Barcelona have risen 99 per cent in value over the last 12 months while the Red Devils see their top position crumble as the Blancos take over in Forbes’ top 20 rankings

Real Madrid have usurped Manchester United as the richest football club on the planet for the first time since Forbes magazine began their rankings in 2004.

The Red Devils have sat at the top of the list for nine years in a row but Jose Mourinho’s men are now worth $135 million more (€103m) at $3.3 billion (€2.429bn), while Sir Alex Ferguson’s side sit second in the business magazine’s most valuable club list.

Barcelona are perched comfortably in third – $565m (€434m) behind United but $1.274m (€978m) ahead of fourth-placed Arsenal – and rose 99 per cent in value over 12 months.

Bayern Munich fill out the top five having made the Champions League final last season as well as finishing second in the Bundesliga. Their value is sure to rise further in next year’s rankings with the added interest of Pep Guardiola as coach, not to mention their triumph in this season’s Bundesliga and a potential treble of trophies.

AC Milan are the top-placed Serie A side in sixth and the highest-placed club to be valued below the €1bn mark this year. However, they are also the only club in the top 10 which have gone down in value over the last 12 months.

Chelsea’s Champions League-winning season saw maintain their place in the list and boost their value by 18%, not so contrasting to the team below them, Juventus, who saw their value rise by 17% after returning to Scudetto-lifting ways in 2012.

Manchester City rose from 13th to 9th in Forbes’ list after winning the Premier League last season and qualifying for the Champions League for the second successive campaign.

An English team not faring as well are Liverpool, who were fourth in April 2008 but find themselves 10th five years later as they continue to suffer from not competing with the European elite.

Outside of the top 10 sit Europa League quarter-finalists Tottenham in 11th, Bundesliga side Schalke in 12th, Champions League semi-finalists Borussia Dortmund in 13th, Italian giants Inter in 14th and Olympique Lyonnais in 15th.

The final five in the list are South America’s sole entrants Corinthians in 16th, Walter Mazzarri’s Napoli in 17th, German side Hamburg in 18th, Olympique de Marseille (who dropped 18% in value, the biggest drop in the top 20) in 19th and Newcastle United perched 20th.

Interestingly, despite being considered one of the richest clubs in the world, Paris Saint-Germain fail to make the top 20, while La Liga’s top-three duo are the only Spanish sides to make the list.

The midfielder, who is on an 18-month loan from the Blancos at Signal Iduna Park, also revealed his intention to become the best player in the Bundesliga once again

Borussia Dortmund star Nuri Sahin believes that Real Madrid will up their game against them in the Champions League semi-finals.

The two teams met in Group D of the competition earlier this season and BVB beat them at home and held them to a draw at the Santiago Bernabeu.

However, the midfielder – who is on an 18-month loan at Signal Iduna Park from the Blancos – is anticipating Jose Mourinho’s men will up their game due to their desire to secure a 10th European Cup success but still believes Jurgen Klopp’s men have a chance.

“Sure, we can beat them again,” he told Marca on Wednesday. “Dortmund won in the group stage and can do it again, although Real are a much better team now than it was then.

“It will be a tough game, because I know what winning the Decima means to them. The club’s players and fans want the tenth, but we want to win the Champions League too.

“Both teams want to win. None of our players have ever won the Champions League and on Real Madrid’s squad there are only three or four who have, so both teams really want to win. For Real Madrid, the Decima means everything, but it does for us too, because we haven’t won the Bundesliga or the DFB-Pokal either.”

Sahin also revealed his desire to renew his tag as one of the best players in Germany having spent last season on the fringes of the Madrid team and then the first half of this campaign failing to start for Liverpool on loan.

The Turkey international added: “What happened in Liverpool was… it was very difficult. This isn’t the time to discuss it. Returning to Dortmund was the best thing for me.

“We’re in the Champions League, I know the coach, my team-mates, I have my family near me and my wife and children are happy here.

“And coming back here was important for my game too, to feel the feelings I had before I left. My goal is to regain the status of best player in the Bundesliga and I feel that I’m well on the way to doing that.”

Despite failing to break into the first team at the Bernabeu under Mourinho, the midfielder insists that he enjoyed his Liga-winning season with the Spanish giants and praised their Portuguese coach.

“It was a bit difficult, unlike anything I’d experienced before,” Sahin continued. “It started with a fairly long injury and then I didn’t get back in form or on top of my game.

“But I won La Liga with Real Madrid, worked with Mourinho who is a very special coach, and shared a changing room with fantastic players.”

Managing director Ian Ayre insists that keeping the in-demand Uruguayan forward is central to the Reds’ plans of returning to the summit of English and European football

Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre insists that the club will not sell Luis Suarez, observing that they must keep players of his quality to fulfil their ambitions.

As exclusively revealed by Goal.com, the Reds’ Premier League rivals, Manchester City, are keen to offer the Uruguayan, who has scored 22 Premier League goals so far this season, the Champions League football that he wants.

With Liverpool seventh in the table, qualification for Europe’s top competition is unlikely but Ayre was categorical in his rejection of any potential sale.

He told Sports Illustrated: “To play at the highest level in the Premier League and European soccer, you need players like Luis and Steven Gerrard on your team so the last thing in our mind is selling Luis Suarez. He’s not for sale. It’s not something we’re interested in.

“I remember when [Fenway Sports Group] bought the team, John [W Henry] made a comment in the media: We don’t want to just build a team to win but to keep winning. To do that you have to have a number of world-class players on your team.”

Ayre also discussed his satisfaction with the success of the club’s work in the winter transfer market, enthusing: “We were very pleased with the most recent window in January with Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge. It’s a combination of skills and people and processes that bring us to what we’re trying to achieve.

“I think the fundamental shift particularly around player acquisitions and disposals was that we took the view that it needs to be more of a science. Your biggest expenditure line can’t be the whim of any individual.

“It’s a combination of old-school scouting and watching players – and that’s Brendan [Rodgers], his assistants, our scouts – with statistical analysis of players across Europe and the rest of the world.

“I think we’ve had relatively good success since we deployed that methodology. We’re getting better all the time. Just as you think our football is getting better, our transfer activity is getting better.”