By Alexander Ramírez Tápanes
Transfermarkt is a German website that — as an essential task — is responsible for collecting an immense amount of statistical data on soccer players and clubs almost all over the world. The portal has become one of the most used consultation platforms in the soccer world when it comes to scouting, keeping up to date with the transfer market, checking scores, results and value of the players.
This last aspect is determined based on a series of factors. According to research carried out in 2019 by Diario AS, the aspects to be taken into account by the administrators and operators of the portal when generating the market value of a player are their previous transfers, age, potential for the future, position they occupy on the field, current performance at club and national team level, institutional situation of their club, physical condition, regularity in terms of injuries, interest from other clubs, professional career and experience, international prestige, salary, hierarchy within of club and their potential as an advertising brand.
Depending on the variation of these aspects, from time to time, the value of the players changes. So today we are going to find out who are the five Cuban soccer players best valued by Transfermarkt in its latest update.
- Luis Paradela and Marcel Hernández
In fifth position are found — with similar market value — two of the Cuban players who have grabbed the most headlines in recent years. Coincidentally, both are active in soccer in Costa Rica. They are the attackers Luis Paradela and Marcel Hernández, who have a market value of 350,000 euros.
Paradela, a versatile offensive player who defends the colors of Deportivo Saprissa — current league champion —, due to his age (26 years) and his potential, has all the ballots to continue raising his market value in the coming years.
For his part, Marcel Hernández, striker for Cartaginés who can boast his credentials as the top foreign scorer in the history of soccer in that country, despite his 34 years of age, remains solid among the best players on the circuit and has managed to maintain this value. market for several years.
- Christian Joel Sánchez
With a value of 500,000 euros, Christian Joel Sánchez, a 24-year-old goalkeeper owned by the Spanish club Sporting de Gijón, is presented as the fourth best-valued Cuban soccer player by Transfermarkt this year.
Formed in the youth ranks of the Asturian club, Christian Joel has not been able to establish himself in the first team of the Sporting de Gijón team. In the most recent years of his career, he has been on loan to clubs inside and outside Spanish territory, Celta de Vigo being the most notorious of them.
- César Munder
The third most valued Cuban soccer player by Transfermarkt is César Munder, who has an estimated value of 550,000 euros and — since he is only 23 years old — the possibilities of continuing to increase his figures in this section are quite big.
Born in Havana, Munder immigrated to Chile at the age of 12 and trained in the youth ranks of Universidad Católica, one of the biggest clubs in the Andean nation. There he made his debut and — in the beginning — had a great media boom under the label of young promise.
Although he has not managed to establish himself with the university club, under this entity he became the first Cuban soccer player to play in the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Sudamericana. To this day, the Cuban-Chilean winger is on loan at Cobresal, a club from the First Division of that country.
- Maikel Chang
Second place on this list is Maikel Chang, a talented 32-year-old midfielder who plays for Real Salt Lake in Major League Soccer (MLS) and has a market value of 600,000 euros.
After leaving the island in 2012, the Havana-born soccer player entered soccer in the United States, where he played in the USL Championship — the second most important circuit in the country — with the Charleston Battery and the Real Monarchs, the latter club with the one he managed to proclaim himself champion of the competition in 2019.
His performances aroused the attention of Real Salt Lake, the MLS franchise he has been associated with since 2020.
- Onel Hernández
And the Cuban soccer player best valued by Transfermarket has been, for several years, Onel Hernández. Although his market value is far from the 4 million euros with which he was valued in 2019, even at 30 years old, the Norwich City player continues to lead this section among Cuban players.
Despite the fact that injuries and surgical interventions have caused continuous ups and downs in his career, having remained a member of a club that fluctuates between the Championship and the Premier League, the native of Morón has become the most relevant Cuban soccer player in recent years.
