Engels and Igamane among football’s most valuable recent signings

Celtic midfielder Arne Engels and Rangers forward Hamza Igamane have been included in a list of the 100 footballers with highest sell-on value.

New rankings from the CIES Football Observatory show the signings from the last two transfer windows with the biggest capital gains.

Engels, who signed for Celtic last August from FC Augsburg in a record £11mn transfer, is now estimated to be worth over €25mn, and ranks 82nd out of 100 recent signings in world football.

The CIES Football Observatory data shows that Celtic could net €12.5mn in transfer profit if they were to sell the Belgian international this summer.

99th on the list is Rangers’ Moroccan forward Hamza Igamane, who moved to Ibrox from Rabat club AS FAR last summer.

Rangers’ investment of a reported £1.7mn plus add-ons in the 22-year-old is proving to be shrewd business, with Igamane now valued at €15.1mn by the CIES’ statistical model.

The forward, who won his first cap for Morocco in March, has scored 16 goals in all competitions for Rangers.

While Engels is contracted to Celtic until 2028 and Igamane signed until 2029 at Ibrox, both players have attracted interest from Europe’s top clubs after stellar seasons in domestic and continental tournaments.

Rangers are braced for summer bids for Igamane, with France’s Champions League hopefuls RC Strasbourg reportedly chasing the player.

Estimates from Transfermarkt show that Celtic were particularly busy in this season’s transfer windows, spending over €40mn and receiving €56.1mn from key sales such as Matt O’Riley’s move to Brighton & Hove Albion.

Rangers paid out €16.46mn in transfer fees and will hope for a return on those signings after a costly net balance of €-13.51mn for the 2024-25 campaign.