Mokio's €52.9 million valuation puts Ajax in the spotlight

The 18‑year‑old Belgian midfielder Jorthy Mokio is given by the Swiss CIES Football Observatory an estimated transfer value of €52.9 million, which currently places him in second place among the most valuable U20 players active worldwide outside the five biggest European leagues.

Top three outside the big leagues

In second place is Mokio, followed by the 18‑year‑old Polish player Oskar Pietuszewski of FC Porto, who is estimated by CIES at €56.3 million. The third place is taken by Mateus Mané of Wolverhampton with a value of €46.1 million.

The CIES model looks not only at performance, but also at age, contract length, minutes played, previous transfer fees and the club’s transfer strategy. In doing so, the five biggest leagues are completely filtered out, so that players from smaller leagues are assessed on an equal footing.

Mokio moved in 2024, at sixteen years of age, from KAA Gent to Ajax and soon broke into the first team. In April he extended his contract until mid‑2031, after which he had played almost fifty official matches for the Rotterdam club. For the Belgian Mokio this is an important milestone.

Belgian names in the top ten

Alongside Mokio, Anderlecht defender Mihajlo Cvetkovic, a nineteen‑year‑old Serbian, is in ninth place with an estimated value of €28.8 million. Aaron Bouwman, a defender of Ajax, also appears in eighth place with a valuation of €30.4 million.

The top five is rounded out by João Simões of Sporting (€43.2 million) and Álvaro Montoro of Botafogo (€39.3 million). This ranking shows that talents from the Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium and South America are compared with each other, because the five big leagues have been fully filtered out. This provides a fairer comparison between clubs operating outside the traditional elite.

Mokio’s valuation confirms his rapid development and underscores the attention European clubs give to young Belgian players. It remains to be seen whether Ajax will actually realise a transfer of €52.9 million, while the ranking also serves as a reference for future transfers of young talents.