, third and fourth place in the group stage of the 2026 World Cup.

There’s a considerable difference between the average value of a team finishing in first compared to second. The average for a team finishing in first is around €800 million, while the second place average is much lower around €300 million. Between second and third place there’s much less difference with less than €100 million separating the two averages.

This represents a pattern seen in the data; the extremely valuable teams, those over the billion Euro mark specifically, are highly likely to finish in first. However, as we go down the rankings, value has less of an impact on results. Teams ranked 12th and below are inconsistent in where they finish in the group, proving that a higher value squad doesn’t guarantee results.

The extremes

The error bars on the four cells of the graph show the two extremes for each place, representing which team has the highest value and which has the lowest finishing in each position. Turkey, the 13th most expensive squad overall with a value of €473.7 million, were the most expensive squad to finish in fourth place. Given their high value, you’d expect them to have performed better and secure one of the top two places. Especially given that South Africa, who have a total value of €49.25 million, almost ten times less than Turkey, finished in second place.

On the other end of the spectrum, the biggest overperformer is Mexico. They’re the least valuable squad to finish in first place with a total worth of €191.85 million. It becomes an even more impressive feat when we recognize that France, who also finished in first, has a value of €1.523 billion.

France’s squad worth over €1.5 billion

France has the most expensive squad at the tournament by just under €100 million, with a total value of €1.523 billion. That means their average player is worth a staggering €58.577 million! Their squad is packed full of the world’s top footballing talent with Kylian Mbappé the third most expensive player in the world at €180 million.

France’s most expensive players:

1. Kylian Mbappé: €180 million
2. Bradley Barcola: €150 million
3. Desire Doue: €120 million
4. Ousmane Dembele: €100 million
   

After entering the tournament as one of the favorites to win, France have lived up to expectations winning nine out of nine points in the group stage. They were convincing in all three of their group games, winning against Senegal 3-1, Iraq 3-0 and Norway 4-1. They were equally ruthless in their 3-0 victory in the round of 32 over Sweden, and 1-0 win in the round of 16 over Paraguay. France have managed to get the most out of their pricey forward players scoring at least three goals in each of their games so far aside from a difficult match against Paraguay.

Overpriced England?

In second place is England with a value of €1.433 billion, and an average player value of €55.103 million. 

England’s most expensive players: 

1. Elliot Anderson: €134.490 million
2. Jude Bellingham: €130 million
3. Declan Rice: €120 million
4. Bukayo Saka: €110 million

It’s one of the more shocking values on the list given that the international team hasn’t won, or made the final, at a major tournament since their World Cup win in 1966. Part of that can be attributed to the ‘English Tax’, a premium put on English players thanks to the Premier League being the wealthiest league in the world. It means that teams can charge a premium for their homegrown talent, often resulting in inflated player values. 

That’s not to say that England hasn’t got the talent to justify the pricemark. Their star-studded squad includes Harry Kane, one of the best strikers in the world, who has scored 535 goals in his career so far for club and country. Despite being 32 years old, Kane’s precision in front of goal makes his €60 million price tag sound like a bargain! 

England will be hoping Kane can carry them deep in the tournament, however their group performances weren’t all that convincing. They topped their group with seven out of nine points, but failed to break down Ghana resulting in a 0-0 draw. It looked like they’d repeat the same problem in the first half against the solid defence of Panama, but they managed to fire in two in the second half for a 2-0 win, backing up their 4-2 victory against Croatia in their opening game. Their round of 32 and round of 16 games were close-fought, but still kept English hopes alive with a 2-1 win over DR Congo and 3-2 win against Mexico. 

Expensive Spain

The Spanish squad, another of the favorites to win the competition, are the third highest value team with a worth of €1.233 billion and an average player value of €47.415 million. They also feature the joint most expensive player in the world, Lamine Yamal. The 19 year old winger, who plays for Barcelona, is worth a staggering €200 million, a value shared by Norway’s Erling Haaland. 

Spain’s most expensive players: 

1. Lamine Yamal: €200 million
2. Pedri: €150 million
3. Pau Cubarsí: €80 million

Spain’s value is scattered throughout the pitch with high worth wingers, defenders and midfielders all within their squad, giving them the quality which makes them one of the favorites to win the tournament.  

They got off to a shaky start in the tournament with a 0-0 draw to Cape Verde in the island’s first appearance at the World Cup Finals. While Spain had plentiful chances, they weren’t able to find the back of the net in a performance which reminded everyone that they had only won three World Cup games since 2014. Aside from their 2014 3-0 win against Australia, 2018 1-0 win against Iran and 2022 7-0 hammering over Costa Rica, Spain survived on five draws. They also had five losses in that time resulting in a group stage exit in 2014 and last 16 exits in 2018 and 2022. 

After shaking off the initial nerves, they managed to win both their remaining games comprehensively with a 4-0 win over Saudi Arabia and 1-0 win over Uruguay. They looked much more comfortable in their comprehensive 3-0 win in the round of 32 over Austria, and their star players have settled into the competition. Although their win over Portugal might not have been as comfortable as they’d like, a stoppage time goal by Mikel Merino sent them through to the quarter-finals after a tricky game. 

