Hector Bellerin rated Europe's most valuable defender in Football Observatory report as Barcelona target Arsenal star

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James Benge1 June 2016

Hector Bellerin has been rated the most valuable defender in world football by the CIES Football Observatory as Barcelona plot to steal the full-back from Arsenal.

The 21-year-old is the Spanish giants number one choice to replace Dani Alves should the Brazilian transfer to Juventus as is widely expected. However Arsenal remain reluctant to lose one of world football’s outstanding young prospects and will be in a strong position to negotiate, having tied Bellerin to a four year contract last summer.

Bellerin, called up to Vicente del Bosque’s Euro 2016 squad on Tuesday only two days after making his international debut, is valued at £43.1million by CIES’ metrics for analysing a player’s worth – a figure not matched by any other full-back in world football.

The most valuable centre-back on the list is Bayern Munich’s David Alaba, whose value is estimated at £37.5m. CIES, a research group founded in Switzerland in 2005, claim that the correlation between their algorithm, which takes into account a player’s age, performances, contract length and experience among other factors, and transfer fees paid for players in Europe’s top five leagues has been 80 per cent since 2013.

Arsenal players who moved to Barcelona

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It places a hefty price tag on Bellerin, who has only been a regular in Arsenal’s first team since January 2015 after a serious injury to Mathieu Debuchy. Were Barcelona to pay such a fee for their former youth product it make the full-back the fourth most expensive player in Nou Camp history, behind only Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Luis Suarez and Neymar.

Bellerin has offered little indication that he would consider departing the Emirates, though he described interest from his former club as “nice” last week.

In May Bellerin once more professed his happiness in London, where he swiftly settled on his arrival as a 17-year-old in 2011.

“I say every year that England is my home now,” Bellerin said.

“I've lived there for many years; my family and my girlfriend are there. I'm very happy there so I don't see myself anywhere other than Arsenal.”

No Premier League defender provided more assists than Bellerin in the 2015-16 season and he continued that form in Spain’s friendly win over South Korea on Wednesday, providing an assist for Nolito in a 6-1 victory.

The Arsenal defender is set to battle with Atletico Madrid’s Juanfran for the starting spot in holders Spain’s first game of Euro 2016, against Croatia in Bordeaux.

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