Issue number 354 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the most active dribblers in 33 leagues worldwide according to the data of our partners InStat. Only players having attempted at least 40 dribbles in the current season (or in 2021 for the Brazilian Serie A) are included in the rankings. A dribble is defined as an active action performed by a player in order to get through an opponent.

Players are ranked according to a Dribble Index, i.e. the percentage of successful dribbles divided by the dribbling attempt frequency (minutes of play per dribble). Then highest score overall was recorded for Wolverhampton Spanish winger Adama Traoré (11.2), ahead of Universidad de Chile’s Argentinean Nahuel Luján (9.7) and CSKA Moskow’s Nigerian Chidera Ejuke (9.3).

At the top of the rankings in the other main major leagues are Erick de Arruda (Cearà SC) in Brazil, Rafael Leão (Milan AC) in Italy, Kamaldeen Sulemana (Stade Rennais) in France, Cody Gakpo (PSV Eindhoven) in the Netherlands, Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich) in Germany, Jordan Carrillo (Santos Laguna) in Mexico, Ivo Rodrigues (Famalicão FC) in Portugal and Vinícius Júnior (Real Madrid) in Spain.

AFC Ajax tops the CIES Football Observatory 2021 rankings of clubs having trained the most footballers playing in 31 top divisions of UEFA member countries. The Dutch team nurtured 81 players currently active in these championships, six more than Shakhtar Donetsk. Real Madrid and Barcelona co-head the table for players active in the five major European leagues (42). The top 100s are accessible for free here.

The CIES Football Observatory also developed the Training Index, an indicator weighting the number of players trained according to the sporting level of their employer clubs (through a coefficient based on domestic league and international club competitions results), their employment rate (over the last year), as well as their age (the younger, the better). Ajax also tops this table for players in the 31 European top divisions surveyed, ahead of Sporting Clube de Portugal and Real Madrid.

The highest Training Index when only considering big-5 league footballers was recorded for Real Madrid, ahead of FC Barcelona and Paris St-Germain. Ajax, Sporting Clube and Anderlecht are the best-ranked non big-5 league teams. As per UEFA definition, training clubs are those where footballers have played for at least three years between the ages of 15 and 21. The season during which players celebrated their 15th and 21st birthday are also included.

Issue number 352 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks teams from 41 leagues worldwide according to the ratio between big chances created and conceded as per data from our partners InStat. A big chance defines a clear-cut chance to score a goal. Partizan Belgrade (5.0) recorded the best ratio out of the 680 clubs surveyed, ahead of AFC Ajax (4.3) and RB Salzburg (4.1).

Manchester City tops the table for the five major European leagues with a ratio of 3.3. Guardiola’s side creates on average 8.4 big chances per game, while only conceding 2.6 to their opponents. Bayern Munich (3.0) and Paris St-Germain (2.4) complete the podium for the big-5, while Everton is fourth (2.3). At the bottom of the rankings are Granada, Greuther Fürth, Norwich City and Southampton.

River Plate is the most dominant team in the Argentinean top division with a big chance ratio of 2.5, ahead of Club Estudiantes, Vélez Sarsfield and Boca Juniors. In Brazil, Flamengo (1.8) outranks CA Mineiro, Fortaleza EC and Ceará SC. Per league, the number of big chances per game vary between 13.6 in the Swiss Super League down to only 8.4 in the Romanian Liga I.

Since last summer, the CIES Football Observatory has had the pleasure of working with the French leading company SkillCorner, specialised in the generation of physical data on football players. The 68th Monthly Report analyses the distances covered, notably according to running speed, for 7,855 matches played during the 2020 or 2020/21 seasons in 31 leagues from both Europe and America.

The study shows that players from European teams tend to cover more ground than those from South American clubs, which reflects a more rapid playing style. However, the gaps between the competitions analysed are not very marked. The values per outfield player and match stretch from 10.3km for the Spanish Liga and 9.6km in the Brazilian Serie A.

A significant link exists between the players’ age and distances covered, whether for total distance or that ran in high intensity (> 19.8 km/h). The strongest relation was recorded between the forwards’ age and high-speed runs. This finding confirms that the propensity of strikers to cover distances at high intensity decreases over the years, revealing the advantage of having young forwards in the squad.

Important differences at the level of total distances covered and the speed of runs also exist between positions. Midfielders run the most (10.6km per match on average), while centre backs the least (9.2km). Wingers cover the greatest distance both in high intensity (932m) and when sprinting (211m). In these cases too, the lowest figures were measured for centre backs.

Full study for free & more on our Twitter account

Issue number 351 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks clubs in 31 top divisions from UEFA member associations according to the percentage of domestic league minutes played by expatriates. The highest value overall was recorded for the Greek side Aris FC (98.4% of minutes), while Udinese Calcio (88.0%) tops the rankings for big-5 league clubs ahead of Chelsea FC (86.8%).

LOSC Lille, RB Leipzig and Atlético Madrid are the most foreign-oriented clubs in the other three major European championships, while Rangers FC tops the table in Scotland, Boavista FC in Portugal, Fatih Karagümrük in Turkey and SBV Vitesse in the Netherlands. The notion of expatriates refers to footballers who grew up in a different association from that of the employer club.

Only two teams out of the 474 surveyed did not field any expatriate player in domestic league games: the Ukrainian side FK Desna and the Basques of Athletic Club. The CIES Football Observatory is also happy to unveil that an improved version of the Demographic Atlas with current season’s data is now available here. Enjoy the tool!

Issue number 350 of the Weekly Post presents the estimated squad transfer values of the 98 teams in the big-5. The figures were calculated on the basis of the exclusive CIES Football Observatory algorithm. The two teams having invested the most to sign their current players, Manchester City and Manchester United, also are at the top of those with the highest estimated squad value.

The Manchester teams would potentially collect more than €1.2 billion in transfer indemnities if they decided put all their current squad members on the market. Chelsea completes the podium with an estimated squad value of €946 million. Barcelona heads the rankings in the Spanish Liga (€896M), Bayern Munich in the German Bundesliga (€890M), Paris St-Germain in the French Ligue 1 (€808M) and Juventus in the Italian Serie A (€618M).

The estimated transfer value of all English Premier League players totals €8.9 billion (€445M per team on average). For the other leagues of the big-5, these figures are €5.3 billion for the Spanish Liga (€263M per club), €4.5 billion for the German Bundesliga (€251M), €4.4 billion for the Italian Serie A (€222M) and €3.4 billion for the French Ligue 1 (€172M). The individual estimates for all big-5 league players are available here.