Issue number 319 of the Weekly Post presents the traditional biannual list of the big-5 league players with the greatest transfer values according to the exclusive CIES Football Observatory algorithm. The top estimated value was calculated for the 23-year-old Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford: €165 M. With only 18 months of contract remaining, the former leader Kylian Mbappé falls back to fifth place.

The 20-year-old Norwegian prolific striker Erling Haaland ranks second with an estimated transfer value of €152M. The 22-year-old English full international Trent Alexander-Arnold completes the podium. The Liverpool’s full back is the most expensive defender ahead of Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies (€139M) and Manchester City’s Rúben Dias (€127M). The top estimated values for midfielders and goalkeepers were recorded for Bruno Fernandes (€151 M) and Ederson Moraes (€80M).

With only six months of contract remaining, Lionel Messi just makes the top 100 list: 97th with an estimated value of €54M. Despite his excellent performances, 35-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo (€47M) is only 131st. This is mainly due to his age and the relatively short duration of his contract with Juventus (until June 2022). The transfer value intervals for all big-5 league players are available for free on the CIES Football Observatory website.

Dear football/soccer enthusiast,

the CIES Football Observatory wishes you a happy end of the year 2020 and an excellent 2021, hopefully with the possibility of attending more matches in the stadiums.

We also kindly invite you to take about 5 minutes of your time to answer this anonymous questionnaire about the fans’ opinion on professional football. Warmest thanks to all those who already answered. Your answers will be analysed and made available in the January’s 2021 Monthly Report.

Sincerely yours

On behalf of the CIES Football Observatory, its head

Dr. Raffaele Poli

No professional footballer has played as many minutes in official matches in the calendar year 2020 as Manchester United’s centre back Harry Maguire. Up until December 17th, the English international was fielded during 4’745 minutes (53 matches). The top 100s for both goalkeepers and outfield players are available in issue number 318 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post.

For outfield players, Maguire ranks ahead of Manchester City’s Rúben Dias and the Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi. Other well-known footballers are high in the rankings such as Bruno Fernandes, Romelu Lukaku and Raphaël Varane. If we consider the number of matches played, the Danish full international Christian Eriksen tops the table with 54 games. However, in terms of minutes, the Inter player is not even in the first 1,000 ranks. On average, he played just over a half time per match.

With regard to goalkeepers, at the head of the table is Marcelo Lomba from SC Internacional: 4’740 minutes in 52 official matches. The Brazilians are over-represented in the top positions of the rankings. Four goalkeepers playing for European clubs are in the top 10: Lukáš Hrádecký (Bayer Leverkusen and Finnish national team), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Milan AC and Italy), Jan Oblak (Atlético Madrid and Slovenia), as well as Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich and Germany).

Data is more than ever a must when it comes to scouting. The CIES Football Observatory has developed a unique methodology to assess the performance of players on an objective basis. Using the data from InStat, issue number 317 of the Weekly Post presents the 10 best performing footballers born in the 2000s for each of the six areas of the game covered in our approach. Only players fielded for at least 450 domestic league minutes up until December 7th are included in the rankings.

Nathan Collins (Stoke City) stands out when it comes to rigour (duels). He should soon receive his first call for the Irish senior national team. At the top for recovery, Mohamed Camara (RB Salzburg) is following on the footsteps of other top footballers trained in the academies ran according to the precepts of the French maestro Jean-Marc Guillou. Born in 2002, Ryan Gravenberch (Ajax) heads the distribution table, while Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Rubin Kazan) has the top score for take on.

Dominik Szoboszlai (RB Salzburg) and the 2002-born striker Noni Madueke (PSV Eindhoven) are at the top for chance creation and, respectively, shooting. The 60th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report details the basic principles of the statistical approach developed and presents the top 10 overall rankings in the different areas of the game taken into account for each of the 35 leagues examined.

Dear football/soccer enthusiast,

the CIES Football Observatory academic team kindly invites you to take a little time to answer this anonymous questionnaire about the fans’ opinion on professional football.

Your answers will be analysed and made available in the January’s 2021 Monthly Report. Through your participation, you help us making known the fans’ point of view.

Click here to answer

Many thanks!

Issue number 316 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post compares clubs from 31 top divisions of UEFA member associations according to the average age at which they recruited their current players (not including footballers from the youth academy). CSKA Moscow made the earliest recruitment (21.1 years), ahead of FC DAC 1904 (21.7) and SC Heerenveen (22.1).

Real Madrid is the big-5 league club most focused on signing young talents. Their current squad members were on average recruited at the age of 22.2 years. This value is particularly low also for RB Leipzig (22.3) and OGC Nice (22.5). European champions Bayern Munich are in the 30th position of teams having signed the youngest footballers (23.4). Tottenham Hotspur (23.9) and AC Milan (24.3) top the rankings in Italy and England.

At the opposite end of the table is Gençlerbirli?i SK with an average age of recruitment of 29.0 years, followed by Anorthosis FC and BB Erzurumspor. At the level of the big-5 leagues, the teams least focused on the signing of young players are Benevento in the Serie A (28.1 years), Elche CF in the Liga (27.8), West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League (26.5), Montpellier HSC in the Ligue 1 (26.1) and Union Berlin in the Bundesliga (26.0).