Liverpool and England hitman Raheem Sterling has topped a list of Europe's most valuable under-21 players in a Soccerex study that established his weighted value of €49.3m (£35.5m).

"He kind of has it all to have a high valuation. Extremely young player, playing in a forward position, playing in a top team, being a regular in the national team, having a good personality makes him appealing for brands in terms of media value. All in all, of course having a British passport makes him extremely valuable, with the number that we're talking about, we can say not anyone can afford him and we'll see what happens during the summer," said Esteve Calzada, the chief executive of PrimeTime Sport and a former Barcelona executive, who was speaking in London on 6 July.

Sterling's future at Liverpool has been cast into doubt by numerous media reports speculating he is on the verge of a summer transfer.

"As far as I know, he has not agreed new terms with Liverpool despite the club publicly saying they offered him a new contract. I don't know exactly what's happening but everything looks like there will be a move this summer so it will be interesting to see where he goes. In terms of Spain, it would be probably one of the first times we see a transfer of this calibre, of course we had Gareth Bale that went to Real Madrid but traditionally there's not too many English players that have been successful in Spain," Calzada added.

Following Sterling on the list was Paris St. Germain's Brazilian defender Marquinhos valued at €39.77m and Manchester's United new Dutch signing Memphis Depay, valued at €33.64.

Players are valued by taking into account several factors including the player's age, position, contract length, market value perception, international career and judgement of technical quality from multiple sources.

More about Raheem Sterling
Liverpool FC