Issue number 433 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents an analysis of the data produced exclusively by our partner SkillCorner on the type of runs made by players when their team is in possession of the ball. Clubs from 27 leagues around the world are ranked according to the percentage of runs for short or backward passes*, highlighting the teams whose players like to receive the ball at their feet.

Raków Czestochowa’s players proportionally make the most runs for short or backward passes (31.1% of total runs). The Polish club is ahead of two European football giants: Manchester City (29.6%) and Paris Saint-Germain (28.5%). Eintracht Frankfurt (27.5%), Girona (26.5%) and AC Milan (25.9%) top the table in the other big-5 leagues. In absolute terms, the maximum runs for short or backward passes was recorded for Paris St-Germain (7.13 per match).

Using innovative tracking technologies, SkillCorner provides physical data for over 60 football leagues and competitions worldwide. Its new ‘Game Intelligence’ data focuses on the contextualisation of the game and notably includes ten categories of runs that can be used to qualify the style of play of teams and players, as we have done in this publication.

*Runs for short or backward passes are runs (>15 km/h for at least 0.7 seconds) made with the aim of offering a passing option to teammates, whether towards its own goal (‘drop off’) or to shorten the passing distance to the ball carrier (coming short).

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The 432nd CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses the rich data produced by our partners Wyscout to highlight the clubs that most dominate their opponents in 69 leagues across the world. The ranking is established on the basis of the average performance ratio with respect to opponents for four game actions: shots, shots from the box, passes and passes into the opponent’s third.

Levski Sofia tops the table with an average dominance ratio 3.31, ahead of another Bulgarian side, Ludogorets (3.26), Red Star Belgrade (2.99), Olympiacos (2.90) and Feyenoord (2.78). At the top of the rankings for the big-5 European leagues are Bayern Munich (ahead of Bayer Leverkusen), Naples (ahead of Inter), Paris St-Germain (ahead of LOSC Lille), Barcelona (ahead of Real Madrid) and Manchester City (ahead of Chelsea).

Outside Europe, the best ratios were recorded for two Saudi Pro League teams - Al-Hilal (2.29) and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr (2.13) – and Ecuador’s Independiente Del Valle (2.27). RB Bragantino (1.45) heads the table in Brazil, River Plate (1.92) in Argentina, CF América (1.60) in Mexico and New York RB (1.39) in the MLS. Over and above the rank currently occupied by the clubs, the dominance ratio helps in most cases understanding the position that teams can realistically hope to achieve.

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Issue number 431 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks 70 leagues around the world according to the average duration of matches during the current or last completed season (Wyscout data). The overall average is 100’15’’, with a maximum of over 106’ in the top two Saudi competition levels.

The Spanish Liga is the competition where referees add the most injury time among the European big-5 (on average 13’03’’), ahead of the English Premier League (11’46’’) and the Italian Serie A (11’04’’). The lowest additional time value overall was recorded in the Finnish top flight (6’07’’), with less than 10% of fixtures lasting more than 100’.

Overall, the percentage of matches that last over 100’ is 52.4%. This proportion varies greatly between leagues: from 100% in the top division of the United Arab Emirates to just 6.7% in the Swiss second division. The share of games with a duration of over 100’ in the European big-5 stretches from 84.6% in Spain to 61.1% in France (71.8% in England).

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Dear friend of the CIES Football Observatory,

we warmly thank the >1k of our subscribers that have taken the time to answer the anonymous survey through which we aim at understanding what actions football fans consider to be a necessity to improve the men’s professional football club environment.

This a second and last invite to participate in the survey, which will only take you about one minute. The results will be made available to the general public via our website and social networks.

>>> Survey in English

>>> Questionnaire en français

Thank you for helping us, and long live football!

The CIES Football Observatory research team

The 430th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the top 100 teams in the world having invested the most on transfer fees (including add-ons regardless of effective payment) to recruit players currently in their squad. Four teams head the list with investments of at least one billion euros: three English clubs (Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City) and one French (Paris St-Germain).

Saudi side Al-Hilal (18th) is the club from outside the European big-5 that has invested the most on transfer indemnities to assemble its squad (€382m), ahead of Leicester City (26th, €281m) and Ajax (32nd, €236m). By position, the biggest spenders are Liverpool for goalkeepers (€73m), Manchester United for defenders (€383m), Real Madrid for midfielders (€447m) and Paris St-Germain for strikers (€557m).

Clubs from nineteen different leagues feature in the top 100, with a maximum of 19 teams for the English Premier League (all clubs except Luton), followed by the Italian Serie A (15 teams), the Spanish Liga (12), the French Ligue 1 (11) and the German Bundesliga (also 11). Among non-European competitions, the Saudi Pro League is the most represented (4 clubs), ahead of Mexico’s Liga MX (3) and Brazil’s Serie A (2).

