Dear subscribers, thanks to the vigilance of many of you, we have found several omissions in our 370th Weekly Post. We are really sorry about it. Finally, the Portuguese side of SL Benfica leads the table with about €379 M.

Real Madrid ran the second most profitable academy from an economic perspective during the period considered (€330 M), while AS Monaco completes the podium (€285 M) ahead of the Dutch side of AFC Ajax (€283 M). Flamengo (13th), River Plate (27th) and Santos (28th) are in the top three positions for non-European teams.

With €2.03 billion, English clubs generated then most money by the transfer of academy graduates since July 2015, just ahead French teams (€1.61 billion). Spanish clubs (€1.39 billion) complete the podium per nation, ahead of the Italians (€1.11 billion), the Brazilians (€951 M), the Germans (€916 M), the Portuguese (€788 M), the Dutch (€709 M) and the Argentineans (€566 M).

Issue number 370 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the top 50 of clubs worldwide having generated the most incomes since July 2015 from the transfer of players graduated from their youth academy. Thanks to the paying fee transfer of nine players trained, including Kylian Mbappé’s record one to PSG, AS Monaco (€246 M) tops the table, ahead of Real Madrid (€235 M) and Olympique Lyonnais (€228 M).

Six teams outside of big-5 league countries are in the top 20 positions of the rankings: AFC Ajax (4th, €211 M generated by the transfer of ten academy pupils), SL Benfica (5th, €202 M), PSV Eindhoven (8th, 142 M), Dinamo Zagreb (11th, €110 M), Sporting CP (12th, €106 M not including the further €20 M to come for Rafael Leão following the recent CAS award), RSC Anderlecht (16th, 91 M), as well as RB Salzburg (20th, € 76 M).

With €1.17 billion, French clubs generated then most money by the transfer of youth academy players since July 2015, just ahead English teams (€1.13 billion). Despite their low propensity to field club-trained footballers, Italian teams complete the podium with €743 M (with Atalanta 1st), ahead of the Spanish (€703 M, of which one third by Real Madrid), the Dutch (€564 M), the German (€551 M, with Bayer Leverkusen 1st) and the Brazilians (€403 M).

The 72nd Monthly Report presents the method developed by the CIES Football Observatory to rank footballers according to their style of play. From the data gathered by InStat, the study notably calculates statistical distances between players, a particularly useful approach from a scouting perspective. The sample is composed of 7,215 footballers from clubs in 36 top and second division leagues across Europe.

The analysis reveals that, for example, James Maddison is the big-5 league footballer closest to Kylian Mbappé from the perspective of the technical actions performed. This exercise can be carried out for any player. Always at big-5 league level, Dusan Vlahovic is the footballer who is closest to Erling Haaland, Paulo Dybala to Lionel Messi, Romain Faivre to Neymar Junior, Dominik Szoboszlai to Kevin de Bruyne, Remo Freuler to Jorginho Frello or Jonathan Tah to Virgil van Dijk.

The study also puts forward footballers whose performances deviate most positively from those of teammates for each of the eight player profile classes built from a principal component analysis. The three youngest players in the top 10 of a class are Yvan Dibango (FC Isloch, 6th in the “Trippier” class), El Bilal Touré (Stade de Reims, 8th in the “Lukaku” class) and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Rubin Kazan, 9th in the “Sterling” class”).

Clubs and agents interested in knowing more about the work of our research group, notably the freshly developed Toolkit, are kindly invited to contact us.

Issue number 369 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks teams from 50 top divisions worldwide according to the number of players fielded in domestic league games during the last 365 days. For current big-5 league teams, the values stretch from an eye-staggering 55 players for Genoa down to only 27 for West Ham United.

The highest figure overall was recorded for Deportivo Pasto. The Colombians fielded up to 70 players in the 40 domestic league matches played during the last year. They outrank the Romanians of Dinamo Bucuresti and the Welsh of Cefn Druids (both 63 players). The four highest figures in the big-5 were all recorded for Italian Serie A teams: Genoa (55), Salernitana (53), Venezia (47) and Spezia (46).

The record figures for UEFA Champions League teams are much lower: 38 players for Paris St-Germain and 36 for Juventus. LOSC Lille and Manchester City are at the opposite end: 28 players for both. By league, the average values per club vary between 31 players in England and Moldavia, up to a maximum of 47 in Colombia.

More exclusive squad management policies data and many other key statistical indicators are available in the freshly conceived CIES Football Observatory Toolkit, a unique platform specifically devised for club directors and top management. Do not hesitate to contact us (football.observatory@unine.ch) to know more about this brand new tool.

Dear subscriber and friend of football,

The CIES Football Observatory academic team devised a brief and anonymous questionnaire aiming at understanding what people passionate about football consider as worrying in the beautiful game today. We would be grateful if you could take one minute to answer.

The main findings will be published online on our website and social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). A report outlining the main results of a previous survey on professional football is available here.

Please click here to complete the questionnaire. Thank you!

Issue number 368 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post crunched the InStat data on goal scoring chances and effective playing time for 36 European leagues since 2018/19 (or 2018) to determine the level of “game openness”. The findings show that clubs in leagues from the North/West part of the continent tend to play more openly than those from the South/East.

With an average of 11.7 chances and 63’21” effective time per match, the Dutch Eredivisie recorded the highest Game Openness Index, ahead of the German Bundesliga and the Belgian Pro League. At the opposite end is the Spanish Segunda División with just 8.7 chances and 55’06” of effective time. The Greek Super League and the Romanian Liga I also are at the bottom three of the rankings.

On average, the effective playing time of matches in the 36 leagues survey is just above 59 minutes: from 63’21” in the Netherlands to 54’55” in the Czech Republic. Teams create on average 10.2 goal scoring chances per match: from 11.9 in the German Bundesliga to 8.7 in both the Spanish second division and the Greek top one.