The most top-heavy national team with a starting lineup valued at €140 million, featuring a Premier League strike duo worth €125 million.

At 3 a.m. Beijing time on September 6, in the African World Cup qualifiers Group A, Egypt hosted Ethiopia. Egypt managed a hard-fought win thanks to two penalty goals from their Premier League forwards Salah (Liverpool) and Marmoush (Manchester City), helping Egypt to a 2-0 victory and full points. After 7 matches, Egypt tops the group with 19 points, while Ethiopia ranks fifth with 6 points.

Egypt is truly a heavily top-loaded national team. In the Egypt vs. Ethiopia match, Egypt lined up in a 4-3-3 formation with a starting lineup worth €140 million. However, most of this value is concentrated in the two Premier League forwards: Liverpool’s Salah valued at €50 million and Marmoush at €75 million, totaling €125 million. This means the remaining nine starters are only worth €15 million combined, making this an unusually unbalanced national team.

The consequence of Egypt’s heavily weighted squad is a lack of overall strength. In the 2-0 win over Ethiopia,Egypt held 63% possession and had 12 shots in total, but only 2 were on target, both from penalties.Ethiopia had 4 shots in total, none of which were on target.