Real Madrid is the second team\u2014from any sport\u2014to cross $1 billion in revenue, cementing its place atop a table of 30 clubs collectively worth $72 billion.<\/p>\n
The coronation is beginning to feel routine: For the fourth year in a row, and the ninth time in the past 12 editions of Forbes\u2019 ranking, Spain\u2019s Real Madrid is the world\u2019s most valuable soccer team, worth $6.75 billion\u2014a 2% increase over 2024. This time, however, the club has a new jewel in its crown.<\/p>\n
During the 2023-24 season, Los Blancos posted $1.13 billion in revenue, becoming the first soccer team to hit the ten-figure threshold in a single year. In fact, only one other team in any sport has crossed the $1 billion revenue barrier: the NFL\u2019s Dallas Cowboys, who first did so in 2021<\/a> and subsequently climbed to $1.2 billion in 2023, according to Forbes estimates. Manchester City of England\u2019s Premier League, with $901 million in revenue in 2023-24, is the closest any other soccer team has come.<\/p>\n But it is the other team from Manchester\u2014Manchester United\u2014that is nearest to Real Madrid with its valuation, at $6.6 billion, maintaining its lead on another Spanish powerhouse, Barcelona, which sits third in the financial standings at $5.65 billion.<\/p>\n Together, the 30 most valuable soccer teams are worth more than $72 billion, or an average of $2.4 billion, up 5% from 2024\u2019s record $2.26 billion<\/a>. The list includes 12 teams from the Premier League, four from Italy\u2019s Serie A, three from Spain\u2019s La Liga, two from Germany\u2019s Bundesliga and one from France\u2019s Ligue 1. There are also eight teams from Major League Soccer, although none rank higher than No. 15 LAFC, at $1.25 billion.<\/p>\n European clubs benefit from continental competitions that offer hefty payouts tied to how far teams advance. For instance, Real Madrid\u2019s money-making machine got a boost last year from the club\u2019s run to the UEFA Champions League title, which came with $154 million in prize money<\/a>. The Europa League purse is not as lofty, but 2024 champion Atalanta still earned roughly $38 million\u2014good news for Manchester United, which sank to 16th in the Premier League standings this season but managed to advance to the continental tournament final.<\/p>\n The Red Devils also benefit, of course, from one of the strongest brands in all of sports and a massive global fan base, built over two decades of dominance in the 1990s and 2000s. Likewise, Real Madrid has international appeal\u2014and lucrative commercial partnerships to match\u2014and just as important, the club recently completed a renovation of its Santiago Bernab\u00e9u Stadium<\/a> for a reported $1.9 billion, which should turbocharge its match-day revenue, including ticket sales.<\/p>\n But while Real Madrid\u2019s revenue total is similar to the Cowboys\u2019, the club\u2019s valuation trails Dallas\u2019 $10.1 billion by more than $3 billion. The discrepancy is a function of the leagues\u2019 differing revenue multiples, reflecting the enthusiasm of sports investors and the prospects of future revenue growth. Forbes\u2019 most recent NFL valuations<\/a>, published in September, carried an average multiple of 9 times revenue\u2014and the NBA was even higher<\/a>, at 11.7x. By contrast, the 22 European soccer clubs valued by Forbes are worth an average of $2.9 billion on revenue of $570 million, for a multiple of 5.1.<\/p>\n Different teams, countries and leagues across Europe have their own specific challenges, including significant debt, restrictive ownership requirements, underwhelming rises (or even declines) in media rights fees, and bureaucratic red tape that makes stadium improvements difficult<\/a>. In addition, across the entire continent, there is no salary cap to keep spending in check, teams must live in fear of relegation if they have a down season, and the sports culture generally tends to be resistant to the monetization of clubs, with fans frequently protesting ticket price increases. In December, for example, supporters of the Premier League\u2019s Liverpool, Everton, Manchester United and Manchester City joined forces in demonstrations against price hikes, and Liverpool and City later announced that they would freeze costs for next season.<\/p>\n The multiples in MLS, where the average team is valued at 9.3 times revenue<\/a>, suggest more optimism and explain why the LA Galaxy, at $1 billion, are worth $100 million more than Aston Villa of the Premier League despite recording less than a third as much revenue last season ($95 million vs. $343 million).