Cost of Glory: Why Chris Wood Is 4x Better Than Erling Haaland

Freetips staff

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Last updated: 21 Feb 2025

Freetips staff 21 Feb 2025

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Chris Wood offers best value in the Premier League, with lower cost per goal than Erling Haaland
Haaland, Salah, and other top scorers in EPL are expensive per goal
Players like Evann Guessand in Ligue 1 and Mateo Retegui in Serie A provide excellent cost-efficiency

Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood is more than four times better value than his Premier League rival Erling Haaland – FreeTips research has revealed.

Leading sports site FreeTips.com has crunched the numbers and discovered that, of the Premier League’s top five scorers, Haaland is the worst value of all and a far worse return on investment than Wood.

New Zealand international Wood gets paid a fraction of the monthly wage of Haaland, but the Forest striker is providing incredible value for money for his side.

Wood’s 17 goals for Forest this season have come at a cost of £241,176 per goal. That more than four times cheaper than Haaland’s 19 goals, which have averaged £1,026,315 based on weekly and annual salaries.

Haaland is the most expensive of the Premier League’s leading five scorers, closely followed by Liverpool’s Mo Salah. He has netted 21 times at an average cost per cost of £866,666.

Better value is 14-goal Cole Palmer, who averages £482,857 per strike for Chelsea this season. Newcastle’s Alexander Isak is proving a real hit for his team too, scoring 17 times at an average of £367,058 per goal.

How The Top 5 Leagues Ranked

The combined average of the five topscorers in the Premier League is £2,984,074 and the second highest of any of the big five European leagues – the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1.

Only La Liga has a higher average at £3,574,800 with Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe and Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski bloating that figure due to their huge weekly wages.

Their respective averages of £1,640,858 (Mbappe) and £1,473,746 (Lewandowski) are dwarfed significantly by their La Liga rival Ante Budimir of Osasuna.

The 12-goal marksman has emerged as La Liga's most cost-effective striker, with each goal costing just £94,514 - 17 times cheaper than Mbappe's goals.

The most cost-effective goalscorer in the top five European leagues is Nice’s Evann Guessand, with each of his nine goals is Ligue 1 costing only £84,012.

Also in Ligue 1, Lille’s Jonathan David provides excellent value at £136,519 per goal, outperforming PSG's Ousmane Dembele (£1,050,150 per goal) in efficiency.

Mateo Retegui, a transfer target for Arsenal and Manchester United in the Premier League, is also among the best value with his 20 goals coming at just £118,456 for Atalanta in Serie A.

Moise Kean might have been a flop at Everton but the Fiorentina goalscorer offers plenty of value at £157,943 per goal with 15 to his name this season in Serie A.

Harry Kane’s 21 goals for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga have been expensive at £1,000,143 per goal.

That’s a staggering seven times higher than Borussia Monchengladbach’s Tim Kleindienst (£158,330) and the best value of Mainz’s Jonathan Burkardt (£132,319).

What It Means

FreeTips.com’s Gary Emmerson said: “Most football fans look at the number of goals scored. That’s what matters most to them.

“But the cost per goal averages make for interesting reading and some of the biggest names in the game are costing an arm and a leg for each of their goals this season.

“Chris Wood is the standout value in the Premier League thanks to his consistent exploits for Nottingham Forest.

“Then you have to look at Evann Guessand in Ligue 1, Mateo Retegui in Serie A and Ante Budimir in La Liga as the stars of the season on the cost of their goals. They should well be considering asking for a pay rise.”