>>> Explore all the resources available on our website

CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post number 429 presents the net transfer spending* of the 100 most active clubs in terms of the financial volume of transactions concluded over the last decade. During this period, Manchester United has the most negative balance (-€1.396 billion), while the Portuguese side SL Benfica has the best (+€764 million).

Two other teams have had transfer losses of more than €1 billion over the last ten years: Chelsea and Paris St-Germain. Chelsea also has the most negative balances in the post-COVID period (-€993 million) and the calendar year 2023 (-€558 million). In contrast, SL Benfica outranks AFC Ajax (+€434m) and RB Salzburg (+€422m) over the last decade, while Villarreal CF has the most positive net spending in the 2023 calendar year (+€129m).

Also published today, the 87th CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report presents an even more detailed analysis of transfer-related financial flows in world football over the last decade. In particular, it shows that the amount of transfer fees incurred by clubs in 2023 (around €12.4 billion) was almost 25% higher than in the previous record year of 2019. This is essentially due to the sharp increase of English Premier League and Saudi Pro League clubs’ investments.

* The figures published include fixed transfer fees, any add-ons regardless of whether they have actually been paid, as well as sums invested in the context of paying loans. Amounts negotiated for loans with an obligation to buy are included in the breakdown for the year of the transfer. Within the limits of available information, the data on beneficiaries considers sell-on fees negotiated by previous clubs.

Issue number 428 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 100 players born in 2002 or later who are not yet playing for a big-5 league club, but whose level of experience accumulated over the past year puts them in the best position to successfully take their careers to the next level.

Born in 2003, "air-ground blocker" António Silva (SL Benfica) is the player best equipped to join a top club. His transfer value is estimated at €102.5 million by the CIES Football Observatory statistical model. The Portuguese is ahead of two players born in 2002, "ground-air blocker" Pablo Maia (São Paulo FC, €17.4m) and "shooter-creator" Georgiy Sudakov (Shakhtar Donetsk, €35.6m).

Barcelona’s new recruit Vitor Roque (Athletico Paranaense, €53.5m) is in fourth place, an impressive ranking for a player born in 2005. Arthur Vermeeren (Anverse, €10.2m) and Jorne Spileers (Bruges, €7.2m) are the only other footballers born in 2005 in the top 100, compared with ten born in 2004, the highest-ranked of whom is the Moroccan full international Bilal El Khannouss (KRC Genk, 14th, €20.6m).

Exclusively developed by the CIES Football Observatory research team, the 100-based experience capital metric is particularly useful for scouts, as it enables them to rank players by considering both their playing time and the sporting level of matches played. This makes it easy to identify the talents whose recruitment offers the best guarantees of success.

A paying platform with numerous statistical indicators has been developed to help professionals optimise their strategies. More information is available on request.

Issue 427 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks the teams in 69 leagues around the world according to the average experience level of players in the squad. Experience is calculated by weighting minutes played in official club or national team matches over the last year by the sporting level of the games, with a maximum possible value of 100.

For the European big-5, Manchester City (85.6 and 63.2), Real Madrid (82.5 / 60.6), Bayern Munich (73.4 / 52.3) and Paris St-Germain (67.9 / 48.5) have the highest values for both ‘starters’ (i.e. the eleven most experienced players) and ‘substitutes’ (up to the next eleven). In Italy, Inter and Napoli are tied for the first (72.7), while Fiorentina leads the way for the second (47.6). The Tuscans could therefore be the surprise package of the season.

In Argentina, River Plate are first for the ‘starters’ and Boca Juniors for the ‘substitutes’. In Brazil, surprise leaders Botafogo are behind Palmeiras, Flamengo and Fluminense. In MLS, Messi’s Inter Miami have the most experienced starters, while Philadelphia Union have the best bench. In Turkey, Fenerbahçe are expected to take the title from Galatasaray, while Benfica should retain their crown in Portugal, as should Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia.

>>> See the virtual ’experience’ tables in 69 leagues

With a new final phase of the FIFA World Cup to come, women’s football continues its development worldwide. The June’s CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report analyses the composition of squads of the eight clubs having reached the quarter-finals of the 2022/23 UEFA Women’s Champions League.

Footballers under 23 years of age only accounted for 16.8% of minutes played by the UEFA Champions League quarter-finalists. This finding reflects the difficulty for young talents in establishing themselves in the top European clubs. The highest level was recorded for the unfortunate finalists, Wolfsburg (26.3%), which indicates a bright future for the German club.

