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Fouls committed and suffered: European rankings

Issue number 309 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents players having committed and suffered the most fouls per minute in 33 European championships according to the data provided by our partners InStat. With one foul suffered every 20’39”, Neymar (PSG) heads the rankings for big-5 league footballers.

Yangel Herrera (Granada), Michail Antonio (West Ham), Rodrigo de Paul (Udinese) and Mark Uth (Schalke 04) top the tables for fouls suffered in the four other major European leagues. With regard to fouls committed, Fabien Lemoine (Lorient), Javi Galán (Huesca), Steven Alzate (Brighton & Hove), Nicolas Höfler (Freiburg) and Juraj Kucka (Parma) head the big-5 league rankings.

The 24-year-old English winger Jerell Sellars (Östersunds) leads the table for fouls suffered at the level of the 33 leagues overall, ahead of Diego Fabbrini (Dinamo Bucure?ti) and Jorge Díaz (Panetolikós). Conversely, the three players having so far committed the most fouls per minute are Kirill Vergeichik (Vitebsk), Mohamed El Makrini (Start) and Aleksandr Kokko (RoPS).

Costliest squads: Manchester City stands out

Issue number 308 of the Weekly Post presents the annual CIES Football Observatory analysis on the transfer fee expenditure to assemble the squad by big-5 league teams. As for 2019, Manchester City tops the table with an estimated 1.036 billion euro invested in transfer indemnities to sign their current players (including add-ons).

The figure recorded for Manchester City is €22M higher than that measured one year ago. While still inferior to that of their city rivals, the transfer expenditure to assemble the squad for Manchester United increased by €93M compared to October 2019: from €751 M to €844 M. With this increase, the Red Devils get closer to Paris St-Germain (€888 M, - €25 M) and overtake Real Madrid (€708M, - 194M). The biggest increase was recorded for Chelsea FC (€761M, +€198M).

Apart from Paris St-Germain and Real Madrid, only three other non-English teams are in the top 12: Barcelona (4th, €826M), Juventus (8th, €594M) and Atlético Madrid (11th, €483M). This finding confirms the financial supremacy of the Premier League. No team from this competition has invested less than €100 M in transfer indemnities to sign its current players. The European champions, Bayern Munich, only are 15th (€408M).

COVID only braked the inflation of players’ transfer prices

While the COVID pandemic has brought a considerable drop in the level of investments on the transfer market, footballers signed for money by big-5 league teams during the last transfer window were paid on average 6% more than players with similar characteristics during the summer 2019. The full CIES Football Observatory analysis is available in the 58th edition of the Monthly Report.

During the last transfer window, clubs from the five major European leagues invested 43% less in transfer indemnities to sign new players compared to summer 2019. The minimal fall was recorded in the English Premier League (from €1.65 to €1.49 billion, -10%), while the maximum was measured in the Spanish Liga (from €1.40 billion to €348 million, -75%).

The percentage of free transfers among all players taken on permanently by big-5 league clubs has significantly increased: from 26.2% to 32.2%. The percentage of players recruited on loan out of all signings went also up: from 23.1% to a record 30.0%. The COVID pandemic has also reinforced the tendency for teams to integrate conditional payments and sell-on percentages into the transactions.

The COVID crisis has strongly impacted the probability that players are signed for money. However, if a transfer takes place, the hypothesis according to which the price would have been negotiated to a lower level than before the pandemic does not hold true. In this regard, the most marking impact of the pandemic resides in the slowing down of the rampant inflation of players’ prices: from 15% on average per year between 2015 and 2019, down to 6% between 2019 and 2020.

Exclusive squad turnover world rankings revealed

Issue number 307 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks clubs having played at least 27 domestic league matches since September 2019 according to the number of players fielded. The sample is composed of 1,014 top or second division teams from 50 countries across the world. The Brazilian club Avaí FC tops the table with 59 players used, 37 more than the two teams having fielded the least footballers: Halmstad (Sweden) and Wellington Phoenix (New Zealand).

Five English clubs are in the top 20 of the most stable teams list: Burnley, Liverpool, Southampton, Brighton & Hove Albion and West Bromwich Albion. In the first 20 positions also are two other big-5 league clubs: Olympique Marseille and Bayer Leverkusen. Conversely, with 42 players fielded over the last year, Genoa is the team from the five major European leagues with the greatest squad turnover, ahead of St-Etienne (40).

