Forbes ranks Juventus as the 11th most valuable club in the world

Over the last couple of years since Juventus made its biggest acquisition in decades and signed Cristianp Ronaldo, we’ve heard a lot about the club as a brand almost as much as how they’re playing on the field. There were simply more eyeballs on Juventus after July 10, 2018, than there were before that day three summer transfer windows ago.

More eyeballs means more opportunities for commercial exposure, more commercial revenue and simply growth of a club that has its sights set on getting back into the elite of the elite of European football.

Forbes released its list of world football’s most valuable clubs earlier this week. And unlike last year when Juventus could declare itself as part of the exclusive top 10 mast valuable clubs in the world, this time around they come in just outside of it. Forbes has Juventus ranked as the 11th most valuable club in the world at $1.95 billion (note that it’s dollars and not euros), the leader in the clubhouse for Serie A — which is not a surprise at all — and part of a four-team group of Italians between 11 and 20.

Here’s the complete top 20 — which is obviously dominated by who you would think would dominate it — and takes a couple of lines to get to the club we root for around here:

Forbes

Forbes

(Just as a sidenote: I am always amused that we continue to see an old crest when Juventus comes up in some of these rankings. And not just an old crest, but one we haven’t seen in nearly two decades AND has just two stars to go with it.

When you compare this season’s rankings to the ones we saw right at the early stages of the pandemic last year, there’s basically one main difference: Paris Saint-Germain is in the top 10, and Juventus has dropped out of the top 10. That’s the simple way of saying it, and when there’s very little movement outside of who’s in the top 10 outside of those two clubs, then there’s going to be a little more attention on the club that dropped a few spots.

That’s not really a sign of Forbes’ valuation of Juventus as a club as a whole despite the recent news about how the Bianconeri’s finances are looking rather grim after the midyear report was made public at the end of February. In fact, Juve’s value has gone up quite a bit since the 2020 rankings.

• 2020 value: $1.51 billion
• 2021 value: $1.95 billion

In case you don’t want to do the math, that’s an increase over the course of two years of 29 percent. Now, Forbes also points out that Juventus’ debt/value ratio is at 16 percent — which is one of the highest totals of any of the clubs ranked in the top 20 this year — so it’s not like everything is all grand and wonderful. (Roma’s is at the very top at 56 (!!) percent, by the way.)

Obviously this is going to be a summer of change and to what extent we’re not sure of at this moment. There is a very good chance that big names leave, and how much that might impact the club’s standing and value will be very interesting to see in a year or two no matter who is still around from the current roster.