The most valuable Italian footballer in September 2026 is Sandro Tonali of Tottenham Hotspur, valued at €80 million by Transfermarkt. Alessandro Bastoni of Inter is second on €65 million and Riccardo Calafiori of Arsenal is third on €55 million. Pio Esposito, Federico Dimarco and Nicolò Barella share fourth place on €50 million each, followed by Gianluigi Donnarumma, Michael Kayode, Giorgio Scalvini and Marco Palestra.
Now read the club column. Five of the ten play in England. Four of the other five play for Inter. Serie A still builds Italy’s most valuable footballers. The Premier League increasingly owns them.
Who are the ten most valuable Italian players in September 2026?
| Rank | Player | Club | Position | Age | Market value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sandro Tonali | Tottenham Hotspur | Defensive midfield | 26 | €80m |
| 2 | Alessandro Bastoni | Inter | Centre-back | 27 | €65m |
| 3 | Riccardo Calafiori | Arsenal | Left-back | 24 | €55m |
| 4= | Pio Esposito | Inter | Centre-forward | 21 | €50m |
| 4= | Federico Dimarco | Inter | Left-back | 28 | €50m |
| 4= | Nicolò Barella | Inter | Central midfield | 29 | €50m |
| 7 | Gianluigi Donnarumma | Manchester City | Goalkeeper | 27 | €45m |
| 8 | Michael Kayode | Brentford | Right-back | 22 | €40m |
| 9 | Giorgio Scalvini | Atalanta | Centre-back | 22 | €38m |
| 10 | Marco Palestra | Chelsea | Right-back | 21 | €35m |
The ten are worth €508 million between them. Only one, Scalvini, plays for a Serie A club other than Inter.
How does Transfermarkt decide what a player is worth?
A Transfermarkt market value is an estimate of what a player would fetch on the market, built from age, contract length, form, international status and recent comparable deals. It is not a fee anyone has paid, which is why real transfers can land well above it, as Chelsea showed this summer.
Most of the figures on this page come from Transfermarkt’s end-of-season review, dated 29 May and 3 June 2026. Esposito’s is the exception, revised on 22 September 2026. Clubs are shown as they stood after the summer 2026 window closed. For the same exercise across every nationality in the league, see our ranking of the most valuable players in Serie A.
Why is each player in the top ten?
Why is Sandro Tonali Italy’s most valuable player?
Tonali has sat on €80 million since March 2026, when Sky Sport Italia reported he had joined Bastoni on that figure. What changed this summer is the price. Tottenham announced his signing from Newcastle on 6 July 2026, on a contract to 2032 under Roberto De Zerbi. The Italian press put the fee between €100 million and €116 million including add-ons, depending on the outlet. On any of those numbers it is the most expensive transfer of an Italian player in history, ahead of Retegui’s record move to Al-Qadsiah.
Why did Alessandro Bastoni drop to €65 million?
Bastoni was joint leader on €80 million in March 2026. Transfermarkt cut him to €65 million on 29 May 2026, and that cost him top spot outright. He is still Italy’s most valuable centre-back, with 43 caps and an Inter contract that runs to June 2028. He has been at the club since 2017.
What is Riccardo Calafiori worth at Arsenal?
Calafiori is worth €55 million, up from €50 million in March after Transfermarkt’s 3 June 2026 review. He is one of four players in the top ten who rose in that end-of-season update. Transfermarkt lists him as a left-back, which tells you how Arsenal use him. He joined from Bologna in July 2024 and is under contract until 2029.
How did Pio Esposito jump to €50 million?
Esposito is the biggest riser on the list. He was worth €35 million in March, and on 22 September 2026 Transfermarkt moved him to €50 million. He is 21, has 10 caps and five goals for Italy, and is tied to Inter until 2032. He is also the only centre-forward in the top ten. The next Italian striker is Moise Kean, at €32 million. His profile is now big enough that even Gazzetta’s choice of Kean over Esposito for its Italy defeat cover became a story of its own.
Why are Federico Dimarco and Nicolò Barella level on €50 million?
They arrived at the same number from opposite directions. Dimarco held steady at €50 million through the end-of-season review. At 28 he has 38 caps and an Inter contract to June 2028.
Barella is the clearest faller in the top ten. In March 2025 he topped this ranking at €75 million. By March 2026 he was down to €60 million, and on 29 May 2026 Transfermarkt took him to €50 million. He turns 30 in February 2027, and age weighs on every market value. With 71 caps he is still the most capped outfield player on the list, and his contract runs to 2029. Together with Bastoni and Esposito, the pair give Inter four of Italy’s ten most valuable players, a direct product of Inter’s run at the top of Italian football.