Brazilian clubs are over-represented among those using the most players. Thirteen of them have fielded at least 50 footballers during the last year. Many Eastern European teams, notably from Serbia and Ukraine, also are particularly instable. On the contrary, the majority of Western European and Asian clubs do not heavily rotate their squads.

Júnior Negão ahead of Ronaldo in 2020 top scorer list

Issue number 306 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 127 footballers having scored at least 10 goals in 94 top division leagues worldwide during the calendar year 2020. The 33-year-old Brazilian Júnior Negão from the South Korean team of Ulsan Hyundai tops the list with 24 goals before last week-end, two more than the 35-year-old Portuguese superstar Ronaldo from Juventus (25 vs 24 after the week-end).

By weighting goals with the sporting level of the competition in which they were scored using the exclusive CIES Football Observatory coefficient, Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) is at the top of the rankings ahead of Ciro Immobile (Lazio), Robert Lewandowski (Bayern), Erling Haland (Borussia Dortmund) and Mohamed Salah (Liverpool).

With 15 domestic league goals in only 1’153 minutes, the young Norwegian prodigy Erling Haland has the lowest minutes per goal rate among big-5 league footballers: 76.9. Cristiano Ronaldo (24 goals in 1784 minutes, 81.1) and Andrej Kramari? from Hoffenheim (10 goals in 835 minutes, 83.5) complete the podium of this specific table.

English Premier League clubs rarely field young players

Issue number 305 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks 80 top divisions worldwide according to the percentage of minutes by 21-year-old or younger players since the 2015/16 (or 2015) season. The lowest percentage among the five major European leagues was recorded in the English Premier League (7.1% of minutes), while the highest was measured in the French Ligue 1 (15.4%).

Two Baltic countries are at the top of the overall rankings: Estonia (31.1%) and Latvia (27.2%). The Slovenian top division complete the podium: 26.4%. The Dutch Eredivisie is the most competitive championship in the top 10 (8th, 23.8%). The highest figures for leagues in non-UEFA associations were observed in Panama (7th, 23.9%), Venezuela (13th, 22.0%) and Uruguay (20th, 18.0%).

Since 2015, Chinese Super League clubs fielded 21-year-old or younger players for the fewest percentage of minutes among all of the competitions surveyed: 3.9%. This very low proportion indicates that China is not yet ready to become a football power as local talents struggle to gain experience. The second lowest figure was recorded in the Turkish Süper Lig (4.1%).

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What about the home advantage after the COVID-19 pandemic?

Home teams traditionally win more matches than away ones. This is often explained by the support of local fans. Issue number 304 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses the difference in the percentage of home wins before and after the COVID-19 pandemic in 63 leagues worldwide. It reveals that the home advantage persisted without spectators, even though in a less marked way.

From January 2015 to March 2020, home teams won 44.3% of matches in the leagues surveyed. After the outbreak of the pandemic and the closure of stadiums to the public, this figure went slightly down to 42.2%. To different extents, the percentage of home wins decreased in 41 of the 63 leagues studied. The average goal difference per match diminished from +0.31 to +0.24.

The greatest decrease in the percentage of home wins was recorded in the Greek top division (-15.1%), followed by the Austrian and German ones. At the opposite end, in the Swiss top-flight league, home teams won a significantly higher percentage of matches after the closure of stadiums to the public than before: +8.5%.

Global study of penalty cards in professional football

The brand new CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report compares 87 top divisions worldwide from the point of view of the number of yellow and red cards given by referees between 2015 and 2020. The study highlights great differences according to country and reveals the existence of significant correlations between the amount of cards per match and many socio-economic indicators for nations.

The number of cards varies considerably according to the confederation of belonging of the leagues studied. At one extreme, in South America (CONMEBOL), referees handed out on average 5.83 cards per match. This figure is 45% higher than that observed in the 15 Asian (AFC) leagues included in the study (4.00). Invariably, away teams receive more cards than home ones.

The gross domestic product (GDP) and the Human Development Index (HDI) are inversely correlated to the quantity of cards. This indicates that the matches played in nations whose inhabitants enjoy a higher standard of living and education are less fraught, or at least are less sanctioned by the referee corps.

A significant positive statistical correlation was also measured between the amount of cards and the homicide rate per country. The violence present in a society thus seems to be transposed to football. In addition, the more citizens consider that the level of corruption in their country is high, the more referees are likely to hand out cards. This result could reflect the existence of a social climate where distrust and suspicion are rife.

