The 449th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 402 footballers who played in the big-5 before turning 18 during the 15-year period from January 2009 to December 2023. Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma is the player who has played the most minutes in the five major European leagues as a minor (4,879), followed by Alban Lafont, Eduardo Camavinga, Florian Wirtz, Pablo Gavi and Warren Zaïre-Emery (ongoing).

The 448th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 50 clubs in the world with the most positive and negative transfer balances for non-academy players signed and transferred between 2014 and 2023. The figures range from a positive balance of €386 million for LOSC Lille (Pépé, Osimhen, Botman, etc.) to a negative balance of €631 million for Barcelona (Coutinho, Dembélé, Griezmann, etc.).

The 447th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 100 centre backs in the world with the best aerial play statistics* according to an index computed from the number of aerial duels won, in relation to the playing time and the frequency of aerial duels at employer team level, the percentage of aerial duels won and the sporting level of the matches played. Liverpool’s Dutchman Virgil van Dijk is ahead of Bayern Munich’s South Korean Min-jae Kim.

The 446th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 100 clubs with the most profitable academies in the world in terms of revenues generated over the last ten years by the transfer of players who spent at least three seasons there between the ages of 15 and 21. Portuguese side Benfica are clearly in the lead with €516 million, two thirds of which has been collected in the last five years.

The 445th issue of the Weekly Post presents the 100 players in the world with the highest estimated transfer values according to the CIES Football Observatory statistical model. English youngster Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid) tops the list with a transfer value of €267.5m, ahead of Norway’s Erling Haaland (Manchester City) and his two Brazilian teammates Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo Goes.

The last CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post for 2023 ranks the clubs in 53 leagues around the world according to the average size of the line-ups fielded in the current or last completed season. Almost 13 centimetres separate the ‘tallest’ and ‘shortest’ teams: Hungary’s Kecskeméti TE (187.13cm) and Japan’s Sagan Tosu (174.18cm).