Dear subscriber and football passionate,

The CIES Football Observatory mission is to advance the frontiers of knowledge for the balanced development of football worldwide. With this in mind, we have drawn up a questionnaire to find out your views on a range of current issues relating to men’s professional club football.

Your responses will help us identify the measures you believe needed to ensure that football continues developing in a positive direction. The results of the survey, which is completely anonymous, will be published in the form of a freely accessible report, ahead of the next World Cup. We will of course keep you informed !

Please take three minutes at most to complete this questionnaire, and long live football !

>>> TAKE PART

The CIES Football Observatory team

The 538th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the global ranking of clubs whose squad management is most focused on the long term, based on an index combining four indicators : the number of players used in league matches over the last three years (the lower the better), the average stay of current players in the first team squad, the average remaining contract length of those same players, and their average age at the time of signing (the lower the better)*.

Real Madrid recorded the highest score, reflecting a strategy of signing young players and retaining them over the long term. The Spanish side are ahead of Brentford, who can still dream of qualifying for the Champions League for the first time, and the Basque side Athletic Club, whose season has been rather disappointing so far but who remain well-equipped to quickly return to winning ways. Two teams from the MLS compete the top 5 : Seattle Sounders and Philadelphia Union.

Four other teams not belonging to the Europe’s big-5 feature in the top twenty : Shakhtar Donetsk, Club Brugge, AZ Alkmaar and FK Zenit. Sixty-first overall, Palmeiras is the top ranked South American club. For each indicator, the following clubs have the best values : Seattle Sounders (stay), SJK Seinäjoki (recruitment age), Chelsea FC (contract duration), as well as Dynamo Kyiv and Club Libertad (non-academy players use).

* For players used, we have considered the last three years for non-calendar year leagues, and the seasons from 2023 to 2025 for the others, not including players from the club academy. The latter were also excluded from the calculation of the average age at recruitment, as well as from that of the average stay for those under 22. For remaining contract length, we have assigned a duration of one year where information was missing and current season end for players on loan.

>>> Full data

The 537th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 100 teams in the world with the highest aggregate transfer value of players owned, estimated according to our statistical model. Chelsea tops the ranking with a total of €1,732 million spread across 54 players, ahead of Manchester City (€1,608 million, 47 players) and Real Madrid (€1,541 million, 36 players).

Chelsea is also the team listed with the best distribution of values among players under contract, with the highest-valued footballer, Brazilian Estevão (€123 million), representing only 7.1% of the total. By way of comparison, this percentage is 25.3% for the fourth club with the highest aggregate value, Barcelona (€1,389 million, of which €352 million for Lamine Yamal).

The following clubs are ranked first in the other major regions or countries: Paris Saint-Germain for France (6th overall behind Arsenal with €1,346 million), Bayern Munich for Germany (€1,000 million), Inter for Italy (€820 million), Benfica for Portugal (€549 million), PSV Eindhoven for the Netherlands (€400 million), Bruges for Belgium (€347 million), as well as Palmeiras for both Brazil and non-European clubs (€322 million).

>>> Top 100

>>> Top valued player per club in 70 leagues

>>> New Prospect Sheet with Impect : Taras Mykhavko

The 536th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the players having scored or assisted the most goals in matches played over the last year in 67 leagues around the world. From a purely numerical perspective, without considering the level of the leagues where these contributions were made, Lionel Messi dominates the competition with 59 G+A (37 goals and 22 assists) : 17 more than any other player !

By weighting the G+A contributions according to the level of the matches in which they were made using this method, Lionel Messi remains in the lead with a score of 66.3*, slightly ahead of France’s Kylian Mbappé (41 contributions, including 37 goals, weighted score of 65.4) and two Bayern Munich players : England’s Harry Kane (42 ; 64.5) and another Frenchman, Michael Olise (37 contributions, including a record 22 assists ; 54.9).

With 18 goals and 11 assists in the Spanish Liga, Lamine Yamal (aged 18.6) is the youngest player in the top 100. Only one other footballer listed is under the age of 23 : Franculino Djú (21.7 years). At the other end of the scale are Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo (41.1 years and 31 contributions), Lionel Messi (38.7 years) and Fernando Zampedri (38.0 years). In total, no fewer than 45 leagues are represented in the list.

* The weighting was calculated by multiplying the contributions by the ratio between the average sporting coefficient of the matches in which players made their goals or assists, and the average measured for the top 100 footballers.

>>> Full rankings

The 535th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks teams from 56 leagues around the world according to the level of pressure exerted on opponents. This was calculated using the following Impect data: distance from own goal of presses applied, speed of interrupting opponent possessions, frequency of defensive actions with respect to passes conceded, and propensity to commit fouls in the final third when not in possession*.

Across Europe’s five major leagues, Italy’s Como 1907 tops the list, reflecting coach Cesc Fàbregas’s philosophy of constant pressure on opponents. Paris St-Germain (Luis Enrique) and Bayern Munich (Vincent Kompany) complete the podium of the big-5 league teams with the most proactive defensive styles. South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns head the rankings among non-European clubs.

The top pressure index among the 883 teams analysed was measured for Dutch side ADO Den Haag, current leaders of the Eerste Divisie, whose coach, German Robin Peter, also advocates an aggressive defensive style. At the opposite end of the spectrum, we find AC Milan at big-5 league level and Austria’s TSV Hartberg among all the teams studied (in both cases also with rather convincing results).

*The pressure index was calculated based on the standard deviation of these four indicators with respect to the club’s league average. The data for each indicator is also presented as a ratio with respect to league average.

>>> Full data

>>> New video: economic analysis of the transfer market (2016-2025)

>>> More about Impect

>>> Ball-friendiest teams analysis

The CIES Football Observatory is pleased to present the exclusive Gradient data on running speeds of players from teams still competing in the UEFA Champions League. The 534th Weekly Post displays the 20 fastest players (maximum speed in the competition) for five position categories, as well as the distribution of their distances per speed.

Uzbekistan’s Abdukodir Khusanov (Manchester City) is the centre back with the highest top speed (35.8 km/h), ahead of Tottenham’s Micky van de Ven. Among wide backs, PSG’s Achraf Hakimi (36.4 km/h) and Nuno Mendes top the list, as does Archie Gray (34.8 km/h) for central midfielders, Anthony Gordon (37.9 km/h) for side midfielders/wingers, and Kylian Mbappé for centre forwards (35.7 km/h).

In terms of the distribution per speed category, among the 100 players listed, three centre forwards covered the greatest proportion of distance at a speed of less than 7 km/h : Kylian Mbappé (43.5%), Victor Osimhen (41.9%), and Luis Suárez (40.1%). In contrast, the three players who covered the lowest percentage of distance walking are central midfielders : Häkon Evjen (23.0%), João Simões (24.1%) and Lucas Bergvall (25.2%).

>>> Full data

>>> More about Gradient Sports

>>> New Prospect Sheet with Impect: Kerim Alajbegovic