Source l'Equipe | Hervé Penot | November 15, 2018
It was an idea born in the hushed corridors of a meeting at the Ministry of Finance: in 2014, on the sidelines of a meeting to which they were invited, Lyon's executives and Ginkyo Ratings, a Lyon-based company and member of the Observatoire de l'immatériel, agreed to work together on a project. How to show the value of players in the financial statements, how to give weight to these assets never accounted for in the balance sheet?
Jean-Michel Aulas mentioned in our columns, during our investigation on "the true value of L1 clubs" (L'Equipe, October 19), his own figures: they will be revealed this Friday by Vincent Ponsot, OL's deputy general manager. This player capital will reach approximately 394 M€ on June 30. The leading duo? Memphis Depay and Nabil Fekir, valued at just over €50 million each according to the club's figures. But since then, Ndombele and Aouar are in the same waters.
We also note that Tousart, another hopeful, is above 33 M€. This valuation is far from being a gimmick since it is at the heart of a more global strategy of the managers to value their assets. " The idea was in fact to value the players trained by the club who were not included in the financial statements. The idea was actually to value the players trained by the club, who were not included in the financial statements, and to include them in the balance sheet was therefore innovative," explains Pierre Caillet, the president of Ginkyo Ratings, who is talking about the value of the footballer and not a transfer value.
Seven areas of evaluation
We have expertise in the valuation of intangible assets, i.e. off-balance sheet," he continues. Soccer clubs are not like other companies, players are only integrated when there is a transfer. Then, if the player has a price, he loses each year because of his depreciation and the young people do not appear anywhere. " So what are Aouar or Fekir, trained at the OL, worth? Ginkyo Ratings, which has also worked on Nice, has established seven themes of evaluation: physical, technical, mental, tactical, potential, relational and health capital.
Each boy (including the training center) is judged by a panel of six people (three internal and three external). Lyon's coaches take part in this evaluation, as do former players or coaches such as Eric Carrière, Alain Roche, Raymond Domenech, Gérard Houllier... "It's very well done," explains one evaluator who is obliged to remain anonymous. It's very well done," explains an evaluator who is obliged to remain anonymous. It takes time. We give scores from 1 to 10 on many points such as right foot, left foot, recovery, aerial duels, potential, what image the player gives, is he "bankable"? It's not always easy, but if we don't have an opinion on an area, we can put that in too. "
Our methodology is based on linear equations that we developed with a mathematical laboratory in Lyon, " says Pierre Caillet. We started with a model developed by the Observatoire de l'immatériel and the Direction générale des entreprises of the Ministry of the Economy, which we adapted to the soccer. Our method, which was submitted to Bercy, was audited by a college of international experts who validated it on January 8. The clubs can therefore ask for a fair valuation of their workforce with the integration in the financial statements. Everything is scrutinized for each player, and there are 200 reference points. And thanks to the mathematical tool, if we feel that certain scores do not correspond to reality, due for example to concerns that an evaluator may have with a player, it is eliminated from the start, it skims off immediately to be as fair as possible." In 2016, the OL was valued at € 190 million. The figures of this season will therefore be a strong asset to shareholders and possible future investors, which is also the purpose of such an expertise.
