The 501st CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post compares 65 leagues around the world in terms of the tenure of coaches at the head of the teams currently managed. On average, three quarters of coaches have been in place for less than a year (75.3%). This percentage rises to 100% in the top divisions of Costa Rica, Ecuador and Mexico.

With 19 coaches in place for less than a year out of 20, Italian Serie A has the lowest rate of any of the European competitions analysed. The only exception is Inter coach Simone Inzaghi. In contrast, in the Dutch Eredivisie, 7 out of 18 coaches have been in charge of their team for a year or more, a record for Europe’s top divisions.

In terms of the average tenure at the head of the clubs managed, the figures range from 2 years and 67 days in the German Bundesliga to just 88 days in Costa Rica’s Primera División. The German record is partly due to the exceptional case of Frank Schmidt, who has been in charge of Heidenheim’s first team for almost 18 years. Diego Simeone (Atlético Madrid) and Brian Schmetzer (Seattle Sounders) round out the podium of longest-serving coaches.

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Thirteen years after the first issue, the CIES Football Observatory research team is very proud to present its 500th Weekly Post ! For the occasion, we highlight the footballers born in 2001 or later who have played the most official matches in senior competitions since the start of their careers, by year of birth.

With no fewer than 379 official matches at senior competition level, Rodrygo (Real Madrid) ranks first among players born in 2001. The following footballers have accumulated the most appearances for the other years of birth : Eduardo Camavinga (2002), Jude Bellingham (2003), Ângelo Gabriel (2004), Vitor Roque (2005), Endrick Felipe (2006), as well as Lamine Yamal (2007 onwards).

The Post also presents the average number of games per year since the start of the player’s career. With an average of 59.7 games per year since his debut, Lamine Yamal leads all years of birth combined. The Barcelona prodigy is ahead of Pau Cubarsì (59.0) and João Neves (55.0). By year of birth, the leaders are Jason Knight (2001), Joško Gvardiol (2002), Jude Bellingham (2003), João Neves (2004), Malick Fofana (2005), Jorrel Hato (2006) and Lamine Yamal (2007 onwards).

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The 499th Weekly Post presents the 100 best performing goalkeepers in the world over the past year, according to an index on a scale of 100 specifically devised by the CIES Football Observatory*. The top three are Paris St-Germain’s Italian Gianluigi Donnarumma, Inter’s Swiss Yann Sommer and Real Madrid’s Belgian Thibaut Courtois.

Two players from outside the big-5 European leagues feature in the top ten : 23-year-old Russian Stanislav Agkatsev (FK Krasnodar) and Brazilian veteran João Ricardo (Fortaleza EC). They also are the two goalkeepers in the top 10 whose percentage of saves as per Wyscout data most exceeded expectations with respect to the goals conceded by their teams.

On average, the goalkeepers in the top 100 are 29.9 years old, with a high of 41.4 years for Remko Pasveer (AFC Ajax) and lows of 20.1 years for Ármin Pécsi (Puskás Akadémia) and 20.8 years for Slawomir Abramowicz (Jagiellonia Bialystok). Agkatsev aside, only one player who has not yet turned 26 ranks in the top twenty : Djordje Petrović (RC Strasbourg, on loan from Chelsea).

* The index is based on the sporting level of matches played according to this methodology, the results of the games, as well as the deviation in the percentage of saves at domestic league level compared to the expected value given the defensive strength of employer teams. Only goalkeepers with a positive gap on this last criterion feature in the ranking (minimum 20 league matches over the last 365 days).

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The 498th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks more than 900 clubs in 55 leagues worldwide according to a territorial anchorage index calculated from the proportion of national players and club-trained nationals among those fielded in the domestic league over the last year*. The Colombians of Envigado lead the way with 93.8% nationals and 54.2% club-trained nationals.

The Basques of Athletic Club and the Ukrainians of Dynamo Kyiv complete the podium, while the third highest-ranked European team, CA Osasuna, is only seventeenth. Latin American teams are over-represented among the most locally anchored ones. Paraguay’s Club Libertad are fourth, ahead of Mexico’s Chivas Guadalajara and Colombia’s Millonarios Bogota.

Another Colombian club (Atlético Nacional), two Argentinians (CA Belgrano and Vélez Sarsfield) and one Venezuelan (Caracas FC) also are in the top ten. For Asian clubs, the podium is made up of Sanfrecce Hiroshima (23rd), Uzbekistan’s FC Nasaf (24th) and another Japanese team : Kashiwa Reysol (28th). Adelaide United tops the table for Australia and Seattle Sounders for the MLS.

* Nationals are players who have grown up in the association of their home club, while club-trained nationals are those who have played for at least three seasons between the ages of 15 and 21 in their club of employment. The index is calculated on the basis of the gap from the general average for these two variables. Data refer to the last year or, for a few newly-promoted clubs, to the current season.

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In this Weekly Post, the CIES Football Observatory analyses the differences observed over the last year between 63 leagues worldwide in terms of referees’ propensity to hand out penalty cards for fouls. Referees in Japan’s top two divisions are the least likely to issue cards for fouls (around one penalty card every ten fouls), while the opposite is true in Chile and Colombia (around one card every five fouls).

These gaps reflect both different degrees of severity in refereeing styles and discrepancies in the tendency of players to commit gross fouls. The Latin American leagues stand out for their harsh refereeing styles and the propensity of footballers to play violently, with the two phenomena feeding off each other, in contrast to Asia, where referees are less severe and players more disciplined.

The Post also presents the proportion of cards issued for fouls, with a maximum of 93.2% in the Ukrainian Premier League and a minimum of 59.2% in the Bolivian Primera División, where disputes and other forms of indiscipline are commonplace. The latter situation was also observed in the Brazilian Serie A (only 60.7% of penalty cards handed out for fouls), as well as in the top two tiers of Turkish football.

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The 496th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks the teams of 37 leagues around the world according to the percentage of ‘minutes secured’, i.e. the share of the current season’s domestic league minutes played by footballers still under contract with a duration beyond the year 2026. Chelsea tops the list with 91.8% of minutes secured.

Monaco (91.3% of minutes secured) and AZ Alkmaar (89.2%) complete the podium of teams whose squad planning is most likely to bring stability in the coming years or, in the event of transfers, to generate substantial capital gains. Spain’s Real Sociedad (88.4%) and France’s Paris St-Germain also are in the top five positions.

The latter team has the highest value among UEFA’s Champions League quarter-finalists, ahead of another club well prepared for the future: Arsenal (85.8%). AZ Alkmaar aside, two other teams outside the five major European leagues feature in the top ten: Russia’s Zenit St. Petersburg and England Championship’s Coventry City.

>>> Data for all teams in the 37 leagues