Issue number 216 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post uses OptaPro data to analyse the dribbling skills of big-5 league players. The dribbling index is calculated by multiplying the average number of dribbles achieved per 90 minutes with the percentage of successful ones. This allows us to take into account both the quantity and quality of dribbles. Three players clearly distinguish themselves in this area: Eden Hazard, Neymar and Lionel Messi.

While Neymar won so far a higher number of contests per 90 domestic league minutes, Hazard achieved a greater percentage of dribbles attempted: 75% compared to 62%. Messi’s success rate is also 62%. The highest percentages of successful dribbles among players figuring in the top 100 were measured for central midfielders: Mousa Dembélé, Mario Lemina, Julian Draxler, etc. This finding reflects the more defensive location of their dribbles.

Players trained in France are over-represented at the top of the table: nine in the first 15 positions. This reveals the excellence of the French training system and its ability to promote skilful players. The best ranked footballers trained in the other countries hosting the five major European leagues are Isco (16th), Zaha and Loftus-Cheek (19th), Draxler (19th) and D’Alessandro (38th). The technical profile of all big-5 league players is available here.

The CIES Football Observatory has analysed the domestic league experience cumulated during the last two years by U20 players from 22 European competitions to identify those with the best career prospects. Minutes played by each footballer were weighted according to the sporting level of leagues and the results achieved by employer clubs. Weekly Post number 215 presents the 50 players with the highest experience capital scores.

The five-star prospect category includes ten players who should be able to establish themselves in the very best European teams. In the top three positions are Gianluigi Donnarumma, Alban Lafont and Kylian Mbappé. Eighteen footballers make up the four-star category list. All of these players have a concrete possibility to spend the big part of their career in the most competitive European championships. Three-star prospects also are in a favourable position to stay or reach the highest levels of the football pyramid.

The capital experience methodology exclusively developed by the CIES Football Observatory research team allows market actors to compare talents across leagues on an objective basis. This is particularly useful from a scouting perspective. Last season’s rankings are accessible here. The freshly published February’s Monthly Report investigates the link between age and success in Europe.

The demographic analysis of squads is a key research area of the CIES Football Observatory. The 32nd edition of the Monthly Report analyses the age structure of teams from 31 top division European leagues. This allows us to show discrepancies on an international level, while also investigating the links between the age structure of teams and success.

The comparative analysis of the average age of champions since 2009 reveals great cultural differences in the perception of the most favourable age structure for a squad. At one extreme, the youngest champions are to be found in the Netherlands (24.2 years), where teams pay high attention to the training and development of young talents. At the other extreme, Cypriot champion teams had the oldest squads over the period surveyed (28.8 years).

Generally, clubs that are more competitive have older squads. However, after a certain threshold of sporting and economic power, the age structure of clubs tends to converge around 26.5 years of age. Between 2009 and 2017, the median age of champions in the five major European leagues was also 26.5 years old. In order to achieve success at the highest level, it is important for clubs to have as many players who did not celebrate their 27th birthday than footballers over this age threshold.

No club in football history has invested as much money in transfer indemnities to assemble the squad than Manchester City presently. Despite the loan of Mangala to Everton, the expensive signing of Laporte brought the total squad recruitment cost to a record high of €878 M. The data for all big-5 league teams is available in issue number 214 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post.

Manchester City outranks Paris St-Germain (€805 M), Manchester United (€747 M) and Barcelona (€725 M). These are the only clubs having spent more than €700 M to assemble their current squad. The economic logic suggests that the next Champions League winners is to be found among these teams. However, while money is important, other factors such as team cohesion can influence the course of events.

The average amounts invested in transfer fees by league and team varies between €97 M for the French Ligue 1 to a record high of €291 M at English Premier League level. The figures in the three other competitions of the big-5 are more balanced: €113 M for the German Bundesliga, €124 M for the Italian Serie A and €131 M for the Spanish Liga. In total, 42 clubs out of 98 have a squad recruitment cost of more than €100 M.

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Issue number 213 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses transactions carried out by big-5 league clubs during January’s transfer window. For the first time in history, the total estimated spending was over one billion euro. Transfer expenditure increased by 36% compared to the previous record figure measured in 2017. English Premier League investments accounted for 51% of transfer indemnities paid by big-5 league clubs as a whole.

Since 2010, Premier League teams always had negative balance sheets for operations carried out during winter windows. The net balance in 2018 was -€113 M despite the expensive transfers of Philippe Coutinho and Diego Costa from England to Spain. These signings mainly explain the record deficit observed for Spanish Liga teams: -€188 M. The estimated balance sheets for the three other major European championships were positive: +€48 M for the Italian Serie A, +€33 M for the German Bundesliga and +€14 M for the French Ligue 1.

