10 most valuable World Cup teams
You’d think that having the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo or Wayne Rooney on your country’s roster would seem to almost guarantee World Cup success. Think again.
大家或许会认为，如果自己的国家队拥有C•罗纳尔多或韦恩•鲁尼这样的球星，在世界杯上获得成功似乎就是轻而易举的事情。但在下这样的结论之前，不妨再多思考思考。
Only three of the top eight teams in a new analysis of the most valuable national teams will reach this year’s Round of 16.
儿童保健品The list, compiled by The Football Observatory at the Swiss-based International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES), bases team value on a team’s individual players, ranking the top 10
0 men participating in the World Cup by transfer value. (The list provides a range of value for each player; here, we use the high end of that range.)
这份榜单是由总部设在瑞士的国际体育研究中心（International Centre for Sports Studies，CIES）分属机构“足球观象台（Football Observatory）”编纂的，它根据转会身价对参与世界杯的100位顶尖球员进行了排行，而榜单中的球队价值正是建立在球队中这些个别球员的价值之上。（这份榜单针对每位球员提出了一系列的价值衡量标准；但在这里，我们只谈其中最主要的衡量标准。）
Transfer value represents what a club can expect to pay a player’s previous team to break his contract. As you’d expect, transfer value is very high for younger players like 22-year-old Neymar, while aging stars such as Arjen Robben or even David Beckham yield much lower figures.
转会身价代表了一个俱乐部想从某位球员效力的母队手中买下这位球员时所预计的花费。正如大家所预料的那样，22岁的内马尔这种年轻球员的转会身价也非常高昂，而类似阿尔扬•罗本或大卫•贝克汉姆这样已经进入职业生涯晚期的球星，转会身价就相对低很多。
Even CIES Football Observatory head Raffaele Poli is somewhat baffled by the number of high-value teams already out of contention for the Cup. “That is a big surprise, indeed. We are all astonished by these bad performances by some of the best players,” says Poli. “But then you have Messi, who scored twice yesterday (Wednesday), and Neymar also four times already. So it shows that not all the known footballers did perform badly.”
世界杯遭淘汰出局的高价值球队非常多，以至于CIES足球观象台的主任拉法埃莱•波里都有些困惑不已。“实在太令人吃惊了。我们对某些一流球员如此糟糕的表现感到非常惊讶，”波里说。“但昨天（上周三）梅开二度的梅西和同样已经打入四球的内马尔还继续留在世界杯舞台上。所以说，也并不是所有的知名球员都表现差劲。”
动力火车资料The biggest World Cup upset so far has centered on defending champion Spain, estimated by CIES to be the most valuable team at $668 million. The country boasts a host of stars in CIES’s top 100, including Diego Costa, Sergio Busquets, and Juan Mata. But it was routed by Netherlands in its opening game and never recovered.
世界杯迄今为止的最大冷门都集中在卫冕冠军西班牙队身上，在CIES的评估中，西班牙队
以6.68亿美元的价值傲居最具价值球队之首。这支球队中有多位球星进入了CIES的百大顶尖球员之列，其中包括迭戈•科斯塔、塞尔吉奥•布斯克斯和胡安•马塔。但在第一场比赛中它就以大比分输给了荷兰队，球队状态一直不理想。
England, a perennial underachiever in recent World Cups, disappointed again with a tepid display that saw it crash out after falling to Uruguay in its second match. The team, led by Wayne Rooney (valued at $58.6 million), includes 12 players in the top 100 and is considered the fourth most valuable team in the tournament, at $487 million. It didn’t make a whit of difference.
哥斯达黎加世界杯最好成绩近几届世界杯成绩一直很糟糕的英格兰队再次以平淡的表现让球迷失望，在第二场比赛输给了乌拉圭以后，它就彻底告别了本届世界杯。韦恩•小学六年级体育教学计划鲁尼（转会身价为5,860万美元）领衔的这支英格兰队的价值为4.87亿美元，球队中有12位球星位列百大顶尖球员之列，在本届杯赛中的最具价值球队中，它排在第四位。但英格兰队的表现一如既往的糟糕。
Then there is Italy. The four-time World Cup winner was led by star striker Mario Balotelli, whose transfer value of $55.9 million places him among the world’s top 25 players. Balote
lli was not a factor in the team’s decisive 1-0 loss to Uruguay on Tuesday. Uruguay is ninth on the most valuable list—more than half of that amount comes from the transfer value of forward Luis Suárez (though Tuesday’s biting incident might put a damper on things).
然后是意大利队。四届世界杯冠军得主拥有马里奥•巴洛特利这样的明星前锋，他以5,590万美元的身价跻身于前25位顶尖球员之列。在上周二球队以0比1的比分输给乌拉圭的关键比赛中，巴洛特利完全没有表现出与身价相符的状态。乌拉圭队位列最具价值球队榜单的第九位——球队一半以上的价值都来自于前锋路易斯•苏亚雷斯的转会身价（但上周二比赛中发生的咬人事件也许会让他的身价打些折扣）。
To be sure, not all high-value players and teams have flopped. Germany, the second most valuable team at $540 million, is on pace to reach the knockout stage. Argentina, the third most valuable team, boasts the world’s most valuable footballer Lionel Messi, who alone garners a value of $317.6 million. That team has breezed through to the next stage. Meanwhile, tournament-favorite Brazil, which sits just below England on the CIES l
ist and has been spurred on by four goals from $99.5 million Neymar, blew out Cameroon to advance.
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