Issue number 402 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post pays tribute to the Argentine players who took part in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers or final tournament. Rodrigo de Paul played the most games in total: 23, including all seven in Qatar. Nicolás Otamendi, on the other hand, leads the way in terms of minutes played (2,023).

A total of 40 footballers have played during the qualifiers or the final tournament. Giovani Lo Celso played the most minutes in the qualifiers among those who did not participate in the final tournament. Enzo Fernández, on the other hand, was used the most in the final phase (563 minutes in seven games) without having played in the qualifiers.

With 14 goals, seven of them in the final tournament, Lionel Messi is the Albiceleste player who has scored the most goals on the way to Argentina’s title. That is twice as many as the second highest scorer: Lautaro Martínez (7). Julián Alvarez complete the podium with five goals, four of them in the final phase. In total, thirteen players scored the 42 Argentine goals.

Issue 401 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the clubs having trained the most players selected for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Training clubs are those where players have stayed for at least three years between the seasons of their 15th and 21st birthdays. At the top of the list are the Dutch side of AFC Ajax with eleven players trained having represented five different national teams.

Deportivo Saprissa (Costa Rica) and Al Sadd (Qatar) complete the podium with ten and nine players trained respectively, but none of whom have reached the knockout stage. The top three clubs for footballers whose teams have reached the knockout stage are AFC Ajax, Dinamo Zagreb and Sporting CP, with eight players trained in all three cases. Manchester City has trained footballers for the most national teams: six.

Six English clubs and a Welsh one are in the top 50 of the table: Manchester City (7 players trained), Liverpool (also 7), Chelsea (6), Swansea City (6), Arsenal (5), Manchester United (4) and Tottenham Hotspur (4). Produced in collaboration with FIFA’s High Performance Department, the 80th CIES Football Observatory’s Monthly Report presents more exclusive analysis on the development paths of 2022 World Cup players.

The CIES Football Observatory research group is happy to disclose the 400th edition of its Weekly Post, presenting the 50 leagues where 2022 FIFA World Cup footballers have played the most senior matches up until their 23rd birthday. The German Bundesliga leads the table with more than 5,000 games played in the competition by 99 footballers present at the World Cup, representing 25 different national teams.

More World Cup participants (110 players from 26 selections) played in the English Premier League until turning 23, but for fewer matches and minutes than footballers having developed their career in the German Bundesliga and the Spanish Liga. The English Championship is the best ranked second tier competition (seventh), while the Italian Serie A (eighth) tops the table for leagues from an association not qualified for the World Cup.

Produced in collaboration with FIFA High Performance Department, the 80th CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report presents more exclusive data on the development paths of the 2022 FIFA World Cup players. It notably shows that the latter played senior league minutes in no less than 763 teams until they turned 23, of which 26.4% below top domestic league levels. This finding reveals the importance of taking care of all the sporting and economic levels of the football ecosystem to allow players, even the most talented ones, to develop their full potential.

>>> Post n° 400

>>> Report n° 80

Issue number 399 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks the World Cup teams according to the average number of minutes in official matches played in 2022 by the footballers used in the first round. Portugal leads the ranking with an average of 3,378 minutes (between 4,468 for João Cancelo and 2,205 for João Felix), reflecting the importance of the status of the Seleção’s key players within their clubs.

Portugal is ahead of Brazil and Mexico, while three Asian teams are at the bottom of the table: Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Iran. England (seventh) is among the eleven countries whose first-round players have averaged more than 3,000 minutes in 2022, as are the other two favourites for the tournament according to our Impact Score method: France (eighth) and Spain (eleventh). Korea Republic is by far the best ranked Asian selection: ninth.

On an individual level, Canadian Red Star Belgrade goalkeeper Milan Borjan is the player with the most official minutes in 2022, while Dutch centre back Virgil van Dijk has the highest value for an outfield player: 5,160 minutes. Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur) was the most used English national team player in 2022 (4,830 minutes), while Callum Wilson (Newcastle United) is at the opposite end of the spectrum (only 997 minutes).

>>> Full rankings

The CIES Football Observatory research team used its Impact Score metrics to rank the FIFA World Cup 2022 teams from that reuniting the highest rated players to the selection relying on the lowest rated ones. Brazil tops the table by considering both all footballers selected and the eleven with the greatest Impact Score (one goalkeeper and ten outfield players). Costa Rica and Qatar are at the opposite end. The data for all teams is available in the 398th Weekly Post.

Spain are ranked behind Brazil when all the players selected are taken into consideration, while France would be the second main favourite if the average Impact Score of the ten best rated outfield players and goalkeeper is considered. England, Portugal and Germany also have the players to dream of winning the most coveted trophy. Argentina, the Netherlands, Belgium and Croatia are the principal outsiders.

The Impact Score is calculated from the average sporting level of matches in which players participated over the last 365 days, official game minutes played during the same time range and pitch performance compared to both teammates and opponents, as well as with respect to players with the same technical profile as per the role-based approach also freshly developed by the CIES Football Observatory research team. The Impact Score for players from more than 70 leagues worldwide is available here.

The 831 players of the FIFA 2022 World Cup have a total estimated transfer value of €15 billion. By selection, the values range from as little as €23 million for the 26 footballers in the Costa Rica’s squad to a maximum of €1.5 billion for the players called up by England. Issue 397 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the data for all the national teams.

Borussia Dortmund’s young crack Jude Bellingham has the top estimated transfer value among all World Cup players: €202m. Brazil has the second highest valued squad of the World Cup, with a total transfer value of €1.45 billion and a maximum for the decisive scorer of the last Champions League final, Real Madrid’s Vinícius Junior: € 200m (second highest value overall).

France is the third nation with the highest estimated transfer value: €1.34 billion. Despite a contract with Paris St-Germain running only until 2024, Kylian Mbappé is the top valued player of the French national team: €185m. The transfer values of all footballers from the five major European leagues are available here for free. This scientific paper presents the CIES Football Observatory’s statistical approach to estimating player values.

>>> Weekly Post