Almost half of the minutes in the quarter-finalists were played by expatriate footballers. Particularly high levels were recorded for the two English teams present at this stage: Arsenal (83.2%) and Chelsea (74.5%). However, the two finalists, Wolfsburg (30.9%) and Barcelona (35.5%), are at the opposite, which shows that it is still possible to achieve the highest results with a majority of national players.

With 77 expatriates, the double World Cup title holders of the United States are the top exporting country for players active abroad in the ten principal women’s leagues, ahead of Sweden (48 expatriates), Denmark (45) and Canada (44).

>>> Access the Report for free

The last CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post before the summer break presents the top 100 clubs in the world with the most followers on four social networks: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

With 362 million followers, Real Madrid is ahead its big rival Barcelona (342 million). Manchester United is the only other club with more than 200 million followers, while Paris St-Germain ranks fourth (187 million).

Outside the five major European leagues, the top three consists of Brazil’s Flamengo (50 million), Egypt’s Al-Ahly (45 million) and Turkey’s Galatasaray (40 million).

>>> Top 100 of the most popular clubs in the social media

Issue number 425 of the Weekly Post presents the top 100 estimated transfer values using the statistical model exclusively developed by the CIES Football Observatory. Manchester City and Premier League top scorer Erling Haaland heads the list with a value of almost €250 million (eventual buy-out clause not considered). Two other footballers under 23 years of age, Vinícius Júnior and Bukayo Saka, who just extended his Arsenal’s contract, complete the podium.

Rumoured close to Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund’s teenager Jude Bellingham is fourth with an estimated value of €190 million (eventual add-ons included as for all players listed). The Englishman outranks Rodrygo Goes and the FC Barcelona’s duo Pedri González and Pablo Gavi (assuming that the registration of his contract until 2026 will be effective). Jamal Musiala, Phil Foden and Kylian Mbappé (contract with PSG until 2024 only) complete the top 10 list.

The highest estimated values for players from outside the big-5 were recorded for two Portuguese top talents: António Silva (€89 million) and Gonçalo Ramos (€82 million). The SL Benfica’s duo are ahead PSV Eindhoven’s Xavi Simons, FC Porto’s Diogo Costa, Sporting CP’s Gonçalo Inacio and three AFC Ajax players. More information on the statistical model used is available in this scientific paper. Evaluations for more than 30,000 players in 75 leagues around the world are available via a paying platform.

>>> Top 100 list

Issue number 424 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post defines the attacking styles of teams from 23 leagues worldwide on the basis of the data on players’ high intensity runs exclusively produced by SkillCorner (>20km/h for at least 0.7 seconds). For each league, clubs are ranked from those whose players perform more in-possession high intensity runs than expected with respect to the minutes of possession to those who perform less.

A positive gap is characteristic of teams tending to go rapidly forward, while a negative gap is typical of teams building-up in a more horizontal way. Most of the dominant teams are in the second category, notably Shakhtar Donetsk (-12.1%), Paris St-Germain (-10.9%) and Manchester City (-8.2%), but RC Lens (+10.1%), Newcastle United (+8.5%) and Borussia Dortmund (+6.0%) show that it is possible to obtain top level results with a more vertical attacking style.

SkillCorner’s pioneering tracking technologies use broadcast and tactical video to deliver physical and contextual data for more than 60 football leagues and competitions across the world. Its standardised physical data allows users to benchmark and track the physical attributes of players, teams and leagues by supporting decision making on scouting, recruitment, player development and team strategy. The data includes a large set of metrics, including the "Count of High Intensity runs" used here.

Issue number 423 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks 60 top division leagues around the world according to the percentage of coaches in place at the start of the 2022/23 season who are no more in charge today. Of the 850 teams analysed, 484 changed coaches during the season, corresponding to a percentage of 56.9%.

The greatest percentages were measured in three leagues from the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, North Macedonia and Serbia), followed by one from Central America (Costa Rica) and two from Africa (Algeria and Tunisia). At the other end of the scale are India (just one coach replaced in 11), Malta (3 in 14) and Australia (3 in 12). For the big-5, the values range from 55% in the Premier League (11 out of 20) to “only” 35% in Serie A (7 out of 20).

Clubs that changed coach at least once made the first replacement on average after 45.4% of matches, with a negative record of only 24.6% of games led by the coach who started the season in Romania, followed by the United Arab Emirates and Greece. In the big-5, the values stretch from 56.6% in the English Premier League to 35.6% in the Italian Serie A, where clubs changed relatively few coaches but rather quickly.

The 422nd edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the ranking of the 100 associations with the highest number of expatriate players in 135 leagues worldwide. With a record number of 1,289 expatriates, Brazil tops the list ahead of France (1,033) and Argentina (905). Nigeria, Japan and the United States heads the rankings for the other main confederations.

