The world's most valuable clubs: Barcelona overtake Manchester City, with Real Madrid at a distant summit
The Catalan club is banking on the Camp Nou renovations
Only Real Madrid, valued at 9.5 billion dollars, rank above Barcelona in the latest ranking by the American magazine "Forbes", which specialises in the world of finance and business.
The Royal club top the list. Barcelona sit second at 7.5 billion dollars, yet the exploitation of the "Spotify Camp Nou" is still only halfway there, according to the Catalan newspaper "Mundo Deportivo".
Their brand value keeps climbing, with the "Spotify Camp Nou" set to house 104,600 fans.
Barcelona will reveal on Monday the precise figure for the record revenues they achieved during the 2025-26 season, approaching 1.1 billion euros and surpassing the 994 million posted in 2024-25. The club have announced they are now the second most valuable football club in the world, according to the new update to the "Forbes" ranking.
Worth 7.5 billion dollars, the Catalan club rose from third to second, overtaking Manchester United, who are valued at 7.2 billion dollars.
Remember, "Forbes" bases its ranking on end of the 2024-25 season figures, not the 2025-26 season, during which the capacity of the "Spotify Camp Nou" rose from 45,401 seats from 22 November 2024, to 62,652 seats between 15 March and 17 May, the date of Barcelona's last match at the Catalan stadium.
Liverpool, valued at 6.2 billion dollars, and Paris Saint-Germain, valued at 5.8 billion, complete the top five. Bayern Munich "5.7 billion", Manchester City "5.5 billion", Arsenal "5.4 billion", Chelsea "4.2 billion" and Tottenham "3 billion" round off the list of the ten most valuable clubs in the world.
Barça on the way up financially
According to "Mundo Deportivo", the comparison with Real Madrid is still far from what the actual picture will be in roughly a year and a half, when the "Spotify Camp Nou" is completed to a capacity of 104,600 seats.
The "Santiago Bernabéu" has run at full capacity for two years since the renovation works finished, with 83,186 seats, plus the use of its "VIP" areas.
Once the Catalan project is complete, the stadium will include 9,400 VIP seats, a huge source of income that will push up Barça's financial value.
Across the global ranking of all sports clubs, Barcelona occupy fifteenth place.
The Dallas Cowboys, from the American football league "NFL", top that list with a value of 13 billion dollars, followed by the Golden State Warriors from the American basketball league "NBA" with a value of 11 billion, then the Los Angeles Rams "10.5 billion", the New York Giants "10.1 billion", the Los Angeles Lakers "10 billion" and the New York Knicks "9.75 billion", while Real Madrid, valued at 9.5 billion dollars, come seventh in the world.
