Maddison, Grealish & Co. – The most valuable former Championship stars in Premier League

​

€70m star is No.1 

The Championship remains an incredible platform for emerging talent to showcase their ability before earning big moves. The second tier of English football remains the most frequented league for Premier League clubs to sign players and that continued this summer with Archie Gray, Georgino Rutter and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall stepping up a league.

Premier League clubs spent €803 million signing players from rival top flight clubs this summer, but the €330.8m spent on 22 players from the Championship ranked second – ahead of La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga. Some famous players have developed at Championship clubs before starring in the Premier League including Aaron Ramsey, Kyle Walker, Harry Maguire and Jamie Vardy. But who are the most valuable current Premier League stars to have played in the English Championship?

Tottenham’s James Maddison is the most valuable current Premier League star to have played in the English Championship at €70m. The attacking midfielder progressed through Coventry’s youth academy before moving to Norwich and he provided 22 goal contributions in his final season in the Championship to earn a move to the Premier League with Leicester City in 2018. As the graphic below illustrates, Ollie Watkins ranks second with the England international moving to Aston Villa for €34m in 2020.

Eight of the top ten players in this list are England internationals, including the top six with Crystal Palace’s Ezerechi Eze claiming third spot at €60m. Arsenal’s Ben White played in the Championship with Leeds United while Jack Grealish famously won the play-offs with Villa in 2019. Levi Colwill is a graduate from Chelsea’s academy but he played in the Championship on loan at Huddersfield during the 2021/22 season. Brighton’s João Pedro and Tottenham Hotspur’s Brennan Johnson are the only two non-English players in the top ten list.