With the prices clubs pay for players continually rising, Liverpool legend Michael Owen believes he would command a similar price tag to Kylian Mbappe in today's market.
The spotlight has very much been on Mbappe in recent transfer windows as Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid were embroiled in a tug-of-war for the Frenchman's services.
The Paris native had already commanded the second-most expensive transfer fee ever when PSG paid Monaco €180 million (R3.2 billion) for him in a permanent deal back in 2018, and he is likely to cost even more in the future.
Los Blancos reportedly bid a figure in the region of €168 million (R3 billion) when they tried to sign Mbappe prior to the 2021/22 campaign, but Les Parisiens rejected the offer.
While the Frenchman did only have a year remaining on his contract at the time, it illustrated how inflated transfers fees in football have become.
As good as Mbappe is now, former England star Owen, who was already a Ballon d'Or winner and had won the Premier League Golden Boot twice by the time he was 21, thinks he may have rivalled the 2018 FIFA World Cup winner in today's market.
"I don't know. I mean, it felt like figures were a little bit higher one or two years ago than they actually are now," he told AceOdds when asked what his value today would be.
"Obviously, the [Erling] Haaland move wasn't really a true reflection of his price because of the agency fee and all the different stipulations he had in the contract.
"So it was an open market, free market, when I was 19, 20 and at the absolute peak of my powers.
"I don't know, you're talking £100-something million probably, I guess it's hard to say.
"Well, what's Mbappe worth nowadays? I really don't know. If he was to leave PSG you'd be looking at £150/£200 million maybe? So if a Mbappe was worth 150/200 [million], I don't know.
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"But yeah, I was that similar type of player who was breaking through, winning the Ballon d'Or, won two Golden Boots and went to the World Cup at 18 and all that kind of stuff."
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