<\/p>\n Still, even if the growth is slower than in some North American leagues, European teams continue to appreciate. Leading the way year-over-year are the Premier League\u2019s Arsenal and Newcastle United, which saw their revenue spike and are up 31% and 38% from 2024\u2019s list of the most valuable teams, respectively, to $3.4 billion and $1.1 billion.<\/p>\n All teams will hope to get a boost from the expanded Club World Cup, which kicks off next month in the United States, and 2026\u2019s FIFA World Cup, which is also set to be played on North American soil and should drive broad interest in soccer. Among individual clubs, Inter Milan and Paris Saint-Germain could be in line for a jump next year\u2014whichever team wins Saturday\u2019s Champions League final will pocket an extra $28 million.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Barcelona is following in Real Madrid\u2019s footsteps with a renovation of its Camp Nou stadium that is expected to be completed by next summer. The upgrade could help it similarly threaten the $1 billion revenue barrier.<\/p>\n On the field and off, El Cl\u00e1sico may be soccer\u2019s fiercest rivalry.<\/p>\n The World\u2019s Most Valuable Soccer Teams\n<\/p>\n #1. $6.75 billion<\/p>\n One-Year Change: 2% | League: Spanish La Liga | Owners: Club members | Revenue: $1.129 billion<\/p>\n Maria Gracia Jimenez\/Soccrates\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #2. $6.6 billion<\/p>\n One-Year Change: 1% | League: English Premier League | Owners: Glazer family<\/a>, Jim Ratcliffe<\/a> | Revenue: $834 million<\/p>\n Alex Dodd\/CameraSport\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #3. $5.65 billion<\/p>\n One-Year Change: 1% | League: Spanish La Liga | Owners: Club members | Revenue: $821 million<\/p>\n Stefan Matzke\/sampics\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #4. $5.4 billion<\/p>\n One-Year Change: 1% | League: English Premier League | Owners: John Henry<\/a>, Tom Werner<\/a> | Revenue: $773 million<\/p>\n #5. $5.3 billion<\/p>\n One-Year Change: 4% | League: English Premier League | Owner: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan | Revenue: $901 million One-Year Change: 2% | League: German Bundesliga | Owners: Club members | Revenue: $827 million<\/p>\n Image Photo Agency\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #7. $4.6 billion<\/p>\n One-Year Change: 5% | League: French Ligue 1 | Owner: Qatar Sports Investments | Revenue: $870 million<\/p>\n Aurelien Meunier\/PSG\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #8. $3.4 billion<\/p>\n One-Year Change: 31% | League: English Premier League | Owner: Stanley Kroenke<\/a> | Revenue: $771 million One-Year Change: 3% | League: English Premier League | Owners: Joseph Lewis Family Trust<\/a>, Daniel Levy | Revenue: $666 million One-Year Change: 4% | League: English Premier League | Owners: Todd Boehly<\/a>, Clearlake Capital | Revenue: $591 million One-Year Change: 5% | League: Italian Serie A | Owner: Agnelli family | Revenue: $389 million<\/p>\n Nicol\u00f2 Campo\/LightRocket\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #12. $2.05 billion<\/p>\n One-Year Change: 4% | League: German Bundesliga | Owners: Bernd Geske, Evonik Industries<\/a> | Revenue: $555 million<\/p>\n #13. $1.7 billion<\/p>\n One-Year Change: 6% | League: Spanish La Liga | Owners: Miguel Gil, Enrique Cerezo, Ares Management<\/a>, Idan Ofer<\/a> | Revenue: $442 million One-Year Change: 5% | League: Italian Serie A | Owner: RedBird Capital Partners | Revenue: $433 million One-Year Change: 4% | League: MLS | Owners: Bennett Rosenthal<\/a>, Brandon Beck<\/a>, Larry Berg, Peter Guber<\/a> | Revenue: $150 million<\/p>\n Jeff Dean\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #16. $1.2 billion<\/p>\n One-Year Change: 17% | League: MLS | Owners: Jorge Mas<\/a>, Jose Mas, David Beckham<\/a> | Revenue: $180 million One-Year Change: 15% | League: Italian Serie A | Owner: Oaktree Capital Management | Revenue: $430 million One-Year Change: 2% | League: English Premier League | Owners: David Sullivan, 1890s Holdings, David Gold Family Trust | Revenue: $349 million One-Year Change: 38% | League: English Premier League | Owner: Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund | Revenue: $403 million<\/p>\n George Wood\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #20. $1 billion<\/p>\n One-Year Change: 5% | League: MLS | Owner: Philip Anschutz<\/a> | Revenue: $95 million<\/p>\n #21. $975 million<\/p>\n One-Year Change: 8% | League: MLS | Owner: Arthur Blank<\/a> | Revenue: $105 million One-Year Change: 13% | League: English Premier League | Owners: Wes Edens<\/a>, Nassef Sawiris<\/a> | Revenue: $343 million<\/p>\n Cameron Smith\/Danehouse\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #23. $875 million<\/p>\n One-Year Change: 3% | League: MLS | Owners: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Steinbrenner family<\/a> | Revenue: $78 million One-Year Change: 18% | League: English Premier League | Owner: Tony Bloom | Revenue: $280 million One-Year Change: 8% | League: English Premier League | Owner: Shad Khan<\/a> | Revenue: $229 million One-Year Change: 10% | League: MLS | Owners: Anthony Precourt, Eddie Margain | Revenue: $90 million One-Year Change: not ranked in 2024 | League: Italian Serie A | Owner: Friedkin Group<\/a> | Revenue: $273 million<\/p>\n Giuseppe Maffia\/NurPhoto\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #28. $800 million<\/p>\n One-Year Change: 2% | League: MLS | Owner: Adrian Hanauer | Revenue: $83 million<\/p>\n #29. $790 million<\/p>\n One-Year Change: 1% | League: English Premier League | Owners: Eagle Football, Josh Harris<\/a>, David Blitzer<\/a>, Steve Parish | Revenue: $221 million One-Year Change: 1% | League: MLS | Owners: Jason Levien, Steven Kaplan | Revenue: $90 million Forbes\u2019 team valuations are enterprise values (equity plus net debt) based on historical transactions and the future economics of each league and each team. For teams based in Europe, revenue and operating income (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) reflect the 2023-24 season and are rounded to the nearest $1 million. For U.S. clubs, figures reflect the 2024 regular season and are taken from Forbes\u2019 annual MLS team valuations, published in February. <\/p>\n The team values include the economics of each team\u2019s stadium but not the value of the stadium real estate itself. Equity stakes in other sports-related assets and mixed-use real estate projects are also excluded.<\/p>\n Forbes excludes player trading and disposals of player registrations from its operating income and revenue tabulations. Debt is measured in terms of interest-bearing borrowings due in more than one year (including stadium debt). Because enterprise value is a capital-structure-neutral metric, it allows Forbes to compare teams with different debt and equity structures.<\/p>\n Where necessary, revenue and operating income numbers are converted to U.S. dollars based on the average exchange rate during the season (\u20ac1 = $1.08, \u00a31 = $1.26, \u00a31 = \u20ac1.16).<\/p>\n The information used to compile Forbes\u2019 valuations came from teams\u2019 annual reports and documents, team executives, soccer team investors, credit rating agency reports and sports bankers, as well as the annual Deloitte Football Money League report<\/a> and the soccer finance reporter known as Swiss Ramble<\/a>.<\/p>\n \nMORE FROM FORBESForbesThe Most Valuable MLS Teams 2025By Justin Birnbaum<\/a>ForbesThe Billionaire Who Brought Messi Magic To MiamiBy Justin Birnbaum<\/a>ForbesThe World\u2019s Most Profitable Sports Teams 2025By Brett Knight<\/a>ForbesThe World\u2019s 10 Highest-Paid Athletes 2025By Brett Knight<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real Madrid is the second team\u2014from any sport\u2014to cross $1 billion in revenue, cementing its place atop a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[11721,7,24523,24524,3368,7530,24522,24520,13032,24521,24525],"class_list":{"0":"post-91810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-football-most-valuable","11":"tag-football-team-values","12":"tag-liverpool","13":"tag-manchester-united","14":"tag-most-valuable-football-teams","15":"tag-most-valuable-soccer-teams","16":"tag-real-madrid","17":"tag-soccer-most-valuable","18":"tag-soccer-team-values"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114599347051820532","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n#6. $5.1 billion<\/p>\n
\n#9. $3.3 billion<\/p>\n
\n#10. $3.25 billion<\/p>\n
\n#11. $2.15 billion<\/p>\n
\n#14. $1.5 billion<\/p>\n
\n#15. $1.25 billion<\/p>\n
\n#17. $1.15 billion<\/p>\n
\n#18. $1.125 billion<\/p>\n
\n#19. $1.1 billion<\/p>\n
\n#22. $900 million<\/p>\n
\n#24. $860 million<\/p>\n
\n#25. $850 million<\/p>\n
\n#26. $825 million<\/p>\n
\n#27. $810 million<\/p>\n
\n#30. $785 million<\/p>\n
\nMETHODOLOGY<\/p>\n