The 434th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks 851 teams in 53 top divisions worldwide according to the average age of the line-ups fielded since the start of the current season. Values range from 20.97 years of age for FK Minsk of Belarus to 32.12 years for Independiente Petrolero of Bolivia. The average for all the clubs analysed is 27.24 years.

In the five major European leagues, the average age on the pitch ranges from 24.16 years for Toulouse FC to 30.19 for Rayo Vallecano. In the English Premier League, the extreme values were measured for Burnley FC (24.57 years), Chelsea FC (24.95) and Arsenal FC (24.96) on one side, and for Fulham (29.28 years) on the other.

The publication also presents the percentage of minutes by player age category (21 or under, 22 to 25, 26 to 29, and 30 or over). In eight teams, players aged 21 or under at the time of the matches played a majority of minutes. These notably include RB Salzburg (60.7%), FC Nordsjælland (56.1%) and AFC Ajax (53.3%).

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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

Visit our website for more exclusive football stats

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.

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

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.

>>> Access all Monthly Reports

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.

>>> Go to the Weekly Post

>>> Go to the Monthly Report

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.

>>> Go to the Post

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%).

>>> Access the Post

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.

>>> Weekly Post

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.

Issue number 388 of the Weekly Post presents the top 10 Impact Score rates among footballers who did not yet celebrate their 25th birthday for each of the fifteen technical profiles identified by the CIES Football Observatory’s role-based approach. The greatest values overall (100/100) were recorded for Alessandro Bastoni (blocker playmaker), Éder Militão (pure blocker), Jules Koundé (air blocker filter man) and Vinícius Júnior (infiltrator creator).

The Impact Score is an exclusive CIES Football Observatory’s metrics developed to assess players’ sporting achievement and potential. It is calculated by taking into consideration the average match level in which players participated according to the experience capital method, official game minutes played over the last 365 days, as well as pitch performance compared to both teammates, opponents and same profile’s players.

The role-based approach used to determine technical profiles clusters players according to the level of their involvement in eight areas of the game with respect to teammates: air defence, ground defence, recovery, distribution, take on, chance creation, air attack and shooting.

An exclusive tool, powered by InStat data, displaying big-5 league players’ technical profile, performance level, age, contractual status, estimated transfer value and suitable potential replacements among footballers from 59 leagues worldwide is accessible for free here. A premium version is available for professionals. Do not hesitate to contact us for more information and insights.

Issue number 387 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks big-5 league teams according to transfer fees invested to sign their current squad members. Manchester City heads the rankings closely followed by local rivals Manchester United. Chelsea completes an all-English podium, while Paris St-Germain tops the table for non-Premier League teams.

The Manchester teams are the only clubs worldwide with a transfer fee spending to assemble the squad greater than one billion euro (including add-ons irrespective of their effective payment). Real Madrid (€721M) has the costliest squad in the Spanish Liga, Bayern Munich (€499M) in the German Bundesliga and Juventus (€473M) in the Italian Serie A. The data for 2020/21 is available here.

The freshly released CIES Football Observatory September’s Monthly Report presents further financial analysis of big-5 league transfers. It notably shows that Manchester United tops the table for the most negative net transfer spending over the last decade (-€1.27 billion), ahead of Manchester City (€902M) and Paris St-Germain (€868M).

During the last transfer window, Premier League teams invested an all-time high of €2.6 billion (including add-ons) to sign new players. Overall, the big-5 league clubs’ expenditure reached €5.2 billion for the summer and €6.2 bn for the whole 2022 calendar year. This is the second highest figure ever observed, an increase of 61% compared to 2021 and just 7% below the record high of 2019. More exclusive transfer fee data is available for free in the freshly published 77th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report.

An all-time high was also recorded with regard to the share of transfer fees paid by English Premier League teams out of total big-5 league clubs’ investments. From an average of 38.7% during the ten-year period studied, this percentage reached a peak of 48.5% in 2022. In ten years, the English Premier League cumulated a transfer deficit of -€9.5 billion, followed by the Italian Serie A with “just” -€1.4 bn. The French Ligue 1 is at the opposite end (+€350M).