Is Gianluigi Donnarumma still Italy’s most valuable goalkeeper?
Yes, by a distance. Donnarumma is valued at €45 million, and the next Italian goalkeeper, Atalanta’s Marco Carnesecchi, sits on €30 million. Donnarumma joined Manchester City on 1 September 2025, is under contract until 2030 and has 84 caps.
Why are Michael Kayode and Giorgio Scalvini rising so fast?
Both jumped in Transfermarkt’s end-of-season review. Kayode went from €27 million in March to €40 million in June. The right-back has been at Brentford since July 2025, is signed until 2032 and, according to Transfermarkt, is still waiting for his first senior cap. That makes him the only uncapped player in the top ten.
Scalvini rose from €25 million to €38 million. At 22 he is the most valuable Italian at any Serie A club outside Inter. He has been at Atalanta since 2021, has nine caps and is under contract until 2028.
Why did Chelsea pay €60 million for a €35 million Marco Palestra?
Palestra shows the gap between a valuation and a price better than anyone. Transfermarkt values him at €35 million. Chelsea paid Atalanta around €60 million including bonuses, confirmed by Atalanta on 1 July 2026, after a season on loan at Cagliari in which he played 37 league games and was named Serie A Defender of the Year for 2025/26. Inter had worked on the deal too, and Corriere dello Sport and Eurosport both reported that Chelsea outbid them on the fee and on wages. He signed until 2033.
Which Italian players dropped out of the top ten in 2026?
Four names from the January 2026 version of this ranking are gone. Moise Kean fell from €45 million in March to €32 million and now sits 11th. He left Fiorentina for Como on 1 September 2026, on a loan with an obligation to buy reported at €35 million plus €5 million in bonuses. Kean scored 27 Serie A goals in two seasons in Florence, 19 of them in 2024/25, and now leads the line for Cesc Fàbregas’s Como.
Mateo Retegui, now at Al-Qadsiah, dropped from €40 million to €30 million. Destiny Udogie of Tottenham fell by the same amount. Alessandro Buongiorno of Napoli took the heaviest cut, from €45 million to €25 million.
The pattern is easy to read. Every player in the top ten whose value rose in 2026 is 24 or younger, and four of those five are defenders. The market is betting on Italy’s next generation, and it is betting on the back line.
Why do half of Italy’s most valuable players play in England?
Because that is where the money is. This summer, Tottenham and Chelsea spent at least €160 million between them on Tonali and Palestra, and the one Serie A club that bid for Palestra, Inter, lost. Add Calafiori at Arsenal, Donnarumma at Manchester City and Kayode at Brentford, and five of Italy’s ten most valuable players draw their wages in the Premier League. They follow a long line of Italians who built careers abroad before them.
Serie A’s answer sits in one dressing room. Inter hold four of the ten, including the one Italian striker the market rates at the top level. Outside Inter, only Scalvini makes the cut.
None of this is a verdict on quality. It is a record of where the money sits in September 2026, for a national team that missed the 2026 World Cup and is rebuilding around these names. To see who Roberto Mancini is actually picking, read which Serie A clubs supply Mancini’s Italy squad in 2026/27.
What else do fans ask about Italian player values?
Who is the most expensive Italian transfer ever?
Sandro Tonali, who joined Tottenham Hotspur from Newcastle on 6 July 2026 for a fee reported between €100 million and €116 million including add-ons. For the moves that followed, follow our latest Serie A transfer news.
Who is the most valuable Italian player in Serie A?
Alessandro Bastoni of Inter, valued at €65 million by Transfermarkt. Pio Esposito, Federico Dimarco and Nicolò Barella, all at Inter, follow on €50 million each.
Who is the most valuable young Italian player?
Pio Esposito, 21, valued at €50 million. Marco Palestra (21, €35m), Michael Kayode (22, €40m) and Giorgio Scalvini (22, €38m) complete the under-23 group in the top ten. For the league-wide picture, see Serie A’s best young players.
Which club has the most valuable Italian players?
Inter, with four of the top ten: Bastoni, Esposito, Dimarco and Barella. No other club has more than one.
Serie A still makes Italy’s most valuable players. The question for 2026/27 is how many of them it can keep long enough to see them peak.
Last updated: 28 September 2026. Market values: Transfermarkt.