The Post also presents the number of expatriates by age group, with the French in first place for those aged 23 or under, Brazilians for those aged 23 to 26 and 27 to 30, and Argentinians for those aged over 30. More detailed analyses including changes measured since 2017, with record increases for France and Colombia, are available in the 85th Monthly Report.

Expatriates are defined as footballers playing outside the association where they grew up, which they left following recruitment by a foreign club. This definition makes it possible to isolate sports migration from ordinary one, thus highlighting the flows directly linked to the practice of football. The Migration Atlas presents the main destinations for football migrants of all origins.

The 421st Weekly Post presents the player with the highest transfer value according to the CIES Football Observatory statistical model for 1,229 clubs in 74 leagues around the world. For each player, we also present the proportion that its value represents with respect to the total value of all footballers under contract with his owner club.

The highest values for the four Champions League semi-finalists were recorded for Erling Haaland at Manchester City (>€200m), Vinícius Júnior at Real Madrid (>€200m), Lautaro Martínez at Inter (>€80m) and Rafael Leão at Milan (>€60m). Among other players heading the table for their respective clubs notably are Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Pedri González (Barcelona), Jamal Musiala (Bayern), Pedro Guilherme (Flamengo) and Alan Varela (Boca Juniors).

We are also proud to launch a new tool providing access to the estimated value of more than 30,000 professional players worldwide under a scenario with a contractual duration of at least three years. Vinícius Júnior (>€250m), Kylian Mbappé (also >€250m) and Erling Haaland (>€200m) are in the top three positions of this virtual ranking. Gianluigi Donnarumma tops the table for goalkeepers, Éder Militão for centre backs, Reece James for full backs and Jude Bellingham for midfielders.

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The precise value calculated according to the actual contract duration is available through a paid platform alongside many more exclusive statistics. Any interested institution is kindly invited to contact us.

The 420th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post uses Wyscout data on dribbling in domestic league matches over the last 365 days to compile a world ranking of the best dribblers according to an index combining the frequency and percentage of successful dribbles, as well as the sporting level of teammates and opponents. Only footballers who have not yet turned 23 and have played at least 1’500 domestic league minutes are included.

Real Madrid’s Brazilian winger Vinícius Júnior tops the list with a successful dribble every 15 minutes and 32 seconds, and a success rate of 50.3% in highly competitive matches. His compatriot Ângelo Gabriel of Santos FC ranks second with even more impressive statistics, albeit in lower-level games: one successful dribble every 13 minutes and 56 seconds with a 64.2% success rate. Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala rounds up the podium ahead of AFC Ajax’s Mohammed Kudus.

Players from 35 different leagues are in the top 100, with Spain’s La Liga in first place (11 representatives), one more than the English Premier League and Argentina’s Liga Profesional. Born on 23 December 2004, Brighton & Hove Albion’s Facundo Buonanotte is the youngest player in the top 100, followed by Ângelo Gabriel (born just two days earlier), RB Salzburg’s Israeli Oscar Gloukh and Vélez Sarsfield’s Julián Fernández.

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Issue 419 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post lists the 200 U20 players in 75 leagues around the world (20 in each of the ten positions considered) who have accumulated the most official game experience during last year. The highest score overall was recorded for Barcelona’s prodigy Gavi, whose relative experience capital is 4.37 times higher than the average measured for players of the same age and position.

The top players by position are Plamen Andreev (Levski Sofia, goalkeeper), António Silva (Benfica, centre back), Alejandro Balde (Barcelona, left back), Rico Lewis (Manchester City, right back), Arthur Vermeeren (Royal Antwerp, defensive midfielder), Pablo Gavi (Barcelona, central midfielder), Bilal El Khannouss (KRC Genk, attacking midfielder), Matheus Martins (Watford, left winger), Ângelo Gabriel (Santos, right winger) and Marcos Leonardo (Santos, centre-forward)

The ranking was established according to the experience capital method, taking into account the minutes played in official games during the last 365 days, the sporting level of the matches and the results. Furthermore, the experience capital was related to the average measured for players of the same age and position, which allows us to present a relative score as mentioned above.

The 418th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks 75 leagues around the world according to the frequency of penalties awarded by referees since 1 January 2020. The Egyptian Premier League heads the rankings with a penalty whistled every 172 minutes (not including injury time) compared to a global average of 271 minutes.

At the other end of the scale are the Japanese J1 League (every 520 minutes) and J2 League (every 613 minutes), as well as the English Championship, League One and League Two. In terms of conversion rates, the world average is 77.1%. The maximum was recorded in the French Ligue 1 and the Qatar Stars League (82.2%), while the minimum was observed in the South African PSL (71.4%).