Once again, a high correlation (75%) was measured between values estimated through the exclusive CIES Football Observatory algorithm and fees paid by clubs. However, the majority of transfers were concluded for higher amounts than those estimated. This confirms the ongoing inflation trend in football players’ transfer market. The updated transfer values for all big-5 league squad members are available here.

The CIES Football Observatory research group is happy to disclose a brand new “performance rankings” widget. This exclusive tool allows users to assess the level of big-5 league players over four different time periods: last week, last month, last three months and last six months. Footballers are ranked according to their pitch production in domestic league matches using the unique statistics produced by the leading data company OptaPro.

At the head of the European rankings for the last six and three months is David Silva (Manchester City), while Lionel Messi tops the table for the last month. Among the players who obtained the highest possible mark for last week matches are established stars such as Ángel Di Maria (Paris St-Germain), Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), as well as promising talents such as Álex Berenguer (Torino), Amine Harit (Schalke 04) and Moise Kean (Verona).

Two other widgets are available on the CIES Football Observatory website. They allow users comparing the technical profile of big-5 league players and monitoring trends in their transfer values. More information on the performance algorithms developed by the CIES Football Observatory is available here. This research note presents the approach used to estimate the transfer value of professional footballers.

The CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post number 212 presents the 100 clubs from 31 European competitions having achieved the most accurate passes per domestic league game since the start of the season. The Post also includes the exclusive InStat data on the percentage of accurate passes and the average number of passes completed per minute of possession.

All teams qualified for the last 16 round of the UEFA Champions League are in the top 100 positions of the rankings. However, the gaps are quite marked. At one end, Manchester City (1st) achieved 685 passes per match (17.2 per minute of possession). At the other end, FC Basel (94th) only completed 426 passes per domestic league game (14.4 per minute of possession). This is the highest gap between last 16 round adversaries.

The highest cumulated number of accurate passes per game for Champions League opponents was recorded for Paris St-Germain (622) and Real Madrid (540). At the opposite end is the Manchester United (459) and Sevilla (456) fixture. Our analysis suggests that these oppositions will be particularly even. The most probable quarter finalists with respect to pass statistics are Manchester City, Paris St-Germain, Bayern Munich, Shaktar Donetsk, Barcelona, Juventus, Liverpool and Manchester United.

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Issue number 211 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks teams from the five major European championships according to the percentage of players signed from foreign clubs. Manchester City tops the rankings with 17 international recruitments out of 22 players fielded so far in domestic league games (77.3%). At the opposite end of the table is Athletic Club Bilbao (one player, Aymeric Laporte, out of 23).

The proportion of players signed from abroad is above two thirds in six other clubs: Chelsea, Lazio, Sevilla, Leipzig, Paris St-Germain and Udinese. In total, 29 teams recruited at least half of the footballers fielded so far from foreign clubs. English Premier League teams are over-represented among those transferring the highest percentage of squad members from abroad. Burnley (9.1%) and Bournemouth (9.5%) are exceptions to the rule.

In general, the most competitive clubs sign a greater percentage of players from foreign teams than lesser performing ones. However, this is not a fatality. Liverpool, Juventus, Real Madrid, Napoli, Manchester United, Barcelona and Tottenham all signed less than half of current squad members from abroad. The freshly published 31st edition of the CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report presents a deeper analysis of transfer networks in professional football.

Football offers a wide array of possibilities to undertake network analysis. Issue number 31 of the CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report focuses on transfer networks from a triple research perspective. What are the main destinations for players from the three principal exporting countries: Brazil, Argentina and France? What are the big-5 league clubs’ recruitment areas? Where do Real Madrid, Manchester United, AS Rome, Bayern Munich and Paris St-Germain sign their players?

The study shows that the Brazilian player is the only truly global worker in the professional football labour market. Brazilians are present in 80 of the 91 associations covered in the study. While also numerous abroad, Argentineans and French migrate relatively more to neighbouring countries. The analysis also reveals that teams from the five major European championships transfer a higher percentage of players from abroad. However, the proportion of footballers signed from non-European countries is on the decrease.

An increasing number of players in general, and non-European ones more specifically, first move to intermediary countries in order to prove themselves before to eventually being able to attain a club in the big-5 leagues. Within this increasingly speculative and fragmented context, many footballers get lost along the way. Today more than ever, mental strength and cultural adaptability are of key importance to have a successful career path.

The technical statistics produced by the leading data football company InStat are very valuable to analyse performance on an objective basis. Issue number 210 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 50 teams in 35 European competitions with the most positive and negative gaps between points per match achieved and predicted on the basis of a performance model including the variables of shots conceded from the box, possession and shots on target.

The highest positive gap between points achieved and predicted according to pitch production was recorded for Viktoria Plze?. The Czech side obtained so far 2.88 points per game instead of 1.6. At big-5 league level, the greater positive difference between points achieved and expected was measured for Atlético Madrid. Burnley, Monaco, Manchester United, Nantes and Valencia were also particularly efficient.

Conversely, Greek sides Platanias heads the table for teams that achieved the least points per game with respect to their performance level (-0.97 points per match). Benevento and Milan AC were also particularly inefficient. Future will tell to what extent these negative gaps are related to bad luck. The European rankings for the three performance metrics used for this analysis are available here. Please contact us for more information about InStat data.

Like every January, the CIES Football Observatory has calculated the transfer values of players in the five major European leagues. The assessment takes into account the key criteria used by market actors such as age, position, contract duration, performance, international status, etc. Neymar (€213m) heads the table ahead of Lionel Messi (€202m) and Harry Kane (€195m). The top 100 list is available in issue number 209 of the Weekly Post.

Five players from the English Premier League are in the top ten: Harry Kane (2nd), Dele Alli (6th), Kevin de Bruyne (7th), Romelu Lukaku (8th) and Paul Pogba (10th). However, the highest estimated values for goalkeepers and defenders were recorded for two FC Barcelona’s players: Marc-André ter Stegen (€96m) and Samuel Umtiti (€101m). Paulo Dybala (€175m) heads the Serie A rankings, while Robert Lewandowski (€107m) has the greatest figure for German Bundesliga players.

This research note details the scientific methodology used for these estimates. The ratings module on the CIES Football Observatory website presents the values for all big-5 league players. This transfer widget displays the trends from a comparative perspective. Potential clients and commercial partners are kindly invited to contact us to develop new collaborations for a new and exciting football year!

FC Barcelona currently employs 20 players fielded by national A-teams in 2017 for a record number of 139 matches and 10,846 minutes. The Catalan side outranks two English clubs (Manchester United and Tottenham), Juventus FC and Bayern Munich. At sixth place is the Nicaraguan team Real Estelí. The top 100 list is available in issue number 208 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post.

England is the most represented country in the top 100 positions: 16 clubs. Five English teams are in the top 10. Germany (10 clubs) and Italy (9) are the second and third nations with the most representatives in the top 100 rankings. The presence of six teams from the United States confirms the robust development of the professional game in this country.

Overall, 38 associations have at least one club ranked in the top 100. Among them, 20 are UEFA member associations, while 18 belongs to other Confederations. The three best ranked non-European teams are Real Estelí from Nicaragua, Al Sadd from Qatar and San Jose Earthquakes from the United States. For more information, please contact us at football.observatory@cies.ch.

Our warmest season’s greetings to you and your family, and our best wishes for a happy and successful New Year!

Every semester, the CIES Football Observatory lists players who performed the best in big-5 league matches using an exclusive statistical approach. Issue number 207 of the Weekly Post presents the top 10 tables for eight positions. Only footballers who played at least 720’ domestic league minutes are included in the rankings.

Players from four leagues head the tables: Liga’s Jan Oblak (goalkeepers) and Lionel Messi (wingers); Premier League’s Nicolás Otamendi (centre backs) and Sergio Agüero (centre forwards); Ligue 1’s Marco Verratti (box-to-box midfielders) and Nabil Fekir (second strikers); as well as Serie A’s Faouzi Ghoulam (full backs) and Jorginho Frello (defensive midfielders).

Besides established football stars, in the top 10 tables also are relatively unknown footballers such as Nick Pope (Burnley), Alisson Becker (Roma), Michael Gregoritsch (Hoffenheim), Luis Alberto (Lazio) or Rodrigo Moreno (Valencia). The most represented club is Manchester City (12 players), ahead of Paris St-Germain (8 players).

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The young French prodigy Kylian Mbappé heads the CIES Football Observatory table for the U21 big-5 league players with the highest estimated transfer values. The Paris Saint-Germain striker outranks Dele Alli (Tottenham Hotspur) and Leroy Sané (Manchester City). The top 100 list is available in the issue number 206 of the Weekly Post.