These findings show that football matches take place under different dynamics according to the social, economic, political and cultural context of the country in which they are played. They confirm the very strong link between football and society and reveal the importance of taking into account the specifics of countries for a fine analysis of the game even in a context of globalisation.

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Extend now! Top transfer value increases with one more year of contract

The 303rd edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the big-5 league players whose transfer value would increase the most if their contract with the club of belonging was extended for an additional year. The most positive gap overall was recorded for Jadon Sancho (+€43M), ahead of Kylian Mbappé (+€39M) and Lionel Messi (+€35M).

With two years of contract remaining, the transfer value of Jadon Sancho according to the exclusive CIES Football Observatory algorithm is currently just above €180M. A one-year contract extension would drive this figure up to €223M. If Kylian Mbappé extended his contract with Paris St-Germain from June 2022 to June 2023, his estimated transfer value would increase from €242M to €281M.

Lionel Messi leads the table among players with only one year of contract remaining ahead of Georginio Wijnaldum and Ferran Torres. By renewing their contracts for an additional year, their transfer values would increase from about €80M to €115M for Messi, from €44M to €64M for Wijnaldum, as well as from €42M to €61M for Torres.

Bayern are ball movement champions

Issue number 302 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses the InStat data on ball movement in kilometres during possession phases by teams from 35 European competitions for the seasons 2018/19 and 2019/20 (2018 and 2019 for summer leagues). Bayern Munich (12.7 km per match) outranks Manchester City (12.5 km) and Liverpool (12.3 km).

Bayern Munich players achieve on average slightly fewer passes per game than those of Manchester City (705 versus 722), but their distance is longer (18.0 metres versus 17.3). Liverpool players only make 654 passes per match (9th position), but their length (18.8 meters) is much greater than that measured for the vast majority of teams in the top positions of the rankings.

The Greek side of Panionios is at the bottom of the table with a ball circulation distance of about 6.8 kilometres per game. Cardiff City is anti-penultimate with the lowest number of successful passes overall (326). The highest average passes lengths were recorded for two Scottish teams: Livingston (23.1 meters) and Hamilton Academical (22.4). Contact us to know more about InStat data and services.

Professional football coaches: age, longevity and origin

The 56th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report analyses the characteristics of the coaches at the head of 1,646 teams from 110 leagues in 79 countries worldwide. The study covers three aspects: the age, the length of stay in the club managed and the origin. The typical profile for a coach is a male just under 50 years of age (48.8) in charge for less than one year (301 days).

Altogether, 28.3% of coaches managing on the 1st of June 2020 the teams analysed grew up in another association than that of the club trained. This percentage is higher than that measured among players in the same competitions: 24.7%. The analysis also shows that almost two-thirds of coaches are former professional players: 64.3%. Defenders over-represented, while former goalkeepers are under-represented.

Issue number 301 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post reveals that Argentina is the most represented nation among expatriate coaches. The 68 Argentinians present abroad on the 1st June 2020 were at work in 22 different countries. Most of them were active in other Latin American countries. Similar to players, their top destination was Chile (11 coaches). Spaniards are also well represented abroad (41 coaches in 21 countries), as well as Serbs (34 coaches in a record number of 24 countries).

Penalties: most in Poland, fewest in Norway and England

The 300th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post compares 35 European leagues according to the number of penalties per game whistled by referees since the 2017/18 season (2018 for summer leagues) as per data provided by our partners InStat. At the top of the table is the Polish Ekstraklasa (a penalty every 230 minutes), while at the opposite end is the Norwegian Eliteserien (every 389 minutes).

The Premier League (382’) and the Championship (377’) in England are the second and third leagues where the fewest penalties are whistled, which confirms the particular style of refereeing in the United Kingdom. This result can also be explained by the lower tendency of players to ‘look for fouls’. Penalties are also not whistled very often in the German Bundesliga (321’), while their frequency is much greater in the Italian Serie A (249’), the French Ligue 1 (262’) and the Spanish Liga (268’).

At club level, the Serbian side Crvena Zvezda leads the rankings with a penalty obtained every 209 minutes. Among big-5 league clubs, Lazio (296’) tops the table ahead of Paris St-Germain (319’) and Sampdoria (325’). Burnley FC is at the other end of the spectrum with only four penalties in 105 matches (every 2’362 minutes), ahead of Newcastle United (five penalties, of which only one scored) and the Norwegians of Odds BK.

