Italy and Northern Ireland squad comparison shows 10x difference in team value

Italy remain the clear favourites against Northern Ireland ahead of Thursday’s crucial World Cup play-off semi-final in Bergamo, and the current market value of the respective national sides shows exactly why Gennaro Gattuso and his team have no excuses against the Green and White Army. 

Italy will host Northern Ireland at Atalanta’s New Balance Arena at 19.45 GMT on Thursday evening, and the winner of that tie will go on to face either Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina away from home on Tuesday, March 31, in the play-off final. This will be a one-legged decider for a spot at the final tournament. 

Should Italy fail to win both of these two matches, they will miss out on World Cup qualification for the third tournament cycle in a row. The Azzurri have not qualified since 2014 and have not won a knock-out match at the World Cup since beating France in the final to claim the trophy in 2006. 

• Read more: What Italy should expect from Northern Ireland in World Cup play-off semi-final
• Read more: O’Neill: Italy have ‘everything to lose’ against Northern Ireland

Italy vs. Northern Ireland: Squad value comparison

According to the latest information from transfermarkt.co.uk, the current Italy squad has a market value of €746.5m, compared to Northern Ireland’s €100.15m. 

The Italy squad boasts Sandro Tonali as its current most valuable player at €80m, while for Northern Ireland, that player is Trai Hume at €22m, closely followed by Sunderland teammate Dan Ballard at €20m. Liverpool’s Conor Bradley is valued higher at €30m, but is currently nursing a serious knee injury and will not feature against Italy. 

Hume and Ballard are the only two players in the Northern Ireland squad that are currently valued above the €20m mark, while Italy have 18 players worth €20m or higher. 

The Azzurri players worth in excess of €20m are: Gianluigi Donnarumma, Marco Carnesecchi, Alessandro Bastoni, Alessandro Buongiorno, Giorgio Scalvini, Federico Dimarco, Riccardo Calafiori, Andrea Cambiaso, Marco Palestra, Tonali, Manuel Locatelli, Nicolo Barella, Niccolo Pisilli, Giacomo Raspadori, Pio Esposito, Moise Kean, Mateo Retegui and Gianluca Scamacca. 

The ‘least’ valuable Italy player is 33-year-old Napoli wing-back Leonardo Spinazzola, who is out of contract at the end of the 2025-26 campaign and is currently valued at €3.5m. That would be enough for him to rank as the fifth-most valuable player in the Northern Ireland squad.

According to Tuttosport, there is a 10x difference in the value of the expected starting line-ups of the two national sides. 

Gattuso’s starting XI is likely to feature Donnarumma, Bastoni, Calafiori, Dimarco, Tonali and Barella and is worth around €473m while Northern Ireland’s expected starting line-up is worth a reported €44.7m.