On Thursday night Leverkusen paid 70M SVC for a 30-year-old, 91-rated centre-back valued at 15,258,268.98 SVC. Barcelona have a player who matches him almost exactly. They want 110M for him, and he has been for sale since July.

He is Andreas Bødtker Christensen, and nobody has bid. I checked the full auction record: across two listings there is not one bid on him.

The twin test

I followed Jan Kehrer's sale from Leverkusen's opening 50M bid last Sunday. Put Bødtker next to him and the numbers line up:

• Age: both 30
• Rating: both 91, and both 91 for tackling
• Value: both 15,258,268.98 SVC, to the cent
• Wages: both 425,350 SVC
• Contract: both two seasons

The one real difference is passing. Bødtker has 90 and Kehrer 81. That is a fair case for charging more. Is it worth 40M more?

Kehrer had a proper auction. Leverkusen opened at 50M on 25 October. The next day Leipzig bid 50.5M and then 70M. Leverkusen matched the 70M on the 28th and won. Two clubs bid against each other and the price stopped at 70M, which is 4.6 times his value. Barcelona's minimum is 7.2 times value, 57% more than Kehrer fetched.

There's also a link between the two players. Barcelona's biggest influence holder, krille120 (35,530 shares), is Kehrer's agent, so the club's top backer watched that 70M deal from close up.

120 days, two prices, no bids

The timing of the listings stands out:

1. 4 July, 15:54 UTC: Bødtker listed at 150M. Less than five hours later Barcelona paid Lisboa 75.6M for 94-rated Moussa Niakhaté.
2. 18 August, 20:57 UTC: relisted at 110M, 12 minutes after Barcelona completed a 32.2M deal for a 78-rated centre-back from Sevilla Red.

Both times, Barcelona signed a defender and then put Bødtker up for sale. The game allows bids on him up to 183.1M, but nobody has even bid the minimum.

Why Barça can wait

In fairness to Barcelona, they have sold a defender for this kind of money before. On 12 July Bayern paid them 140M for Jules Koundé, now rated 90, while Bødtker sat unsold at 150M. The difference is that Koundé was 27.

They don't need the money either. Manager Ralek17 has 162.97M SVC in the bank. His side top ESP Division 1 on 55 points, 13 clear of Sevilla Red, and have conceded 12 goals in 24 games.

Bødtker isn't a big part of that. He has played 538 league minutes this season in nine appearances, four of them off the bench. Niakhaté has played 1,935. In season one, Bødtker played 2,692 league minutes for Barcelona.

Other top defenders aren't selling either

Every defender rated 89 or above on the market today has an asking price of at least 99M, and none of them has a bid:

• Paris: Lucas Lopes Beraldo (92), 160M
• Barcelona: Bødtker Christensen (91), 110M
• Metz: Gautier Lloris (90, aged 31), 100M
• Stuttgart: their 92-rated left-back, 99.1M

Together that's 469.1M in asking prices and no bids. The one defender at this level who did move this week went for 70M.

Barcelona can afford to keep him. But if they really want to sell, the market has already shown what it will pay, and that's 40M less than they're asking.