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Issue number 417 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the percentage of minutes played by footballers who had not yet turned 20 in domestic league matches played over the last five years by 1,168 clubs in 76 leagues worldwide. Denmark’s Nordsjælland crushes the competition with a record percentage of 37%. Slovakia’s MŠK Žilina and Septemvri Sofia of Bulgaria complete the podium.

The top three outside of Europe is made up of two Venezuelan clubs (Mineros de Guayana and Deportivo La Guaira) and Uruguay’s Defensor SC. Borussia Dortmund leads the way among the teams currently in the big-5, ahead of Stade Rennais and FC Barcelona. In terms of the number of U20 players lined up in domestic league matches since 1 April 2018, the Romanian side FCV Farul tops the table with 45 footballers.

>>> Full data set

The 84th CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report analyses attacking playing styles adopted by clubs in 75 leagues worldwide using data for no less than 18,000 matches collected by InStat (now Wyscout). The team statistics on counter-attacks were combined with those of passes in the opponent’s third to distinguish four different offensive styles of play.

The “pressure” style favouring positional attacks is notably predominant il all big-5 leagues except the Bundesliga. The “alternance” style mixing positional and fast attacks is the dominant one notably in the Belgian and Turkish top divisions. The “waiting” style with below-average values for both counter-attacks and last third passes is the main one in both Germany and Portugal, while the “projection” style favouring quick attacks is notably widespread in Latin America.

The team analysis allows for a more precise definition of the offensive tactical options adopted by individual clubs. Although to different degrees, the majority of the most competitive teams adopt a “pressure” attacking style. However, there are exceptions such as Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund who fall into the “alternance” category, Roma and Juventus adopting a “waiting” style or Milan and Eintracht Frankfurt practising a “projection” one.

Finally, we would like to thank the people at InStat for having facilitated access to their data and having understood the meaning of our approach and our mission to push back the frontiers of knowledge in the service of the sustainable development of football around the world. We are sure that our many regular readers will join us in thanking them.

>>> Go to the Report

Weekly Post’s issue number 416 presents the 100 U23 players outside the big-5 with the highest estimated transfer values according to the CIES Football Observatory’s statistical model. Benfica’s centre-forward Gonçalo Ramos tops the list with an estimated value of about €70 million, ahead of three centre backs: António Silva (€66m), Gonçalo Inácio (€62m) and Jurriën Timber (€57m).

Maarten Vandevoordt (Genk on loan from RB Leipzig) tops the list for goalkeepers (€20m), Devyne Rensch (Ajax) for full backs (€23m), Kenneth Taylor (also Ajax) for midfielders (€49m), while the top figure among players outside Europe was recorded for Yuri Alberto (€35m) of Corinthians. The top 100 estimated values for last November and non-big-5 league players under 25 years of age is available here.

>>> Current top 100 U23 list

Issue number 415 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks 76 leagues worldwide according to the number of cards per match handed out by referees since 1 January 2020. Bolivia’s Primera División tops the list (7.01 cards per game with 0.55 reds), while Japan’s J2 and J1 leagues are at the opposite end of the spectrum (1.99 cards per match with just 0.05 reds).

Seven Latin American leagues rank in the top nine in terms of total number of penalty cards, the only exceptions being Portugal’s Primeira and Segunda Liga. At the opposite end, Japan’s top two divisions are ahead of the top two leagues from the Netherlands. England’s Premier League Championship, League One and League Two are also at the bottom of the table, confirming the low propensity of referees across the Channel to issue penalty cards.

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Issue 414 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks 126 associations worldwide according to the average age of their senior men’s national team line-ups fielded in the last year. The maximum was recorded for Kuwait (29.76 years), while the minimum was observed for Bahamas (22.82 years). In Europe, the values range from 29.40 years for Belgium to 25.07 years for Turkey.

The three lowest values among last FIFA World Cup participants were measured for the USA (24.74 years), Ecuador (25.78 years) and Ghana (25.97 years). All three selections have a bright future ahead. Overall, the share of minutes of players aged 21 or under is 10.2%, compared to 32.7% for 22-25 year olds, 31.5% for 26-29 year olds and 25.6% for 30 year olds or over.

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The loan of players is a practice much in vogue in professional football. The 83rd edition of the CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report analyses the characteristics of 3,178 players currently on loan in 75 leagues from 57 associations worldwide. It notably shows that loans concern 9.5% of players, with record percentages at around 20% in Italy.

The report also highlights that loans do not just involve footballers at the start of their career. Indeed, less than 30% of the total number of players on loan are 21 years of age or under, while almost half are 24 or over. This shows that loans are not uniquely used with the aim of developing the potential of young players, but also for several other reasons, such as making room in squads or signing reinforcements without paying transfer indemnities.

