Max Aarons is the most valuable member of a Norwich City squad worth an estimated £198m (€217m), according to a football think tank.

The England Under-21 starlet is valued between €40m and €50m at current market prices, in the view of Swiss-based research group CIES football observatory.

Aarons is rated one of the best young defensive prospects in the country after a breakthrough season last year at Carrow Road brought him a Championship title winner’s medal and the Football League’s young player-of-the-season award.

The 20-year-old made his Young Lions debut in September 2019, and has been routinely touted with a number of top clubs at home and abroad in the past two transfer windows.

City’s other young talent is among the other most valuable commodities in Daniel Farke’s current squad. Ben Godfrey, Jamal Lewis and Emi Buendia (€20m to €30m each) have, like Aarons, also been previously linked with Premier League rivals.

Teemu Pukki’s goalscoring run over the past 12 months or so puts him in the same bracket as that City trio, while Todd Cantwell’s emergence as a frontline option during the top flight campaign (€10m to €15m) has also been noted by CIES.

The consistent form of Tim Krul (€4m to €7m) is reflected in a listing which builds in the age profile, contract length and potential teams who might be interested in each player.

French world cup winner Kylian Mbappe is rated the most expensive player in the index, in excess of €250m.

City’s combined €217m squad value, based on the top 20 most valuable assets in each squad, ranks them 17th in the Premier League, ahead of Burnley, Sheffield United and Crystal Palace.

Liverpool’s squad top the domestic league (€1.4bn) and the Reds are also rated as the most valuable outfit in Europe, ahead of Manchester City (€1.36bn) Spanish giants Barcelona (€1.17bn) and Real Madrid (€1.1bn).

CIES have been using scientific formula to produce statistical modelling of player values and performance across Europe’s top five leagues since 2013.