** World Cup'smost expensive team : part I

The World Cup will feature the world's costliest and most highly-paid players in the world. But whose starting XI is worth the most?

Obviously working out a player's value on the unpredictable transfer market is guesswork to a large degree. Age, length of contract remaining and the number of interested parties all play a part. But let's look at the major teams and do a price-check on some of the most valuable sporting commodities on the planet.

Our German hosts have a few players who would set the cash tills ringing. Star man Michael Ballack will move for nothing this summer after running down his contract at Bayern Munich, but it's a fair bet the player would fetch at least 25million pounds if tied in to a long-term deal, even though he is already 29 years old.
Second-most valuable is surely Germany's answer to Wayne Rooney, Lukas Podolski, who despite a difficult season at Cologne could still fetch around 12million pounds. Highly-rated Werder Bremen midfielder Tim Borowski and Bayern prospect Bastian Schweinsteiger are each 10million pound players, and we estimate that the team as a whole comes in at around 97 to 100million pounds.

Germany's great rivals Holland are worth around $80million, with Barcelona midfielder Mark van Bommel (15million pounds) and Chelsea's Arjen Robben (12million pounds) the most glittering stars. Manchester United's striker Ruud van Nistelrooy is touted by many to be on the move this summer. Sir Alex Ferguson would want as much as possible for his goalscorer, but at 30 his age should keep his price down to around 10million pounds.

France's side may be a little long in the tooth, but they still have a few stellar performers who can command big transfer fees. We reckon about 120million pounds should be enough to snap up the 2006 starting XI. How much will it take for Barcelona to tempt Thierry Henry away from Arsenal? Well they won't get much change out of 30million pounds will they? And even if his compatriots David Trezeguet and Patrick Vieira looked past their best as Juventus crashed out of the Champions League to the Gunners they would still be worth about 25million pounds and 12million pounds each.
You could probably get veteran Zinedine Zidane on the cheap these days, but Chelsea's William Gallas (15million), and Lyon's Sylvain Wiltord (10million) are still in the eight-figure bracket.

Argentina and Italy both come in at around 140million pounds. Lionel Messi's age and promise make him another 30million player by any reckoning. A slightly smaller fee would be required to clinch the signing of Messi's Argentina team-mate Juan Roman Riquelme. It seems we are likely to discover just how much Riquelme is worth in the summer, but 25million is the figure being quoted at the moment.Corinthians paid a hefty fee of around 20million to take Carlos Tevez to Brazil. It would take even more to move him over to Europe, while Hernan Crespo is certainly still capable of attracting bids in excess of 10million.

Italy boast one of the strongest line-ups of strikers in the World. Their luxury model is Alberto Gilardino, who would take at least 25million pounds to prise away from AC Milan. There's 20million-rated Luca Toni, currently breaking goalscoring records at Fiorentina, Antonio Cassano went to Real Madrid on the cheap but is worth more than 10million, and how much are veterans Alessandro Del Piero and Christian Vieri still worth? Italy's overall valuation would take a considerable dip however without Francesco Totti in the team, who is also still worth a bank-busting 20million pounds.

[msn]