A World Cup, a lifetime of near-misses, and one record-breaking valuation update: this is how football arrived at a number nobody had ever touched before. Every few years, football's economy resets itself. A new ceiling gets built, and everyone assumes it will hold for a while. Then, somebody comes along and smashes straight through it. This month, two players did it at the exact same time. When Transfermarkt released its first market value update since the final whistle blew
