Full Report: Squad Market Value Per Capita at the 2026 World Cup
Sportingpedia released its population, creating a value-per-capita metric that highlights how efficiently countries convert their available talent pool into elite footballers. Instead of relying on raw squad value alone, this approach reveals which nations produce the most football value relative to their population size. Larger countries naturally have a broader base of players to draw from, while smaller nations operate with far tighter margins, making their results on this scale especially revealing. The findings present a dramatically different picture from the traditional squad-value table. Curacao leads the ranking at €135.68 per resident, followed by Uruguay at €116.07 and Cape Verde at €108.49, while Norway, Croatia, and Portugal emerge as Europe’s strongest performers. At the opposite end of the table, Iran ranks last at €0.34 per resident, creating a nearly 400-fold gap between the top and bottom positions.
Brazil Is An Interesting Test Case
One of the most striking contrasts comes from Brazil. Despite bringing the sixth-most valuable squad to the tournament at €943.20 million, the nation ranks only 35th on a per-capita basis, producing just €4.42 per resident. The three co-hosts also fall into the lower half of the table, with Canada ranking 33rd at €4.88, Mexico 41st at €1.46, and the United States 44th at €1.10. Portugal stands out as the only billion-euro squad to place near the top of the list, ranking sixth with €97.12 per resident, while other major European powers such as France, England, Spain, and Germany remain below €26 per resident. Only four nations fall below €1 per resident: Egypt at €0.97, South Africa at €0.75, Iraq at €0.44, and Iran at €0.34.
The Bottomline
These results highlight how dramatically the football landscape shifts when population size is factored into squad value. Curacao, Uruguay, and Cape Verde demonstrate exceptional efficiency in producing elite talent relative to their population, while several global heavyweights appear far lower in the rankings than expected. The value-per-capita approach offers a fresh perspective on global football development, revealing which nations maximize their talent potential and which rely more heavily on sheer population size. As the 2026 World Cup approaches, this metric adds a new layer of context to the tournament, showcasing the diverse pathways nations take to build competitive squads on the world stage.
