The CIES Football Observatory Digital Atlas presents league and club rankings for eight indicators:

• Average age: the oldest top division league in Europe is Turkey (27.3 years), while the youngest is Croatia (23.9 years). At club level, Chievo Verona is composed of the oldest players (30.6 years). Hajduk Split and Senica have the youngest squad (22.1 years).

• Average height: the tallest top division leagues at European level are in Germany and Croatia (183.3 cm). The shortest players are to be found in Israel (180.1 cm). There is a 9 cm gap between the tallest and shortest club: Wolfsburg (187.0 cm) and Ludogorets Razgrad (178.0 cm).

• Average stay: the most stable league from a player turnover perspective is England. Squad members have been in the first team of their employer team for 2.82 years on average. At the opposite end of the table is Serbia (1.71 years). The most and least stable clubs are CSKA Moskow (5.7 years) and Chornomorets Odessa (1.2 years).

• New signings: clubs in Romania signed the most players since January 1st 2015: 14 per club on average. At the other end of the spectrum is Sweden (7.4 players). At club level, the record high was recorded at Bologna (23 players), while the record low was measured for Karpaty Lviv and Metalurg Zaporizhya (1 player).

• Debutants: on average, European top division clubs launched 1.04 players without previous experience in the professional game: from 2.29 in Ukraine to 0.13 in Greece. Metalurg Zaporizhya holds the record at club level with 11 debutants. However, they are currently at the bottom of the Ukrainian Premier League table.

• Club-trained: the top division league in Belarus has the highest percentage of club-trained players (34.0%). Inversely, in Turkey, players who have been in their employer club for at least three seasons between the ages of 15 and 21 only account for 8.3% of squad members. The record high at club level was observed at Gomel (91.7%). More information is presented in the ninth edition of the CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report.

• Expatriates: the top division league with the highest percentage of expatriate players is that of Cyprus (66.4%). The lowest proportion of expatriates was recorded in Serbia (15.7%). Expatriate footballers account for up to 88.0% of squad members at Slovenian side NK Zavr?. Only three teams out of 460 have no expatriates: HIFK Helsinki, FK Gomel and FK P?íbram.

• Active internationals: the English Premier League gathers the highest percentage of players with national A-team caps since the start of the season (41.4%). This percentage is only 2.0% in Slovenia. The club composed of the greatest proportion of active internationals is Manchester United (72.0%).

Following UEFA’s definition, club-trained players are footballers who have been for at least three seasons between the ages of 15 and 21 in their employer team. The relative presence of this category of players in squads has steadily decreased from 23.1% in 2009 to only 19.7% in 2015. Club-trained footballers still accounted for more than one fifth of squad members in 2014: 21.0%.

This finding reflects the lesser tendency of European top division clubs to give their chance to players from their youth academy. As a consequence, the average age of footballers in the 31 top division leagues surveyed has reached a new record high: 26.0 years. The decrease in the proportion of club-trained players also reflects the greater mobility of footballers from their youngest age.

The Report also presents the rankings of clubs who trained the most players active in the leagues surveyed. At the top of the overall table is Partizan Belgrade (78 players trained), followed by Ajax Amsterdam (75 players). FC Barcelona heads the ranking of clubs who trained the most players under contract with big-5 league teams (44 players), ahead of Olympique Lyonnais (35 players) and Real Madrid (34 players). All data is available in issue number 125 of the Big-5 Weekly Post.

Last but not least, the CIES Football Observatory is pleased to unveil a brand new version of its exclusive Digital Atlas on the demography of footballers in Europe. This unique tool presents a wide array of indicators allowing users to grasp the latest trends in the European football players’ labour market. The next Monthly Reports will further develop some of the exclusive information presented in the Digital Atlas.

The CIES Football Observatory warmly thanks its growing audience for the interest and positive feedback received. The authors of the Report - Drs Raffaele Poli, Loïc Ravenel and Roger Besson - are at the disposal of media at football.observatory@cies.ch.

The first position held by Otamendi in the centre back table is mainly related to his outstanding skills in the area of rigour (see explanation below). At full back level, Aurier performed particularly well from a recovery perspective. Cazorla outranks all defensive midfielders mainly thanks to his statistics in the area of distribution. Among attacking midfielders, Özil has no rivals in terms of chance creation. Finally, shooting is the key strength of Lewandowski compared to other forwards.

The rankings are based on a purely data-driven and objective methodology developed by the CIES Football Observatory research team. The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) considered measure players’ productivity in six complementary areas of the game. The final score is the sum of values measured in each area, weighted according to the importance of the latter for a given position. Only players fielded for at least 60% of domestic league minutes are included in the rankings.

A thorough presentation of the CIES Football Observatory approach for the technical analysis of performance is available in the fifth edition of the Monthly Report.

CIES Football Observatory KPIs

• Rigour: ability to minimise goal opportunities for opponents through effective duelling.
• Recovery: ability to minimise goal opportunities for opponents through proficient interception work.
• Distribution: ability to keep a hold on the game through efficient passing.
• Take on: ability to create dangerous situations by successfully challenging opponents.
• Chance creation: ability to put teammates in a favourable position to strike.
• Shooting: ability to take advantage of goal opportunities through accurate shooting.

At second and third position in the English Premier League ranking are Liverpool (25.5 years) and Newcastle (25.6). In contrast, the average age on the pitch is particularly high at West Bromwich Albion (29.2) and Manchester City (28.5).

The oldest teams in the other big-5 leagues are Rayo Vallecano (29.0 years), Bastia (28.6), Darmstadt (28.1) and Chievo (30.7). The average per league varies between 26.3 years in the German Bundesliga and 27.5 years in the Italian Serie A.

The most numerous contingent of French expatriates is to be found in England. Since the start of the season, 40 players from France played in the English Premier League. However, French are well represented also in Italy (28 players), Spain (27 players), and, to a lesser extent, Germany (11 players, including Kingsley Coman who also played in Serie A).

The analysis of countries with the most representatives in foreign leagues at worldwide level is available in the eighth edition of the CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report. For more information, please contact us at football.observatory@cies.ch

While Brazil is the most represented origin among foreigners both in Europe (1,137 players) and in Asia (437 players), Argentina is the main exporting country at Latin American level (511 players compared to only 124 Brazilians).

At worldwide level, the three nations with the most footballers in foreign professional and semi-professional clubs are Brazil (1,784 players), Argentina (929 players) and France (758 players). These three nationalities alone account for almost 20% of foreigners present on a global level.

No South American country is among the top five destinations of Brazilians. Conversely, three of the five main destinations of Argentineans are to be found in South America. Similarly, the main countries to which French players migrate are geographically close to the home country.

The last chapter of the study analyses four leagues in the United States, where football is undergoing considerable development. The Report shows the marked diversification of international recruitment of US clubs. It also predicts that American teams will increasingly challenge European, Asian and South American clubs in the race for new talent.

For more information or to contact the authors of the study, please write to football.observatory@cies.ch