Many big-5 league teams figure among the clubs who loan out the most players present on the 1st March in the 75 leagues analysed. Arsenal tops the list with 25 footballers loaned out, followed by Atalanta. Inter, Brighton & Hove Albion, Manchester City, Juventus, Chelsea and Wolverhampton also are in the top 10. Generally speaking, the more competitive the club, the more it tends to loan out players to other teams.

In 63.5% of cases, the clubs where players are loaned have a lower sporting level to the owner clubs. This result indicates that loans principally serve the interests of the wealthiest teams, by allowing them to control the career of more players than they could have in their squad and develop. The club multi-ownership strategy, increasingly used by dominant teams, only reinforces this process.

>>> Full Report

Issue number 413 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the top 100 clubs in the world according to the estimated value of transfer rights held on players in the squad, on loan to other teams or sold with a sell-on percentage. Manchester City top the list with the ownership of transfer rights on no less than 46 players for a total estimated value of €1.46 billion.

Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid complete the podium, ahead of three other English teams: Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. With transfer rights held on players corresponding to €264 million, Brazil’s Flamengo are the highest ranked non-European club. More information on the CIES Football Observatory’s statistical model for estimating the transfer value of professional football players is available in this scientific paper.

>>> TOP 100

Issue 412 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses WyScout data on domestic league assists made by players in 75 championships around the world over the last 365 days. By weighting the number of assists with the sporting coefficient of the matches played, Kevin De Bruyne comes out on top ahead of Ousmane Dembélé and Lionel Messi.

With 12 assists and a weighted score of 13.8, which puts him in sixth place overall, Dejan Kulusevski tops the list among U23 players. Sebastián Villa (Boca Juniors) is the top ranked player currently active in a South American league. In purely numerical terms, without weighting assists by the sporting level of the matches played, with 19 assists in last year domestic league matches, three players are at the top: Dušan Tadić (AFC Ajax), Ahmed Sayed ‘Zizo’ (Zamalek SC) and Emil Hansson (Heracles).

>>> Top 100 assistmen worldwide

The 411th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks the teams currently playing in 75 leagues around the world according to the number of different players fielded in domestic league matches over the last five years. The top three most stable teams are Sweden’s Halmstads BK (44 footballers), Manchester City (47) and Athletic Club (49), with the Brazilians of Ponte Preta (168) at the opposite end. 

>>> Access the Post

The 410th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks the teams in 52 leagues around the world according to the current season’s ratio between fouls committed and suffered. In the five major European championships, according to the InStat/Wyscout data, the values range from a ratio of 1.49 for Manchester United to 0.68 for Real Madrid.

By league, the highest number of fouls per match was recorded in the Serbian top division (30.3) and the Portuguese second one (30.2). At the other end of the scale are the Danish and Dutch top tiers (19.3 in both cases).

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The CIES Football Observatory research team is pleased to announce the publication of a ground-breaking report that reveals for the first time the inflation of player prices. Over the last decade, player prices have increased at an annual rate of 9%. A footballer paid €1 million in 2013/14 now costs €2.16 million (+116%).

The prices of players recruited by English Premier League clubs have risen more sharply than those of footballers hired by teams outside this competition: on average +12.2% per year compared to +8.4%. Inflation was also particularly marked for centre backs (+12.5% per annum), full backs (+11.1%), as well as for players aged 21 or under (+12.7%).

Overall, all else being equal, player prices increased at an annual rate of 13.8% between the 2013/14 and 2019/20 seasons, and then by -0.2% in the three seasons following the pandemic. However, after falling sharply in 2021/22, player prices resumed their growth in 2022/23, suggesting a rapid return to record levels.

In terms of investment volume, the total of €9.12 billion measured in 2022/23 is the second highest since the record season of 2019/2020. The rebound in 2021/22 from the sharp decline in the pandemic-affected 2020/21 season has thus continued into the current season, with even a new record for a winter transfer window in January 2023, largely driven by Premier League teams’ spending.

>>> Access the Report

Issue number 409 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks teams worldwide according to the total estimated transfer value of their youth academy graduates (at least three years between the ages of 15 and 21) active in more than 50 professional leagues. SL Benfica tops the table with a total academy graduates’ value of €670 million spread between 104 players, of which €151m for 20 footballers whose transfer rights are still owned by the Portuguese team. Chelsea and Barcelona round up the podium, while three Brazilian teams are in the top 10.

Transfer values were assessed through a statistical model exclusively developed by the CIES Football Observatory research team. A toolkit developed in association with Wyscout available on subscription notably includes the estimates for >30,000 players from 75 leagues worldwide. More information and a free trial access are available on demand.

