Nigerian midfielder Daniel Daga’s transfer value has skyrocketed to an estimated $8.3 million after the Molde FK star made the top 100 U20 players worldwide playing outside Europe’s top five leagues, according to the CIES Football Observatory.
The value is a sharp rise from a worth of 400,000 Euros in April 2025 during his first season in Europe, according to Transfermarkt.
From €400k to $8.3M: Daniel Daga’s Transfer Value Explodes
Daniel Daga returned to action for Molde FK in July 2026, after being cleared and acquitted of sexual assault charges in Norway
He marked his return to Molde’s starting line-up with a goal as the Norwegian side came from behind to beat KFUM Oslo 4-2 away.
CIES Football Observatory 100 U20 players
The 56th observatory Weekly Post shows the top 100 U20 players worldwide with the highest transfer value and not owned by big-five clubs according to a statistical model.
Although recently injured, FC Porto’s Polish prodigy Oskar Pietuszewski tops the list with an estimated value of approximately €56 million.
Jorthy Mokio (AFC Ajax) and Mateus Mané (Wolverhampton) round out the top three.
The top 10 also includes players from Brazil (Álvaro Montoro), Saudi Arabia (Kader Meïté), Ukraine (Luca Meirelles), and Belgium (Mihajlo Cvetković).
No fewer than 24 leagues have representatives in the first 100 positions, with a maximum of 13 players from MLS.