Francesc Pujol. PHOTO: Manuel Castells

FC Barcelona and Leo Messi bid farewell to the season with yet another degree scroll to their credit. Both the Catalan team and its Argentine star are at the top of the ranking of the most mediatic, conducted by the group of research in Economics, Sports and Intangibles of the University of Navarra. This is the result of the latest report presented today in Barcelona by professors Francesc Pujol (University of Navarra) and Pedro García del Barrio(International University of Catalonia).

The study also highlights the rise among coaches of Real Madrid's new manager, Mourinho. Lastly, sample states that the Spanish national team is the most mediatized of all those participating in the World Cup in South Africa.

The issue 19 of Barcelona, Leo Messi, is already the most mediatic player of 2009-2010 with 22.3 points. Thus, he repeats issue 1 of the ranking and leaves behind him players like Cristiano Ronaldo, with 17.8 points, or the Brazilian Kaka, also of Real Madrid, who completes the podium with 12.7. Manchester United's Rooney, Liverpool's Torres and Bayern Munich's Ribery occupy the following positions with 12.6, 12.4 and 12.0 points, respectively.

In the team standings, Pep Guardiola's team also took first place place and did so by a large margin, with 103.3 points. Florentino's Real Madrid scored 74.5 points, moving up from sixth place, which it occupied last season, to second.

The bronze goes to Inter Milan, which climbs to third place with 55.7 points after the Champions League triumph. The results of the latest report of group also point to Manchester United as the season's big loser, dropping from 86 to 47.6 points in media value.
 

José Mourinho, first place among coaches

Among the coaches, there is a new leader who has overtaken Sir Alex Ferguson of Manchester United. This is José Mourinho, who after winning a hat-trick with Inter Milan and becoming the new manager of Madrid has 38.9 points. In second place is Alex Ferguson with 30.7 points and Pep Guardiola with 23.8 points.

Finally, according to data of media value for the 2009/10 season, in the South Africa World Cup the Spanish national team has consolidated its position as the most popular of all those competing in the sporting event. In fact, the players of "la roja" accumulated 72.8 points of media value. It becomes the team that accumulates, a priori, the most sporting talent. In second and third place, respectively, is England with 59.7 points of media value and Argentina with 50.5 points. They are followed by France, Brazil and Portugal. In terms of players, Spain's top star is Fernando Torres. However, the Spanish and German national teams are the least dependent on their main star, so that the quality of the team takes precedence over individuality. At the other extreme are Cameroon, Portugal, Ivory Coast and Argentina.

Media value and revenue, an equivalent relationship

The group at Economics, Sports and Intangibles of the University of Navarra studies the media value of more than 7,000 professional soccer players from the main European leagues and Argentina and Brazil through issue of appearances in the written press throughout the season in the world's media. It is complemented with information on their presence on the Internet, excluding the contents generated in social networks.

On this occasion, the authors of the fifth annual report were Francesc Pujol, professor at the School of Economics and Business Administration at the University of Navarra, and Pedro García del Barrio, professor at the School of Economics and Social Sciences at the International University of Catalonia.

"Media value is the main intangible asset of professional sports. sample deadline As can be seen empirically at report, the relationship between media value and club revenues is almost direct," says Pedro García del Barrio.

Using the proprietary method of evaluation of assets based on their media value, ESI has calculated the market price of the 20 most media-worthy footballers. According to these calculations, the most valuable player is Messi, with 77 million euros, followed by Cristiano Ronaldo (72 million), Wayne Rooney (66 million), Fernando Torres (64 million) and Cesc Fàbregas (60 million).

All the work done so far confirms the close relationship between talent and sporting success and the level of media value achieved by footballers and their clubs. Only in the case of sporting scandals can the most media-worthy player be made so by negative news, as has happened, for example, with the doping in a recent edition of the Tour de France.

This status also occurs in the case of referees in the BBVA league, where the media value has been estimated and it has been found that there is a greater issue of news about errors and controversies than about good refereeing. "This is a worrying result that should be corrected by the refereeing profession itself or the Professional Football League, for example, by providing regular data reports on the top-ranked referees each month", explained Professor Francesc Pujol.

Interview with Professor Francesc Pujol on 98.3 Radio: