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).

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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.

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The CIES Football Observatory research group is happy to disclose its 79th Monthly Report on the demographic profile of players, clubs and leagues across Europe. In 2022, new records were set with regard to the percentage of expatriate footballers (42.3%) and, negatively, for the proportion of club-trained players (17.0%). In both cases, the trend reversal observed following the pandemic was short-lived.

The sample analysed includes 12,281 players active in 477 clubs of 31 top divisions of UEFA member associations. The typical portrait of the footballer in the sample is that of a man aged 26, with a height of just over 182 cm, present in the first team squad of his employer club for two years and three months and having in almost six cases out of ten already lived an experience abroad during his career.

A new record for the percentage of expatriate players was notably broken in the Italian Serie A (61.7%). The Italian top division also holds the negative record for the percentage of club-trained players in squads: 8.4%. These findings reflect the lack of importance given to training in the country, which reduces the poolof talents with a sufficient level to play at the highest level.

Clubs in three of the five major leagues have the most stable squads: the English Premier League with a player’s average tenure in the first team squad of his employer club of 3.1 years, the German Bundesliga (3.0 years) and the Spanish Liga (2.9 years). The longest player’s average tenure per club was recorded for Champions League title holders Real Madrid (5.1 years), which confirms the importance of long-term planning for optimum results.

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The 396th CIES Football Weekly Post presents the 100 players outside the big-5 who have not yet turned 25 with the highest estimated transfer value. Three players stand out with values of around €60 million: Benfica’s Argentine midfielder Enzo Fernández, PSV Eindhoven’s Dutch striker Cody Gakpo and Porto’s Portuguese goalkeeper Diogo Costa.

Only one other player outside the big-5 has an estimated value of more than €50 million: Portuguese centre back Gonçalo Inacio (Sporting CP). The highest transfer values for footballers playing outside of Europe were recorded for Brazilians: Yuri Alberto (Corinthians, €30m), Danilo Oliveira (Palmeiras, €29m) and Marcos Leonardo (Santos, €28m). Fifteen leagues are represented in the top 100, with a maximum of 21 players for the Dutch Eredivisie.

The values were estimated on the basis of a statistical model developed by the CIES Football Observatory research team from almost 5,000 paid transfers concluded over the last decade. A scientific article explaining the approach is available in open access. Estimates for more than 15,000 players from about 50 leagues worldwide are available through a paying platform. Do not hesitate to contact us about this.

The 395th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post reveals that Manchester City fielded so far the most expensive starting 11 lineups from a transfer cost perspective. On average, Citizens’ starting lineups for Premier League games included players for whom the club invested up to €605m in transfer fees. Paris St-Germain (€510m) and Manchester United (€480m) complete the podium. The figures include eventual add-ons irrespective of their effective payment.

The most expensive starting 11 lineup was fielded by Manchester City on the 22 October for the 3-1 win against Brighton & Hove (€726m), while the Citizens’ “cheapest” one was fielded on the 31st of August for the 6-0 win against Nottingham Forest (€538m). For Paris St-Germain, the extreme values stretch from €610m (for the 1-0 win against Olympique de Marseille) down to €332m (for the 0-0 draw against Stade Reims).

Real Madrid (€370m), Juventus (€300m) and Bayern Munich (€294m) total the greatest figures for the other big-5 European leagues. Per competition, the average transfer expenditure to assemble starting 11 lineups is €233m in the Premier League, €83m in the Serie A, €76m in the Liga, €72m in the Bundesliga and €65m in the Ligue 1 (down to €41m not including Paris St-Germain). More insights will be published on our social media channels: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

Issue number 394 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the rankings of teams having trained the most footballers active in 31 top divisions leagues of UEFA member associations, as well as the five major ones respectively. Training clubs are those where footballers have played for at least three years between the seasons of their 15th and 21st birthday. The 31 leagues covered correspond to those available in the Demographic Atlas.

AFC Ajax tops the table at the level of the 31 top divisions (85 players trained) ahead of SL Benfica (73) and Dinamo Kiev (72), while Real Madrid ranks first for footballers in the the big-5 (43) ahead of Barcelona (38) and the French duo Paris St-Germain and Olympique Lyonnais (34). Sporting CP heads the rankings for non-big-5 league clubs having trained the most footballers currently playing in the five major championships (24), with River Plate at the top for teams outside of Europe (14).

The Post also presents a Training Index, calculated by weighting the number of players trained per club by their experience capital. The latter metrics combines official game minutes played and the experience level of all footballers involved in these matches. AFC Ajax and Real Madrid also top the Training Index rankings for players active in 31 European top divisions and the big-5 respectively, with Sporting CP at third position in both tables.

Players included had to be present on the 1st of October of the year of reference in the first team squad of the clubs analysed. Moreover, they had to have already played in domestic league games during the current season or, this being not the case, to have played matches in adult championships during each of the two previous ones (B-teams not included). The second and eventual third goalkeepers were considered in all cases. The lists of players trained for up to three clubs are available for free on demand.

Football clubs pursue different politics in terms of age at which players are signed. Issue number 393 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses from this perspective 3,778 transfers carried out during the last ten seasons by the 50 clubs always present in the five major European leagues over this period. Average recruitment ages stretch from just 22.87 years of age for Real Madrid up to a maximum of 26.71 years of age for Chelsea.