Three French clubs, LOSC Lille (+€379M), Olympique Lyonnais (+€282M) and Monaco (+€215M), are at the top of the rankings for current big-5 league teams with the most positive net transfer spending over the past decade. Manchester United is at the opposite end (-€1.27 billion), followed by Manchester City (-€902M) and Paris St-Germain (-€868M). Manchester City (€279M) heads the table for transfer fees received from big-5 league clubs in 2022, ahead of AFC Ajax (€226M).

All CIES Football Observatory’s reports available for free here!

Issue number 386 of the Weekly Post crunched InStat technical performance data within the framework of the freshly conceived CIES Football Observatory’s Impact Score (IS) method to unveil 250 hot prospects born in 2000 or after in 59 leagues worldwide. Vinícius Júnior (2000, IS of 100), Bukayo Saka (2001, IS 92), Joško Gvardiol (2002, IS 94), Jude Bellingham (2003, IS 91) and Pablo Gavi (2004 or younger, IS 93) top the rankings per year of birth.

Sandro Tonali and Vitinha Ferreira complete the podium for players born in 2000, such as Jurriën Timber and Gonçalo Inácio for 2001-born footballers. The second and third-ranked players for the other years of birth are Piero Hincapié and Eduardo Camavinga (2002), Jamal Musiala and Harvey Elliott (2003), as well as Gabriel Slonina and Daniil Khudyakov (2004 or younger). The Impact Score values for footballers from the 59 leagues selected are available for free in this exclusive tool.

The Impact Score is calculated from the average match level in which players participated according to the experience capital method, their amount of official game minutes played over the last 365 days and their 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 CIES Football Observatory launches its 2022/23 season with the final tables’ forecasting for 23 top divisions of UEFA member associations. The predictions were carried out from a statistical model including teams’ performances over the two previous seasons, current players’ experience capital and clubs’ transfer market expenditure. The full tables are available for free in the 385th Weekly Post.

Inter would be the only new champion in the five major European leagues, where hierarchies are well established. Sporting CP would be crowned in Portugal instead of Porto, while Fenerbahçe would overtake Trabzonspor in Turkey. Slavia Praha in the Czech Republic, Midtjylland in Denmark, Rangers in Scotland, as well as Young Boys in Switzerland are also supposed to beat previous champions.

With respect to relegation fight in the five major European leagues, the following teams already present in the top division are in great danger: Southampton in the Premier League; Mallorca and Cádiz in the Liga; Clermont Foot, Troyes and Angers in the Ligue 1; Hertha BSC and Bochum in the Bundesliga; as well as Salernitana in the Serie A. An update will be available on demand after the end of the transfer window.

Dear subscriber,

The CIES Football Observatory devised a brief questionnaire aiming at understanding what people passionate about football like you consider as worrying in the men’s professional game. We warmly thank those who already answered and we kindly ask to the others to take one minute to answer now.

The main findings will be published online on our website and social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok).

Please click here to complete the questionnaire.

Thank you very much!

The June 2022 Monthly Report of the CIES Football Observatory analyses the evolution in the squad make up of clubs from ten women’s leagues worldwide since 2017. The study notably shows that the strong increase in the percentage of minutes played by expatriate footballers observed between 2017 and 2021 did not continue in the last year.

As for imported players, after four consecutive years of growth, the average age of line-ups fielded by teams did not increase during last year. Since 2017, however, a growth was recorded in eight of the ten leagues studied, with a notable rise in the English Women’s Super League (+2.3 years of age). By league, in 2022, the values vary between 22.1 years of age in the Netherlands and 27.1 in the United States.

The United States also stand out as the main exporting country. With 82 footballers abroad, US citizens outrank the Swedes (46 expatriates) and the Canadians (42). Players from the United States are present in all the leagues studied, with a maximum of 22 representatives in the Swedish Damallsvenskan. In total, 73 associations have at least one expatriate in one of the ten leagues analysed.

