Elite Report: Real is the most valuable, Bayern the most profitable top club

Real Madrid is the most valuable football club in the world, valued at €6.3 billion. However, in terms of profit, the Spaniards are surpassed by a German club.

Real Madrid and FC Bayern Munich are among the financially strongest clubs in Europe. IMAGO/SOPA Images

For ten years, the experts at Football Benchmark have been analyzing European football economically. The report on the continent's 32 largest clubs, the "European Elite Report," is particularly fascinating. Real Madrid continues to dominate the 2025 edition with an enterprise value of €6.3 billion. This marks the first time in the ten-year history of the Football Benchmark report that a club has surpassed the €6 billion mark.

Manchester City follow with €5.1 billion, Manchester United with €5.05 billion, FC Barcelona with €4.5 billion, and FC Bayern with €4.3 billion. In addition to the two Manchester clubs, four other English clubs are in the top 10: Liverpool FC (€4.2 billion), Arsenal FC (€4 billion), Tottenham Hotspur FC (€3.7 billion), and Chelsea FC (€3 billion).

Serie A trio with biggest losses

This year's study offers a particularly positive message from the Munich club's perspective: No other club has achieved a better cumulative result over the entire decade. FC Bayern leads the way with a total profit of €281 million, ahead of Real Madrid (€205 million) and Atalanta (€183 million). The largest combined deficits are reported by AS Roma (-€940 million), Inter Milan (-€900 million), and Juventus Turin (-€892 million).

Among the clubs with the greatest year-on-year growth are two Bundesliga clubs: Eintracht Frankfurt (+32 percent to €978 million) and Borussia Dortmund (+23 percent to €2.3 billion). In terms of transfer income – not surplus – BVB ranks fifth with €975 million over the past decade (study period 2014/15 to 2023/24). The highest absolute growth was achieved by Manchester City (+€3.5 billion), Real Madrid (+€3.4 billion), and Liverpool (+€2.9 billion). In the overall ranking, Dortmund is eleventh, while Eintracht Frankfurt is eighteenth.

Industry experiences "unprecedented commercial expansion"

"The industry has undergone profound change, marked by regulatory reform, digitalization, the emergence of new competitions, and unprecedented commercial expansion," says Football Benchmark CEO Andrea Sartori, but also cautions: "Elite clubs are more valuable and internationally recognized than ever, but financial sustainability remains the key challenge."

The picture is correspondingly bleak when it comes to profit and loss statements. The top 32 clubs have only posted a cumulative profit twice: in 2018 (€388 million) and 2019 (€367 million). The group's largest combined deficit occurred in the year in which the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic were most clearly evident in the balance sheets: in 2022, the deficit was €2.7 billion, and currently it is €521 million. This doesn't change the enormous increase in the value of the clubs since the first report in 2016; the cumulative enterprise value of the 32 largest European clubs has grown by 146 percent since then.

Smaller top clubs shine in transfers

While the top 10 clubs generate almost half of their revenue from commercial activities, transfer strategies play a key role in sustainable growth for the smaller top clubs, as can be seen in the examples of Benfica Lisbon and FC Porto. Benfica has a gross transfer balance of €678 million over the past ten years, while Ajax Amsterdam (€463 million) and Porto (€367 million) also performed particularly well. In contrast, Manchester United (-€1.2 billion), Chelsea FC (-€1.0 billion), and Paris Saint-Germain (-€979 million) are posting particularly large losses.

Sartori praises German clubs

The evaluation is based primarily on club finances, social media analysis, player evaluation, and talent development in the youth sector. From a German perspective, it's interesting to note that FC Bayern Munich has grown in value by 99 percent over the past decade, while Borussia Dortmund has grown by 181 percent.

While the Munich club, see above, recorded a profit over the evaluation phase, BVB recorded a slight loss of €9 million and the Hesse club also recorded a profit of €27 million. "Despite increasing competition, the German clubs are on a stable financial foundation thanks to careful management," Sartori praises the Bundesliga clubs' economic approach.

kicker