Determinants of players’ economic valuation: a structural equation model of the five major European football leagues

Introduction Football player ratings contain overlapping attributes, but it remains unclear how these attributes form broader capabilities and how those capabilities relate to different economic outcomes across positions. Methods We analyzed 2024/2025 SoFIFA data for 2,471 outfield players from 96 clubs in Europe's five major leagues; goalkeepers were analyzed separately. Exploratory factor analysis followed by exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) identified four data-informed dimensions: Defense, Shooting-Dribbling Skill, Pace, and AerialStrength. A dual-outcome model estimated log-transformed market value and weekly wage simultaneously, adjusting for age, height, weight, international reputation, position, and league, with club-robust standard errors. Results All four dimensions were positively associated with market value ( β = .23–.61) and wage ( β = .11–.28), but they added 22.5 percentage points of explained variance to value versus 6.0 to wage. Associations also differed between midfielders and forwards. Negative direct associations of height and weight with value were offset by positive indirect associations, mainly through AerialStrength. Overall rating, Potential, Age, and Position reconstructed 99.7% of the variance in SoFIFA estimated market value. Discussion The findings describe SoFIFA's internal valuation structure rather than club pricing and show that market value and wage are related but non-interchangeable.