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The last CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post before the summer break presents the top 100 estimated transfer values for players worldwide. Thanks to his fresh three-year contract extension with Paris St-Germain, Kylian Mbappé (€206) is back at the top of the list. The French world champion outranks the previous leader and recent Champions League winner Vinícius Júnior (€185M), as well as the new Manchester City striker Erling Haaland (€153M).

The Portuguese Rúben Dias has the greatest estimated transfer value for a centre back: €110M. Gianluigi Donnarumma (€74M) tops the table for goalkeepers, Trent Alexander-Arnold (€87M) for full backs and Pedri González (€135M) for midfielders. Benfica’s striker Darwin Núñez (47th, €70M) has the highest valuation for non-big-5 league players. The 30-year-old Kevin de Bruyne (76th, €57) is the oldest player in the top 100, while 17-year-old Pablo Gavi (73rd, €58M) is the youngest one.

English Premier League clubs dominate the ranking with 41 representatives in the top 100. Transfer value estimate intervals for all big-5 league footballers are available for free here. More information on the CIES Football Observatory approach to assess the transfer value of professional football players on a scientific basis is available in this freshly published peer-reviewed paper. Please contact us to know more about pour services.

TOP 100

Issue number 383 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 100 footballers who have not yet celebrated their 20th birthday who gained the most playing experience during the first semester of the year. Borussia Dortmund’s and England’s midfielder Jude Bellingham heads the rankings ahead of the FC Barcelona’s and Spain’s duo Pablo Gavi and Pedri González.

Fulham’s FC Fábio Carvalho (7th) is the top ranked player outside of the big-5, ahead of Sparta Prague’s Adam Hložek and Martin Vitík. The podium of U20 footballers playing outside of Europe who gained the most experience since the start of the year is composed of Marcos Leonardo (Santos FC), Juan David Mosquera (Independiente Medellín) and Santiago Simón (River Plate).

The rankings were established according to the experience capital method, which takes into consideration minutes played in official games and their sporting level. This method allows us to combine into a single metrics players’ employment and the level of games in which they participated. More information is available in this Report and on demand.

With the 2021/22 seasons coming to an end, this CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the Best XI for 32 European leagues using its exclusive Impact Score approach combining team results with player employment and technical performance as per InStat data. Tactical formations were chosen by first including top-ranked players in the most frequent position played and adding then footballers for complementary positions.

Players from 21 clubs were selected in the Best XIs for the big-5: Liverpool (6), Manchester City (4) and Tottenham (Harry Kane) in England; Real Madrid (6), Sevilla (2), Barcelona (2) and Betis (Nabil Fekir) in Spain; Milan (4), Inter (3), Juventus (2), Napoli (Amir Rrahmani) and Fiorentina (Nicolás González) in Italy; Bayern Munich (9), Borussia Dortmund (Jude Bellingham) and Bochum (Manuel Riemann) in Germany; Paris St-Germain (5), Marseille (2), Rennes (Benjamin Bourigeaud), Monaco (Aurélien Tchouaméni), Strasbourg (Ludovic Ajorque) and Nice (Walter Benítez) in France.

The ten youngest players in the Best XIs are Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund), Arsen Zakharyan (Dinamo Moskow), Ilya Zabarnyi (Dynamo Kiev), Adam Hlozek (Sparta Prague), Nuno Mendes (PSG), Jakub Kaminski (Lech Poznan), Ryan Gravenberch (Ajax), Karim Adeyemi (RB Salzburg), Liel Abada (Celtic) and Jurriën Timber (Ajax). The Post also includes the technical profile of players selected according to fifteen categories as explained in this Report.

The 381st CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses the passing game of goalkeepers from 36 leagues worldwide as per data from InStat. The percentage of long forward passes out of total passes stretches from just 8.2% for Paris St-Germain goalie Keylor Navas up to 83.6% for Paksi FC’s Gergö Rácz. Only goalkeepers who played at least 1’000 domestic league minutes (injury time included) were taken into consideration.

