Celtic up & Rangers down: Scottish Premiership market value update with Arne Engels MVP

Motherwell win big 

The 2025/26 Scottish Premiership season will go down as one of the most exciting of all-time as there is a genuine three-way title race with just nine games remaining. Across recent history, Celtic have enjoyed a monopoly in Scottish football, winning 13 of the last 14 trophies but they aren’t favourites to be crowned champions this season.

In one of the biggest stories across European football, Hearts hold a six-point lead at the league summit as they aim to win their first top-flight title in 66 years. Rangers are the closest challengers to Hearts, sitting second after a 2-2 draw with Celtic in the Old Firm on Sunday. Motherwell have enjoyed a remarkable season in fourth place and performances have been a significant factor in Transfermarkt’s market value update. We’ve adjusted 97 players’ market values and we’ve analysed the headline news from the March update.

The biggest market value upgrades in the Scottish Premiership

Arne Engels received the biggest upgrade of any player in the Scottish Premiership, with the Celtic star’s market value soaring by €8 million to €18 million. Engels hasn’t excelled for the champions this season but he was subjected to several bids from Nottingham Forest in January. It’s understood the highest initial bid was for around €25m and we’ve upgraded him to respect this offer but it’s unclear whether a club will return with a similar offer this summer.

As the graphic above illustrates, Emmanuel Fernandez received the second biggest upgrade of €7.5m to €9m.The centre-back took time to acclimatise after joining Rangers in the summer but he’s impressed since November and is also a major goalscoring threat. Transfermarkt understands that English Premier League clubs and Bundesliga sides are monitoring the 24-year-old. Hearts’ dynamic duo Claudio Braga (+€3.5m) and Alexandros Kyziridis (+€1.5m) both received significant updates, as did Motherwell’s Tawanda Maswanhise (+€2.8m) – the top scorer in the Scottish Premiership.

The biggest market value downgrades in the Scottish Premiership

Celtic have endured a nightmare campaign and their dominance of Scottish football appears over this season. The Hoops’ standards have dropped significantly and several players have endured underwhelming seasons, which is reflected with eight Celtic players featuring in the top ten biggest downgrades. Cameron Carter-Vickers and Daizen Maeda’s market values both dropped by €3m. Carter-Vickers has been out for the majority of the campaign with a serious knee injury while Maeda’s not replicated his excellent form from last season.

Maeda’s international colleague, Reo Hatate has also failed to impress and he’s dropped by €2m with the Japanese international expected to leave Glasgow this summer. Andreas Skov Olsen arrived at Rangers amid huge expectations but he’s underwhelmed and he’s also dropped by €2m as he was overvalued during his time in the Bundesliga.

The most valuable Scottish Premiership players

Engels has leapfrogged Mikey Moore to become the most valuable player in the Scottish Premiership after his €8m upgrade. After a difficult start to life at Rangers, Moore has begun to show why he’s so highly-regarded at Tottenham but he’s remained at €16m.

Nicolas Raskin is expected to start for Belgium at the World Cup but he’s not been at his best in recent months so remains at €12m, alongside Maeda. Naturally, the top ten list is dominated by Old Firm players with Hearts attacker Braga the most valuable star outside of the two Glasgow giants.

The most valuable Scottish Premiership clubs

Celtic still possess the most valuable squad in Scotland, but Rangers have closed the gap after the update. Due mainly to Engels’ substantial update, Celtic’s squad value actually rose by 1.96% to its current valuation of €145.8m, which remains €24.3m higher that their arch rivals, Rangers. Danny Rohl’s squad value increased by 13.82% to €121.5m, which is almost €100m more than third-placed Hearts. By some distance, Motherwell were the biggest winners from the update with the market value of their squad soaring by +78% to €14.5m.