Biannual CIES Football Observatory transfer value list

The 299th edition of the Weekly Post presents the 100 big-5 league players with the highest estimated transfer values according to the CIES Football Observatory algorithm. Kylian Mbappé tops the list ahead of four Englishmen: Raheem Sterling, Jadon Sancho, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Marcus Rashford. The young Bayern Munich prodigy Alphonso Davies enters the top 10.

Despite the COVID-19 crisis, the estimated transfer value of Kylian Mbappé remains very high: €259.2 million. The French striker is still very young and his contract with Paris St-Germain only ends in 2023. With just one year of contract remaining and almost 33 years of age, Lionel Messi (€100.1 M) only ranks 21st. Cristiano Ronaldo (€62.8 M, 70th) is the oldest player in the top 100 list. In total, 22 big-5 league footballers have an estimated value of more than €100 million.

Alphonso Davies (9th, €133.5 M) is the youngest footballer in the top 20 ahead of Erling Haland (15th, €107.3 M). The most expensive players per position are Ederson Moraes (€86.8 M) for goalkeepers, Matthijs de Ligt (€104.7 M) for centre backs, Trent Alexander-Arnold (€171.1 M) for full backs, Frenkie de Jong (€102.1 M) for defensive midfielders, Bruno Fernandes (€104.9 M) for attacking midfielders and Kylian Mbappé (€259.2 M) for forwards.

Most productive German Bundesliga players

The German Bundesliga was the first major European league to restart after the COVID-19 break. Issue number 298 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the players with the best statistics during current season for eight different indicators according to the data provided by our partners OptaPro.

Yann Sommer leads the table for the number of saves, Kingsley Ehizibue (Köln) did the most successful tackles, while Omar Mascarell (Schalke 04) and Jamilu Collins (Paderborn) made the most interceptions. Alphonso Davies (Bayern) heads the rankings for successful dribbles, Sven Bender (Bayer) for accurate passes, Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig) for assists having led to attempts and Robert Lewandowski (Bayern) for shots.

Union Berlin’s centre forward Sebastian Andersson won more than twice aerial duels than the second player who won the most: 210 compared to 102. This astonishing figure is related to the style of play of his team, which fields the tallest line-ups in Europe, as illustrated by the exclusive CIES Football Observatory Demographic Atlas.

40 matches to say good-bye: the hard life of coaches

Issue number 297 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses the employment of head coaches in 84 top divisions worldwide between January 2015 and December 2019. During this period, the average number of coaches per club in charge for at least three domestic league matches goes from 9.1 in Bolivia to 2.6 in Sweden. On average, a coach managed 40.6 games.

The data per league represent a fair estimate of the real ones as we only included in the sample the championships for which we could find the complete coaching history for at least half of the clubs concerned. The club rankings only include teams that have always been in the first division during the period considered.

The highest value was recorded for Club Real Potosí. The Bolivian side employed 20 different coaches for at least three domestic league matches between 2015 and 2019. On average, they were in charge for 11.3 games. Only 30 clubs out of the 766 taken into consideration employed a single coach during the five-year period studied. All current big-5 league teams had at least two coaches during this period.

Easy wins: Lincoln Red Imps at the top

Issue number 296 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post reveals that Lincoln Red Imps from Gibraltar is the current top division team worldwide having won the highest percentage of domestic league matches played between 2015 and 2020 by three or more goals: 49.6%. AFC Ajax is fifth (37.4%), while Paris St-Germain and Barcelona are ninth (35.4%).

At league level, the highest percentage of easy wins was recorded in the top division of Macao (42.5% of total matches), ahead of Tahiti (38.1%) and Estonia (32.6%). The figures for the five major European leagues vary between 18.8% in Germany and 15.5% in Italy. The average for the 151 top divisions analysed is 14.4%.

The greatest percentage of fixtures ended in a tie between 2015 and 2020 was recorded in Gambia (42.1%), while the lowest was observed in Macao (14.9%). Naft Masjed Soleyman from Iran is the current top division team with the highest percentage of draws during the period surveyed (47.4%). Tukums from Latvia is at the opposite end of the table (8.2%).