The biggest underperformers

While the top three highest value sides show that money can result in quality and points, there are some squads whose value for money is more questionable. Here are six of the teams who underperformed based on their squad value.

Portugal’s €1.005 billion squad only manage five points

Portugal are the fourth most valuable squad and the last one with a worth over a billion Euros, with a value of €1.006 billion. Their two joint most expensive players, Vitinha and João Neves, who are worth €140 million, won their second consecutive Champions League with PSG in May. Their fellow PSG teammate, Nuno Mendes, is the third most valuable Portuguese player with a value of €80 million.

While Portugal have valuable, and no doubt high-quality players, their problem has been cohesion. They’ve struggled to come together as a team, evident in their opening 1-1 draw with DR Congo. While Ronaldo fans called for the team to pass to their captain and talisman more, he looked some way off his best. Neves highlighted that Ronaldo is ‘no different to the rest of us and he will contribute like we all will.’ 

The resulting media storm caused fractures throughout the Portuguese team which were clear in their disappointing 0-0 draw against Colombia. They finished runners-up in Group K on five points behind Colombia on seven, who sit seventeen places behind them in the value rankings.

Although they managed a 2-1 win over Croatia in the round of 32, they looked a little off the pace of the tournament favorites. They came up against one of the tournament favorites, Spain, in their round of 16 match. While Portugal managed to keep Yamal quiet for 90 minutes, they conceded late to substitute Mikel Merino to be sent out of the competition losing 1-0. Portugal’s lack of creativity in attack allowed Spain to become the first team in World Cup history to keep six consecutive clean sheets.

The biggest overperformers

There’s also evidence of the opposite, with some of the lower value squads proving that they can be successful in football’s biggest competition without a squad worth billions. All seven of these lower value squads finished within the top two of their groups, qualifying automatically for the knockout stages.

Mexico win nine out of nine points

Despite their total squad value being less than Yamal and Haaland alone at €191.85 million, Mexico won all three of their group games securing nine out of nine points. Only the two favorites to win, France and Argentina, ranked first and seventh for value respectively, managed to equal that achievement.

As one of the hosts, Mexico might have been expecting a boost, but to win all three of their games was a major achievement. Especially when you consider their most expensive player, AC Milan’s Santiago Giménez, is worth just €18 million, ten times less than Mbappé. They followed up their impressive group stage with a solid 2-0 victory over Ecuador in the round of 32, despite the Ecuadorian squad being worth over €65 million more than theirs.

Although they lost their round of 16 match against the second most expensive squad, England, 2-3, they’ll be pleased with their performance throughout the competition. For the 27th ranked squad value-wise, they impressed with cohesive team displays in their home tournament, only conceding their first goal in their round of 16 match.

The biggest surprise–Cape Verde’s three draws

Easily one of the biggest surprises of the tournament so far has been debutantes Cape Verde’s performance. They finished second in Group H with three points, after drawing with Spain 0-0, Uruguay 2-2 and Saudi Arabia 0-0. Their defensive strength meant even the third most valuable squad, packed with attacking prowess like Yamal, couldn’t break them down.

Although many wrote off their opening result as a fluke, they followed it up against Argentina, a squad worth €359.300 million, over six and a half times that of Cape Verde’s €54.50 million. While Uruguay were eliminated after the group stage on just two points, Cape Verde’s three points saw them through to a difficult match against tournament favorites Argentina.

They ultimately lost that match against Argentina 3-2, but they forced the defending champions into extra time with the score level at 1-1 after 90 minutes. It was early in extra time when Argentina’s Martínez put them up 2-1, but an incredible strike from Lopes Cabral put Cape Verde back in the game at 103 minutes in. Although they pushed Argentina all the way, an own goal by Diney eventually led to Cape Verde bowing out of the competition.

Do high value squads mean World Cup wins?

While there’s no doubt that a high value squad indicates quality, it doesn’t always translate to wins. At the top, France’s €1.523 billion squad and Spain’s €1.233 billion squad show that expensive can mean dominance if the value is distributed throughout the team. They have value and quality all over the pitch, which is why they’re two of the favorites to win the 2026 World Cup.

However, as we travel down the list, we can see that if the money is hoarded in pockets like the Portuguese defence and defensive midfield, it can result in an imbalanced team. Teams with only a few high value players, like Sweden’s attacking duo of Gyökeres and Isak, don’t always get results as it takes more than one or two star players to succeed at the World Cup.

On the other end of the spectrum, there’s lower value teams, like the tournament surprise Cape Verde who are worth just €54.50 million, whose cohesion as a team carries them through. The island never would have made it through their opening game against Spain with a point, if not for their close-knit defence. They, along with co-hosts Mexico, prove that a high value squad isn’t necessary to thrive at the World Cup.

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Our data shows the English Tax is inflating values, but are they actually ready for the trophy? And with Portugal’s billion-euro roster already out of the mix, it feels like value might be overrated. Does money buy success, or does team chemistry beat a massive bank account every time?

Let’s hear your take in the comments below!