The record percentage of long forward passes (at least 40 meters with a span angle of 90°) at big-5 league level was recorded for Burnley FC’s Nick Pope (73.1%) ahead of CA Osasuna’s Sergio Herrera (72.2%). In absolute terms, the greatest value was recorded for Bochum’s Manuel Riemann (27.5 per match on average). Derby County’s Ryan Allsop made the most passes per game (50.0), ahead of Hamburger SV Daniel Heuer Fernandes (48.4).

Goalkeepers passing data heavily reflects the style of play of teams. On a league level, the percentage of goalkeepers’ long forward passes stretches from only 35.7% in the Turkish Süper Lig up to 58.4% in the Scottish Premiership. High figures were also recorded in the English Championship (49.0%) and the Argentinean Liga Profesional (47.5%). More technical data from InStat is exclusively available in the CIES Football Observatory Performance Stats tool.

The 380th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 80 associations with the most players abroad in 135 leagues worldwide. Brazil heads the pack with 1,219 expatriates, followed by France (978) and Argentina (815). While the number of Brazilians and Argentineans abroad went just slightly up since 2017, that of the French increased more significantly.

England’s fourth place is explained essentially by the strong presence of players having grown up in this country in teams of other United Kingdom associations, as well as in Ireland: about 57% of the total number of English expatriates. Germany’s fifth place is notably related to the return migration of numerous players of Turkish origin born and raised in Germany.

Since 2017, the greatest increases in absolute terms were recorded for the French (+208 expatriates), the Dutch (+137) and the Colombians (+124). In relative terms, among nations with at least 100 expatriates, the highest rises were recorded for the Venezuelans (+86%), the Dutch (+60%) and the Austrian (+51%). More exclusive analysis is available for free in the 75th Monthly Report and the CIES Football Observatory Atlas of Migration.

Issue number 379 of the Weekly Post presents the top 10 estimated transfer values as per the CIES Football Observatory algorithm for 10 non-big-5 league top divisions worldwide: Portugal, the Netherlands, Brazil, Belgium, the United States/Canada, Austria, Turkey, Denmark, Switzerland and Scotland. The greatest value overall was recorded for SL Benfica’s striker Darwin Núñez (€71 million).

Darwin Núñez meets all the most important criteria for a very high valuation: young age (not yet 23 years old), long contract (more than three years remaining), playing for a competitive team (SL Benfica) and performing very well, notably from a goal-scoring perspective. Rumours of the Uruguayan striker’s departure for an English top club are entirely plausible. As the latter tend to push up inflation in player prices, a €80-million deal, as publicly reported, is perfectly imaginable.

The following players have the top estimated values in the nine remaining leagues surveyed: Antony dos Santos (NED, €57M), Charles De Ketelaere (BEL, €40M), Gabriel Barbosa (BRA, €39M), Karim Adeyemi (AUT, €31M), Muhammed Aktürkoglu (TUR, €20M), Alan Velasco (USA, €20M), Liel Abada (SCO, €19M), Anders Dreyer (DEN, €15M), as well as Dan Ndoye (SUI, €15M).

Only players for whom we were able to recover the information on contract duration were included in the analysis. Nevertheless, as contract information for the most prominent footballers is generally available, the rankings should accurately reflect reality. Transfer values estimates for players in the big-5 can be accessed for free here. Please contact us for more information on our services.

No team during current big-5 league season fielded club-trained players for a greater percentage of minutes than Athletic Club: 55.8%. The Basque side outranks local rivals Real Sociedad (43.9%), while Celta Vigo (41.2%) complete an all-Spanish podium. The Slovaks of MŠK Žilina (85.5%) top the table for clubs from 40 leagues worldwide. The data for all clubs is available in the 378th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post.

The Colombians of Envigado (76.4%) head the rankings for the nine non-European leagues included in the study, ahead of four Argentinean teams (CA Banfield, CA Lanús, Rosario Central and CA Unión) and the Brazilians of Corinthians (56.3%). Club-trained footballers are defined as players who have been at their employer clubs for at least three years between the seasons during which they celebrated their 15th and 21st birthday.