Football players’ production: Brazil world leader

The CIES Football Observatory just published its 55th Monthly Report. The study analyses the contribution of national associations worldwide from the point of view of the production of professional players. The sample includes 55,865 footballers having played during the 2019 calendar year in 132 top or second division leagues from 93 countries covering all continents.

To produce the ranking, domestic league minutes played by each footballer were weighted according to a coefficient of clubs’ sporting strength, calculated by taking into account the division and results of teams at national level, as well as the results of the representatives of every association in international club competitions. The origin of players was defined as the association where they grew up.

Brazil stands out as the world leader regarding the production of professional footballers. Brazilians are numerous (2,748 in the 132 leagues studied, of which 1,541 are abroad), play a considerable number of minutes (1,203 domestic league minutes per year compared to a general average of 1,133 minutes) and are active in high-level clubs (sporting coefficient of 0.49 compared to an average of 0.37).

France is the second world powerhouse, just ahead of Spain. The French are more numerous than the Spanish in the leagues studied (1,744 as opposed to 1,350), but are less fielded (on average 1,260 minutes against 1,360 in 2019) and play in clubs with a lower level (average sporting coefficient of 0.55 as opposed to 0.63). Argentina ranks fourth outranking two other European countries: England and Germany.

Goalless matches: Africa stands out

The 295th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks 150 top division leagues and clubs worldwide according to the percentage of goalless games during the five-year period between January 2015 and December 2019. At the top 30 places are 23 Africans domestic championships. The highest percentage overall was recorded in Gambia (23.5%) ahead of Cameroon (19.1%).

The highest and lowest percentages per Confederation were recorded for Iraq (14.9%) and Macao (2.9%) in Asia (continental average of 7.6%), Gambia (23.5%) and Madagascar (7.4%) in Africa (13.9%), Haiti (18.5%) and Suriname (3.0%) in North America (8.1%), Argentina (11.5%) and Bolivia (5.6%) in South America (8.3%), as well as Montenegro (13.0%) and Northern Ireland (3.4%) in Europe (7.9%).

At club level, the figures vary between 29.8% for Gambia Ports Authority (GPA) and 0.0% for Warrenpoint Town. None of the 167 games played by the Northern Irish team during the period considered ended goalless. The highest percentage for current teams from the five major European leagues was recorded for Angers (23 0-0 out of 191 matches, 12.0%), while the lowest was observed for Cagliari (6 out of 195, 3.1%).

Which clubs and leagues field the most U21 players?

Early professional experience is key to succeed in football. Great discrepancies exist between clubs and leagues in the opportunities given to young players to prove their talent. Issue number 294 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the percentage of minutes played in the current season or the last completed one by U21 footballers from 1,292 clubs and 93 top divisions worldwide.

At league level, the playing time of U21 footballers stretches from 29.0% in the Slovakian Super Liga to only 3.7% in the Saudi Pro League and the Turkish Süper Lig. In South America, the figures vary from 21.2% in Uruguay to 11.0% in the Argentina. The French Ligue 1 is the major European league with the highest percentage of minutes by U21 players (15.0%), while the Spanish Liga is at the opposite end of the table (7.0%).

The highest figures at club level per Confederation were recorded for the reserve team of Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand (93.3%), the Young Lions in Singapore (81.1%), University College Dublin in Ireland (78.0%), Cavalier in Jamaica (58.1%), Universidad San Martín in Peru (56.6%) and NA Hussein Dey in Algeria (40.0%). In the big-5, the highest value was measured for LOSC Lille (32.1%), while four clubs did not field U21 players (Levante, Crystal Palace, Union Berlin and Sheffield United).

Impact of first goal: Red Star Belgrade at the top

Between January 2015 and December 2019, Red Star Belgrade won 130 domestic league matches out of the 135 during which they scored the first goal: 96.3%. This is the highest value measured among clubs from 92 top divisions worldwide ahead of Sherif Tiraspol from Moldova (94.1%) and Albirex Niigata Singapore (93.3%). The full analysis is available in the 293rd CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post.

The highest percentages of wins in case of first goal for current big-5 league teams over the five years studied were recorded for Paris St-Germain (89.9%, 124 wins out of 138), Barcelona (88.5%, 116 out of 131) and Manchester City (87.1%, 115 out of 132). Per league, the lowest value were recorded for Toulouse, Augsburg, Udinese, Eibar and Southampton. The lowest percentage overall was recorded for the Australian side Central Coast Mariners (20 wins out of 53, 38%).

