ManU "leapfrogged" Barcelona and Real Madrid to become the "most valuable football club in the world -- and the third in all of sport," according to Daniel Matthews of the London DAILY MAIL. Only the NFL Dallas Cowboys £3.25B ($4.2B) and the MLB New York Yankees £2.86B ($3.7B) are worth more than the Premier League outfit, Forbes calculated. ManU is valued at £2.85B ($3.69B), up 11% from £2.57B in '16. The club climbed from fifth to third in Forbes' top 50 rankings. Rival Liverpool, meanwhile, is one of two sides (alongside the NBA Houston Rockets) that "dropped off the list." Arsenal fell 20 places and lost 4% of its value, a decline Forbes "put down to a fall in the value of the pound following last June's Brexit vote." The team that enjoyed the biggest climb, incidentally, was the NFL L.A. Rams -- a team owned by Arsenal majority shareholder Stan Kroenke (
DAILY MAIL, 7/13). ESPN.com's Adriana Garcia reported ManU's climb is "a testament to their powerful brand and marketing acumen," according to Forbes, as no football team brought in more advertising and sponsorship revenue than the club's $405M. Helping Barcelona's rise was the kit deal extension it signed last year with Nike, which is worth at least $168M annually from '18-23. That figure broke ManU's previous record $111M per year deal with adidas. Bayern Munich, worth a reported $2.71B, is in 15th place, while Man City is 35th with a $2.71B valuation (
ESPN.com, 7/13). The full list from Forbes is
available here.
