Benjamin Šeško.
That’s the name on everyone’s list this morning. The wonderkid from Slovenia scored a sumptuous volley against Sweden in the Nations League, and fans can’t stop drooling over him.
The forward has directly been involved in 4 goals in the last 3 games for his country, all before even finishing his teen years.
Šeško has represented Slovenia right from the U15 age group, gradually progressing and finally making his senior team debut in June 2021 against North Macedonia.
On the club football front, Šeško signed his first professional contract in 2019 with Reb Bull Salzburg of the Austrian league at the age of 16.
Three years later, on August 9 2022, RB Leipzig of the Bundesliga announced that the forward would move to them for a reported fee of €24 million in 2023.
English titans Manchester United were also rumoured to be interested in the player, with reports of a fee as high as €50 million on offer. The 19-year-old, however, chose the German club over United.
With a transfer already agreed, Šeško is playing relatively stress-free, as can be seen already, with 5 goals in 13 games for Salzburg.
Performances like these though are only going to attract attention from bigger clubs. Keep this up and the likes of Madrid and Bayern other big English sides will come calling.
So it is natural to ask, what is the current market value of Benjamin Šeško?
Various databases and statisticians calculate a player’s value in the market, taking into consideration age, performances, peers and more.
Popular website FotMob value the centre-forward at only €9.5 million.
FootbalTransfers too rate him only at €10.4 million.
These pages are updated in intervals though, and not on a daily basis, which may explain the low market value.
TransferMarkt, on the other hand, doubled the value of the player from May 2022 to September 2022, settling on €20 million, which seems far more realistic and in line with what Leipzig is paying.
Another website, AIScore, updated its valuation last week and increased it to €20 million.
Still, this valuation is much lower than some others in the same age group. Jude Bellingham (Dortmund) and Pedri (Barcelona), both 19, have a value of a whopping €90 million.
Harvey Elliott (Liverpool) is valued at a more reasonable, but still more than Sesko, €35 million.
So why so less? Nationality and the league and the team that the players represent play a huge part in determining one’s market value.
Players playing in Spain, England or Germany’s premier leagues are bound to have a higher market value just due to the sheer competition, as opposed to relatively simpler Austrian or Belgian leagues.
The player’s move to Germany next year and his subsequent performances are bound to affect his value in a great way.
We need not look far to see how his valuation might change. Sesko is often called “The Next Haaland” and the similarities are more than just the fact that they both are forwards.
The pair played for Red Bull Salzburg before eventually moving to Germany at the age of 19.
When Haaland was aged 19, in 2019, he was valued at a meagre €12 million. However, his blockbuster performances meant his valuation had grown 6-fold to €80 million in just one year.
By his next birthday, the Norwegian, now playing for Dortmund, had already surpassed expectations in Bundesliga, leading to a market value of €150 million!
If Sesko manages to walk in Haaland’s footsteps, the sky is the limit for the Slovenian’s market valuation.
Based on his performances this year, he is on the right track and by the looks of it, RB Leipzig has struck gold with this investment.
