Salah £12m, De Bruyne £11.5m: Fantasy Premier League reveal big-name player prices ahead of 2020-21 season

Fans of the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) online game can start planning their squads for the 2020-21 season after the first prices of some of the biggest stars in the English top-flight were released.

The official fantasy football game of the English Premier League has become a phenomenon in modern football, with millions of participants in the online competition every season along with dedicated shows, programmes and podcasts about the game, including Goal 's UK Fantasy Football Show.

Punters looking to emulate 2019-20 champion Joshua Bull will now be able to make a start on plotting their title challenge after FPL began to reveal the prices of some of the best players available to competitors.

In the game, participants are given a budget of £100 million to select 15 players - a starting XI and four substitutes - to take part in each gameweek. Players collect points from each match based on goals, assists, clean sheets and other factors. That means spending your budget wisely is an integral feature of the competition.

On Friday, FPL revealed the first prices of players for next season. Liverpool star Mohamed Salah, and Manchester City duo Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne were the first three to be announced, with Bruno Fernandes and Sadio Mane following later in the afternoon.

Unsurprisingly, with all players being among the most highly regarded footballers in England currently, they will cost FPL managers a pretty penny to include in their squads.

Salah and Liverpool co-star Sadio Mane have both been priced at £12m, while including either Sterling or De Bruyne will take an £11.5m chunk out of a fantasy manager's budget.

They could well be worth the cost however, as they scored highly in the 2019-20 campaign. City midfielder De Bruyne was the highest scoring player last season, recording 251 points. Salah was worth 233 for managers who chose to keep him in for all 38 games, while Mane collected 221 and Sterling earned 204 in total.

Meanwhile, Manchester United star Fernandes' price has been set at £10.5m after the midfielder's impressive start to life at Old Trafford. The 25-year-old scored eight times and made seven assists in 14 Premier League appearances since his January switch from Portuguese giants Sporting, making 117 points.

Keen FPL fans will be eagerly watching over the course of the coming days to see what price other players will be assigned for 2020-21.

Expected to be pricey will be Jamie Vardy, the Leicester City striker having scored 210 points to be the league's top ranking forward. Liverpool right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold - newly crowned Premier League young player of the year - was the highest scoring defender, also on 210.