Performance and beauty in sports ̶on the market value and popularity of European female soccer players

Abstract

We analyze the role of performance and beauty for the market value and the social media popularity of all female soccer players who took part in the European Championship 2022. Controlling for team and position effects, we find that the players’ market values are determined by a set of performance indicators and their social media popularity, which in turn is determined by the performance and facial attractiveness of the players. Thus, while beauty has no statistically significant direct effect on players’ market values it indirectly affects their values through the effect on social media popularity.