According to the exclusive CIES Football Observatory’s algorithm, during the last three months, the transfer value of Kylian Mbappé has increased from €133.8 M to €182.8 M (+37%). This allowed him to outrank Dele Alli, whose transfer value remained stable at around €180 M. Ousmane Dembélé (Barcelona), Timo Werner (RB Leipzig) and Gianluigi Donnarumma (Milan) top the rankings in their respective leagues.

The estimated transfer values for all big-5 league players are available in the ratings module of the CIES Football Observatory’s website. This widget allows you comparing transfer value trends. Media and clubs interested in this tool or in our services can contact us.

The CIES Football Observatory and FIFA have joined forces to analyse the profiles of the players who were fielded by the 32 qualified teams on the road to Russia. The analysis highlights the diversity of the squads in terms of both age and height, as well as the importance of migration with almost two thirds of footballers currently playing for clubs outside of the association they represent.

Nigeria fielded the youngest players (with an average age of 24.9 years) in the qualifiers, followed by title-holders Germany (25.7) and by U-17 and U-20 world champions England (25.9). At the opposite end of the spectrum are two newcomers Panama (29.4 years) and Iceland (29.0), as well as 2014 FIFA World Cup quarter-finalists Costa Rica (29.0).

There were also considerable differences among the teams in terms of the average height of players. At one extreme, seven associations fielded players with an average height of less than 180cm: Peru, Argentina and Uruguay (CONMEBOL), Saudi Arabia and Japan (AFC), Mexico (CONCACAF), and Spain (UEFA). At the other extreme, the average height of the players fielded by four European nations – Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Serbia – was at least 185cm.

The study also reveals that about 9% of players were born outside of the association they represent. Only seven of the 32 teams did not field any players born abroad. The number of footballers playing for clubs outside of the association they represent also illustrates the importance of migration in football. In total, 64.6% of footballers play abroad: from 0% for England and Saudi Arabia, to 100% for Croatia, Sweden and Iceland.

The full study is available in issue number 30 of the CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report. The CIES Football Observatory is a research group within the Centre International d’Étude du Sport (CIES), a Swiss-based independent study centre founded in 1995 by FIFA in partnership with the canton and town of Neuchâtel. More information is available at www.cies.ch and www.football-observatory.com.

The 204th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post lists the 10 most fielded footballers per position born in or after 1997 in both the big-5 leagues and 26 other top division European championships. With 19 players, the French Ligue 1 is by far the most represented competition. The youngest footballer in the big-5 league tables is Dan-Axel Zagadou (Borussia Dortmund).

Players from all of the five major European championships except Germany head the big-5 league rankings: Gianluigi Donnarumma (Milan) and Alban Lafont (Toulouse) for goalkeepers, Unai Núñez (Athletic Club) for centre backs, Kelvin Amian (Toulouse) for full backs, Lucas Tousart (Lyon) for defensive midfielders, Carlos Soler (Valencia) for attacking midfielders, as well as Richarlison (Watford) for forwards.

The most represented leagues among the remaining 26 competitions studied are the Dutch and Slovakian top divisions (8 players each), followed by the Croatian (6) and Ukrainian (5) ones. The youngest footballer in the rankings is Juho Hyvärinen (Rovaniemi). The average age on the pitch for all clubs and leagues analysed is available in the exclusive CIES Football Observatory Digital Atlas.

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Issue number 203 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses data provided by InStat to highlight the 100 clubs from 35 European competitions that conceded the least shots from their own box per domestic league game played since the start of the season. The lowest figure was recorded for Olimpija Ljubljana, while Manchester City heads the big-5 league rankings.

Only 12 clubs from the five major European leagues are in the top 100. This is mainly due to more open styles of play, as notably illustrated in the 28th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report. Panathinaikos is the most impermeable team among those not ranked in the top three positions of their league.

The top 50 rankings for defence, possession and attack are available on the CIES Football Observatory website. For more information about data produced by the leading football data company InStat, please contact us at football.observatory@cies.ch.

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Issue number 202 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks big-5 league teams according to the estimated transfer value of their players. The aggregated value of current squad members is above one billion euro for four clubs: Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, FC Barcelona and Chelsea FC.

Transfer values are estimated on the basis of the algorithm exclusively developed by the CIES Football Observatory research team. According to this, Manchester City’s current squad has a total transfer value of almost €1.2 billion. Kevin de Bruyne is the potentially most expensive Manchester City player (€144.5 million), while three other City’s squad members are worth more than €100 million: Leroy Sané, Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus.

The up-to-date estimated values for all big-5 league players are available in the ratings module of the CIES Football Observatory website. The freshly conceived transfer value widget presents the historical trends for each player. Media interested in using this tool can contact us at football.observatory@cies.ch.

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