>>> Top 100 academies

The 408th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the net spending (including add-ons) for transfers concluded over the last five seasons by the 100 clubs with the highest volume of trade. Chelsea has the most negative balance with a deficit of €749m, of which a record €620m during the current season, ahead of Manchester United (-€670m) and Arsenal (-€544m). Ninth-placed Juventus has the biggest deficit among non-English clubs (-€337m). Benfica tops the list of positive balances with net revenues of €369m, including €157m in the current season, notably thanks to the record transfer of Enzo Fernández to Chelsea.

Acess the full data per club and season

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Issue 407 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the players who have performed best in the area of take on over the past year on the basis of an exclusive index based on 100 taking into account the frequency of successful dribbles and crosses, playing time, as well as the sporting level of matches played. Ousmane Dembélé tops the list among attacking players and João Cancelo among defending ones.

Vinícius Júnior and Kevin De Bruyne round up the podium for offensive players. Seventh overall, Kylian Mbappé is the highest-ranked footballer among those who played primarily in the centre of the attack. Three players who have not yet turned 20 appear in the top 100: Jude Bellingham, Ângelo Gabriel (Santos FC) and Jamal Musiala. The evergreen Croatian Luka Modrić is the oldest player on the list, ahead of Salernitana’s Antonio Candreva.

Among defensive players, João Cancelo outranks Trent Alexander-Arnold and Javi Galan (Celta Vigo). Four players aged 23 or under are in the top ten: Pedro Porro (fourth), Reece James (eighth), Nuno Tavares (ninth) and Alphonso Davies (tenth). The French Malo Gusto and Quentin Merlin are the youngest footballers in the top 100, while Jesús Navas and the fresh América Mineiro recruit Nino Paraíba are the oldest.

For more information on the different areas of play considered by the CIES Football Observatory for the analysis of players’ technical performance (InStat/Hudl data), please refer to this Monthly Report.

>>> Tops 100

Issue 406 of the CIES Football Observatory’s Weekly Post presents the 50 clubs that spent the most on the player market during the current and last summer’s transfer windows. Chelsea crushes the competition with €555 million invested (including add-ons) to acquire 15 footballers. This is more than double the amount spent by the second biggest spender: Manchester United (€272 million for 7 players).

West Ham United, Nottingham Forest and Wolverhampton Wanderers complete an all-English top five. All twenty Premier League teams but Leicester City (51st), feature in the top 50, reflecting the increasingly obvious economic dominance of the English top flight. Barcelona is ahead of Paris St-Germain among non-Premier League teams, AFC Ajax tops the table for clubs outside of the big-5, while Flamengo is the only non-European team in the top 50.

Per league, the English top division is far above any other championship with a staggering €3.19 billion total fee expenditure (add-ons included). This is almost four times more than the amount invested by the teams in the second biggest spending league: the Italian Serie A (€826 m). The French Ligue 1 (€726 m) completes the podium ahead of the Spanish Liga (€708 m) and the German Bundesliga (€689 m). The sixth ranked competition, the Dutch Eredivisie, is at a much lower level (€228 m).

>>> Top 50

The 405th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks 417 teams from 27 European top divisions according to the percentage of minutes played by club-trained footballers, i.e. present for at least three years between the seasons of their 15th and 21st birthdays. The highest proportions were measured for the Slovakians of MŠK Žilina in total (73.3% of minutes by 16 players trained) and Athletic Club in the big-5 (56.6%; 13).

Club-trained footballers played a majority of minutes for only one other team in the five major leagues: Olympique Lyonnais (52.2%; 11 "trained"). Real Sociedad rounds out the podium for the big-5 (40.2%). Chelsea and Brighton & Hove top the list in the English Premier League (26.9%), SC Freiburg in the German Bundesliga (31.0%), AS Roma in Italian Serie A (17.8%), as well as SL Benfica in the Portuguese Primeira Liga (25.8%).

Thirty-three teams are at the bottom of the ranking with no player trained fielded in current season’s domestic league matches. Among them are 11 big-5 league clubs: one from Ligue 1 (Olympique de Marseille), one from the Premier League (Brentford FC), one from the Bundesliga (Union Berlin), three from the Liga (Cádiz, Getafe and Almería), and five from Serie A (Bologna, Lecce, Udinese, Cremonese and Salernitana). The data by league is available in the Demographic Atlas.

>>> Go to the Post

>>> Go to the Atlas

Issue number 404 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents sixty players whose contracts end next June with the highest Impact Score in their age group. The French Evan N’Dicka (Eintracht Frankfurt) tops the list among footballers who have not yet turned 23, the Spaniard Marco Asensio (Real Madrid) for those aged between 24 and 26, as well as Adrien Rabiot (Juventus) for players between 27 and 30 years of age.

