Spanish La Liga giant, Real Madrid, has topped an annual Forbes list of the World’s Most valuable sports teams.
According to Forbes, the UEFA Champions League winner is worth an estimated $3.44bn (£2bn).
The top three slots are occupied by football clubs, with Real Madrid’s La Liga rival, Barcelona in second place at $3.2bn, and English Premier League side, Manchester United third, with a value of $2.81bn.
Major League Baseball team, the New York Yankees are in fourth spot, valued at $2.5bn while NFL American Football side, the Dallas Cowboys, worth $2.3bn.
MLB side, the New York Mets are one of three teams that dropped off this year’s list of the top 50 with NFL side Oakland Raiders and Formula One team, McLaren, the other two familiar names that dropped from the list
Forbes calculated the value of the teams based on equity, debt and stadium deals and the average value of the top 50 teams which is $1.34bn, an 8% increase on last year.
NFL teams makes up 60% of the top 50 slots, occupying 30 places.
The 20 non-NFL teams in the top 50 include six from MLB, eight from football, four from the NBA, one from the National Hockey League (ice hockey league) and one from Formula 1.
