世界杯球隊身價幾許？

 How Much Are These Teams Worth?

It's not enough that, in terms of raw soccer talent, Spain may be twice as good as Paraguay, its quarterfinal opponent Saturday. It turns out the Spanish players are also worth about 10 times as much as the Paraguayans.
純粹按踢足球的才能衡量，西班牙可能比周六世界杯四分之一決賽中的對手巴拉圭要強一倍。不過這可能還不夠，要知道，西班牙球員的身價可是巴拉圭球員的約10倍。

With five players valued at more than $60 million each, Spain's players on average are worth a World Cup-high $38 million on the soccer-transfer market. That's easily the most in the tournament, according to Transfermarkt.co.uk, a website that uses factors such as player performance and marketing potential to approximate transfer-market values for every top player in the world. The second-most-valuable team, England, has players valued at an average of $27.6 million. The U.S. is 25th at $3.4 million, while North Korea and New Zealand are lowest at $637,000 and $788,000, respectively.
在足球轉會市場上，西班牙隊中有五名球員身價都在6,000萬美元以上，全隊的平均身價為3,800萬美元，為世界杯參賽球隊中最高的。據Transfermarkt.co.uk網站說，這個身價在聯賽中遠遠排在第一。該網站利用球員表現和市場潛力等因素來估算世界上每個頂尖球員的轉會市場價值。身價第二的球隊是英格蘭隊，球員平均身價為2,760萬美元。美國則排在第25位，平均身價340萬美元；而朝鮮排在倒數第一，平均身價63.7萬美元；新西蘭排在倒數第二，平均身價78.8萬美元。

Paraguay clocks in at a meager $3.8 million player average -- its most valuable players, Oscar Cardozo ($16.8 million) and Lucas Barrios ($14.8 million), are the only ones worth more than Spain's cheapest, substitute defender Carlos Marchena ($10.8 million). The most expensive Spaniard is midfielder Xavi Hernandez, valued at $87.4 million, and the tournament's most valuable is Argentina's Lionel Messi, who's worth $107.6 million.
巴拉圭球員平均身價只有可憐的380萬美元，“最有價值球員”卡多索(Oscar Cardozo，身價1,680萬美元)和巴里奧斯(Lucas Barrios，身價1,480萬美元)也只是僅有的兩個身價高于西班牙隊中身價最低的球員、替補后衛(wèi)馬切納(Carlos Marchena，身價1,080萬美元)的人。西班牙隊中最有價值的是中場球員哈維•赫爾南德斯(Xavi Hernandez)，身價8,740萬美元，聯賽最有價值球員是阿根廷的梅西(Lionel Messi)，身價1.076億美元。

The underlying message is that the World Cup is no place for Cinderellas. Among the eight teams left, five are in the top 10 in terms of market value, and six of the bottom-seven teams made it out of the opening round. Maybe the Yankees should take a shot at this soccer thing.
這其中暗含的信息是世界杯不是為灰姑娘們準備的。在八強中，有五支球隊位列市場價值最高的10支球隊之列，價值最低的七支球隊中有六支在小組賽中沒能出線。或許美國人應該在足球上試試運氣。