While these players can be signed without the payment of a transfer fee in six months’ time, they already represent excellent opportunities for clubs wanting to get ahead of the competition. The highest transfer value among the footballers listed was recorded for Youri Tielemans (Leceister City, €30.8m), ahead of Milan Skriniar (Inter, €30.3m), Marco Asensio (Real Madrid, €21.9m), Youssoufa Moukoko (Borussia Dortmund, €20.3m) and Adrien Rabiot (Juventus, €19.5m).

The Impact Score is a metric that is perfectly comparable between all footballers regardless of their technical characteristics, taking into account the sporting level of matches played during the last year, minutes played in official games, as well as playing performances (InStat data). This tool available for free presents the Impact Score value for players in more than 70 leagues worldwide. Under contract only until June 2023 too, Luka Modric is among the six players scoring the highest (100).

Go to the Weekly Post

Go to the Impact Score tool

Jude Bellingham heads the list of the 100 players worldwide with the top estimated transfer value according to the statistical model exclusively developed by the CIES Football Observatory research team. His owner club, Borussia Dortmund, could potentially earn up to €208m by transferring the 19-year-old English prodigy. With Bellingham’s contract running out in June 2025, this is probably the transfer window during which the Germans could make the biggest profit.

>>> GO TO THE TOP 100 LIST

Despite relatively short contracts lasting until June 2024, Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior are in the top four (both €191m), just ahead of the English Premier League top scorer Erling Haaland (€175m). With a contract running until 2027, the latter’s value is set to rise in the coming months to approach or even surpass that of the players ranked ahead of him, including that of his Manchester City’s teammate Phil Foden (€200m), currently second.

The greatest estimated value for players outside of the big-5 was measured for Benfica’s recent World Cup winner Enzo Fernández (€80m). The estimates for all footballers in the five major European championships are available in free access here. A paper presenting the method used is also available in the peer-review and open access journal Economies. An online platform with the valuations of >30k players from 75 leagues worldwide is accessible by subscription. Do not hesitate to contact us for more information.

With a new transfer window about to open, the 81st edition of the CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report presents its exclusive approach to player scouting, bringing together in a coherent framework different and complementary information such as the footballers’ playing time, level of competition, positions, technical areas of activity, age, contract length and transfer value.

The Report identifies the 200 players - the top 10 in twenty classification categories - born in 2002 or later who have accumulated the most playing experience in the last year. The categories were determined by the players’ primary position and activity level (InStat data) in eight areas of play: three defensive (air defence, ground defence, recovery), four offensive (take on, chance creation, shooting, air attack), as well as distribution.

For each player identified, the report also presents the contractual duration with the owning club and the estimated transfer value based on the CIES Football Observatory statistical model, which has become a reference. An online platform with a wide range of player statistics from 75 leagues around the world is now also available by subscription. Do not hesitate to contact us for more information.

>>> See the Report (pdf) (online)

The following players top the list for the twenty classification categories, with club of employment and estimated transfer value:

• Goalkeeper: Maarten Vandevoordt (KRC Genk) €18.1 million
• Defensive centre back: Castello Lukeba (Olympique Lyonnais) €37.0m
• Ball-playing centre back: Josko Gvardiol (RB Leipzig) €122.4m
• Defensive left back: John Tolkin (New York RB) €5.1m
• Defensive right back: Killian Sildillia (SC Freiburg) €5.4m
• Two-way left back: Nuno Mendes (Paris St-Germain) €66.0m
• Two-way right back: Amar Dedic (RB Salzburg) €6.6m
• Attacking left back: Quentin Merlin (FC Nantes) €19.1m
• Attacking right back: Malo Gusto (Olympique Lyonnais) €17.0m
• Defensive midfielder: Pablo Maia (São Paulo FC) €10.3m
• Defensive playmaker: Pedri González (FC Barcelona) €169.8m
• Two-way midfielder: Nicola Zalewski (AS Roma) €18.7m
• Attacking playmaker: Kenneth Taylor (AFC Ajax) €32.6m
• Attacking midfielder: Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund) €211.3m
• Shot-oriented left winger: Facundo Kruspzky (free) €0.0 m
• Shot-oriented right winger: Andrés Gómez (Millonarios FC) €8.1m
• Allrounder left winger: Adam Hlozek (Bayer Leverkusen) €29.8m
• Allrounder right winger: Angsar Knauff (Eintracht Frankfurt) €15.9m
• Shot-oriented centre forward: Marcos Leonardo (Santos FC) €29.2m
• Allrounder centre forward: Rômulo Cardoso (CA Parananense) €4.4m

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.