No English or Italian teams are in the top ten of clubs having on average signed the youngest players. Conversely, in the list are five German clubs (Borussia Mönchengladbach, Borussia Dortmund, Wolfsburg, Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich), three French teams (Nice, LOSC Lille and Monaco), as well as two Spanish ones (Real Madrid and Real Sociedad). Real Madrid is the only team among the 50 surveyed that did not sign players aged 30 or over during the decade analysed.

At the opposite end of the table, among the ten teams having on average recruited the most experienced players are five English clubs (Chelsea, West Ham, Manchester United, Everton and Crystal Palace), four Italian sides (Inter, Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio), as well as a Spanish one (Atlético Madrid). Detailed information on the methodology used and further analyses of recruitment policies followed by big-5 league teams from an age perspective are available in the brand-new October’s CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report.

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Issue number 392 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post crunched InStat data to rank 74 leagues worldwide according to the number of chances per game recorded during the current calendar year. The German Bundesliga leads the table with 12.96 chances per match, while the Brazilian Serie B is at the opposite end with on average one third less clear-cut opportunities to score per game (8.41).

The German Bundesliga is the best ranked league of the big-5 also with regard to goals per match: 3.04. However, in this case, five competitions recorded higher values, with a maximum of 3.38 for the Swiss second division. The greatest figure outside of Europe was recorded in Australia (3.04). Conversely, nine non-European leagues are among the eleven that recorded the lowest figures, with the Ukrainian and Bulgarian top divisions as only exceptions.

Rankings are quite different by considering the average number of penalty goals per game. The Russian top division (0.41) heads the table. The top two Japanese leagues and the English second to fourth levels of competition are at the opposite end, with the English Premier League recording the lowest figure among the five major European championships. Whether it is for chances, goals or penalty goals, the study shows the continued existence of different approaches to the game by coaches, players and referees across the world.

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The 391st edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses InStat data on passes for 1,226 teams from 71 competitions worldwide. Manchester City leads the table with 754 passes attempted per domestic league game. Only two of the 1’226 clubs surveyed also made more than 700 passes per match: the Japanese second division side Albirex Niigata (713) and Portuguese giants SL Benfica (708).

The number of passes attempted greatly vary between clubs. In the English Premier League, for example, Manchester City makes on average 2,1x more passes per game than the club attempting the least, Bournemouth: 754 vs 352. The lowest figure overall was recorded for the Saudi side Al-Batin FC (199 per game), while the minimum at big-5 league level was measured for Spanish Liga’s Getafe CF (329).

The Post also presents the data on the percentage of successful passes, as well as their distribution between forward (angle span 90°), backward (idem) and lateral. The greatest figure for successful passes was recorded for Paris St-Germain (91.4%), ahead of Manchester City (90.8%) and Real Madrid (90.0%). Istanbul Basaksehir leads the table for backward passes (20.2% of the total), Bodo/Glimt for lateral passes (61.3%) and the Argentineans of Deportivo Riestra for forward ones (64.6%).

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Issue number 390 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks clubs from 60 leagues worldwide (not including B-teams) according to the average age of line-ups fielded during the current or last completed season. Valencia is the youngest team within the five major European championships (on average 23.99 years, 25% of minutes by U21 players), while the record-low figure was observed for the Danish side FC Nordsjælland (22.31 years, 74% of minutes by U21 footballers).

The youngest teams in the other leagues of the big-5 are Stuttgart (24.22) in Germany, Southampton (24.40) in England, Lecce (24.56) in Italy and Stade de Reims (24.83) in France. Spanish giants Barcelona fielded players aged 21 or less for the highest percentage of domestic league minutes (29.5%). Conversely, Atlético Madrid and Tottenham are among the five big-5 league teams that did not yet field U21 footballers.

The extreme figures for line-ups’ age in South America were recorded for the Venezuelans of Zulia FC (23.74 years) and, at the opposite end, the Paraguayans of 12 de Octubre (31.97 years). At league level, the figures stretch from a minimum of 25.23 years of age in the Dutch Eredivisie to a maximum of 29.31 for the Thai top division. At big-5 league level, the values vary from 26.60 years of age in the French Ligue 1 to 27.54 in the Spanish Liga.

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Issue number 389 of the Weekly Post assesses paying fee transfer operations carried out by current big-5 league clubs since July 2012. The study compares players’ values prior to transfer, estimated according to the exclusive CIES Football Observatory’s statistical model, and fees actually paid. This allows us to highlight clubs having most driven inflation up, with Manchester United heading the rankings.

Manchester United’s total investment for the 33 fee paying transfers assessed in the study was €238M greater than the estimated value of players concerned: €1.59 vs €1.36 billion (+18%). Juventus (€233 M, +29%) and Paris St-Germain (€162M, +19%) complete the overspending table’s podium. Only three Premier League teams figure among the 36 clubs that invested less money than expected to conclude the fee-paying deals assessed. This confirms their key role in driving up inflation on the transfer market.

Deals concluded by triggering buy-out or option-to-buy clauses were not included in the sample analysed. Only 86 current big-5 league clubs for which we were able to assess at least ten fee-paying transfers figure in the rankings. More information about the CIES Football Observatory’s scientific method to assess players’ transfer values and fees is available in this open access peer review paper.