Justo Giani Tops Transfermarkt's Chilean Soccer Valuation Rankings

Three million dollars. That's the figure Transfermarkt attached to Justo Giani's name, making him, without question, the most valuable player in the entire Chilean Primera Division. The Argentine forward isn't just enjoying a strong run of form at Universidad Catolica: he just signed a three year contract extension with the Cruzados, and that institutional backing appears to have translated directly into his market value.

The specialized outlet published its ranking of the 13 most valuable players in the Chilean league, and the list offers plenty of interesting details worth digging into. Starting with Giani himself, who clearly separates himself from the pack and confirms that UC holds one of the most sought after assets in Chilean soccer.

Right behind him comes a tie for second: Tomas Aviles of O'Higgins and Maximiliano Romero, the Colo Colo forward, share a market value of 2.5 million dollars each. It's no small thing for an O'Higgins player to crack that high on a list almost always dominated by Santiago's big clubs, and that alone says something about the season Aviles has been putting together.

Universidad de Chile places the most names

If there's one club that stands out across several lines of this list, it's Universidad de Chile. Javier Altamirano sits in third place with 2 million dollars, and just below him come Fabian Hormazabal and Marcelo Morales, the latter part of the group valued at 1.5 million.

Hormazabal shares fourth place with Francisco Salinas of Coquimbo Unido, both valued at 1.8 million dollars. Coquimbo having a representative that high in the ranking also stands out, especially considering it isn't usually among the clubs that show up most often in this kind of list.

The rest of the ranking forms a fairly tight group, all valued at 1.5 million dollars: Daniel Gonzalez and Ivan Roman, both of Universidad Catolica; Ivan Roman and Felipe Mendez representing Colo Colo; Benjamin Chandia, the second Coquimbo Unido name on the list; Clemente Montes, another Cruzado; and Josue Ovalle of Everton, rounding out the ranking.

In the end, the picture Transfermarkt paints makes a couple of things clear: Universidad Catolica spreads its weight between Giani and several names further down the list, Colo Colo and Universidad de Chile each contribute their share of valuable players, and clubs like O'Higgins and Coquimbo Unido manage to place representatives in a ranking that has traditionally been dominated almost exclusively by the so called big clubs.