At league level, the values range from four fifth of wins for the team having scored the first goal in the Moldavian top division to only about two thirds in the Chilean one. The average for the 92 competitions analysed is just below 70%. At the level of the big-5, the percentages go from 71.1% in the English Premier League to 67.8% in the German Bundesliga. The lowest values in Europe were recorded for the Belgian and Norwegian top divisions (66.3% in both cases).

Player export: Brazil leads the table

Issue number 292 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks countries worldwide according to the number of their representatives having played professional football abroad during the calendar year 2019. Brazil is at the top of the table (1,600 players, of which 74.6% active in top division leagues) ahead of France (1,027, 74.0%) and Argentina (972, 75.5%).

In total, 186 national associations had at least one player expatriated in the 141 leagues from 93 countries included in the sample. However, altogether, Brazil, France and Argentina provided up to almost one quarter of the total foreign workforce in global football (22.5%). Nigeria is the main African exporting nation (399 players abroad), while Japan is the principal Asian one (161).

The CIES Football Observatory Atlas of Migration presents the main destinations for each origin. This exclusive tool notably reveals that Portugal is by far the main destination for Brazilians, ahead of Italy and Japan. The three main destinations for the French expatriates are England, Belgium and Luxembourg, while those of the Argentineans are Chile, Mexico and Spain.

Best stepping-stone clubs: Ajax ahead of Benfica

The 291st Weekly Post of the CIES Football Observatory highlights the main clubs from where current big-5 league players departed to reach the five major European leagues. At the top of the stepping-stone club rankings are three regular European Cup participants: AFC Ajax (22 players currently in the big-5 were recruited there), SL Benfica (21) and RB Salzburg (20).

In the top 15 positions also are three Belgian teams (KRC Genk, RSC Anderlecht and Club Brugge KV), two further Portuguese clubs (Sporting Clube de Portugal and FC Porto), an additional Dutch one (PSV Eindhoven), as well Swiss (FC Basel), Croatian (Dinamo Zagreb) and Danish (FC København) sides. The B-teams of Real Madrid (4th) and FC Barcelona (11th) also figure high in the rankings. The first non-European team is Boca Juniors (15th).

The 54th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report broadens the analysis by revealing that recruitment from a non-big-5 league team is the most common way of entering the five major European leagues (48%), followed by advancement from the youth academy or the B-team of a big-5 league club (39%, up to 50% for players who made their debut in the Spanish Liga) and the promotion from a second division of the club of belonging (13%).

Squad turnover: South America king of change

The 290th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks clubs from 87 top divisions worldwide according to the number of players fielded in domestic league matches since January 2015. The highest value was recorded for the Colombian side of Deportivo Pasto (176 different players), while the lowest one was measured for Shanghai SIPG in China (44 players).

South American clubs are over-represented among those with the highest squad turnover: 7 in the top 10 positions and 14 in the top 20. Conversely, many top-flight European teams are among those who fielded the least different players in domestic league matches since January 2015, such as Manchester City (52), Real Madrid (54) and Bayern Munich (59).

Generally speaking, the richest leagues are not those where clubs change the most players. The average number of players fielded per club and season varies between 38.7 in the Paraguayan top division and 22.1 in the San Marino one. The highest values in Europe were recorded in Romania (30.5 players per club and season) and Croatia (30.2).

Pandemic: 28% loss on players’ transfer value

The coronavirus pandemic is heavily impacting the football industry. Issue number 289 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the gaps in the players’ estimated transfer value in the event that no matches will be played and no contract will be extended until the end of June. As such, the total player transfer value at big-5 league level would decrease by 28%: from €32.7 to €23.4 billion.

The extent of the decrease varies according to several factors such as the players’ age, contract duration, career path and recent performance. The greatest loss in relative terms concerns ageing footballers with short-term contracts who played fewer matches during current season than in the previous one. As matter of example, Paul Pogba’s estimated transfer value would almost halve from €65M to €35M.

The greatest potential percentage loss per club was measured for Olympique de Marseille: -38%. Conversely, the lowest one was recorded for another French Ligue 1 team: Stade Brestois (-16%). The values presented have been calculated on the basis of the exclusive CIES Football algorithm. The transfer value ranges for big-5 league footballers before the league shutdown are available here.

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