At league level, the figures stretch from a record-low of 4.0% in the Greek Super League to a record-high of 26.0% in the Argentinean Liga Professional. On average, teams from the 40 leagues surveyed fielded club-trained players for 15.0% of domestic league minutes. Among the 42 teams who did not use club-trained footballers notably are Brentford, Bayer Leverkusen, Bologna and Udinese.

More exclusive information on clubs from 31 European top divisions is available for free in the CIES Football Observatory Demographic Atlas.

Issue number 377 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post relies on technical data produced by InStat to unveil the best performing outfield players in 32 European leagues. Footballers were classified into fifteen technical profiles and ranked according to their performance level with respect to both teammates and opponents, their playing time, as well as their team and league sporting strength.

The following players top the table for the seven attacking profiles: Trent Alexander-Arnold (playmaker creator), Andrew Robertson (playmaker infiltrator), Bukayo Saka (infiltrator creator), Karim Benzema (shooter creator), Vinícius Júnior (shooter infiltrator), Thomas Müller (allarounder target man) and Robert Lewandowski (target man shooter).

At the top of the eight defensive profiles are Éder Militão (ground-to-air blocker), Virgil van Dijk (air blocker filter man), Aymeric Laporte (air blocker playmaker), David Alaba (ground blocker filter man), João Cancelo (ground blocker playmaker), Rodri Hernández (filter man playmaker), Bernardo Silva (defensive infiltrator) and Toni Kroos (defensive shooter).

To know more about the fifteen technical profiles conceived by the CIES Football Observatory research team, please refer to the 74th edition of the Monthly Report. Feel you free to contact us for more information.

Pioneers in the transfer economic valuation field, since 2010, the CIES Football Observatory has been developing a statistical method to assess market prices for professional football players. Issue number 376 of the Weekly Post presents the highest estimated transfer values for the 50 footballers who did not yet celebrate their 23rd birthday and made their big-5 league debut during current season.

Joško Gvardiol tops the table with an estimated value of €96.2M. While only 20-years-old, the centre back has established himself as a pillar of both RB Leipzig and Croatia. If transferred, he could break the record for the greatest fee ever paid for a defender. Gvardiol’s teammate at RB Leipzig Dominik Szoboszlai and FC Barcelona’s prodigy Pablo Gavi complete the podium for the most expensive U23 big-5 league rookies.

To know more about the method and variables used by the CIES Football Observatory research team to assess football players’ transfer fees and values, please refer to this scientific paper freshly published in the peer-review open access journal Economies. The fee estimate intervals for all big-5 league players are available for free on our website. Please contact us for more information about our approach and services.

Issue number 375 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 100 best performing U21 outfield players from 32 European leagues according to a brand-new approach taking into consideration players’ performance compared to teammates, the employer team’s sporting level, as well as that of opponents. Bukayo Saka (Arsenal) outranks Mason Greenwood (Manchester United) and Patrick Wimmer (Arminia Bielefeld).

For all players listed, the study does not only mention their pitch position, but also the role played within the team according to fifteen technical profile categories. The latter are built from eleven game indicators collected by our partners InStat, covering eight different game areas as detailed in the 74th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report: air defence, ground defence, recovery, distribution, take on, chance creation, air attack and shooting.

Bukayo Saka, for example, is part of the “infiltrator creator” category, defining players particularly active in the “take on” and “chance creation” areas. Mason Greenwood has a “shooter infiltrator” profile (“shooting and take on”), while Patrick Wimmer a “shooter creator” one (“shooting and chance creation). Players from 26 leagues and 14 technical profiles are in the top 100, with the French Ligue 1 (14 players) and the “infiltrator creators” (24 players) being the most represented.

Issue number 374 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks 60 leagues worldwide according to the percentage of minutes played since the 1st of January 2021 by footballers that did not yet celebrate their 21st birthday at matches played. The greatest figures were recorded in the Venezuelan (18.8%) and Danish top divisions (16.5%). The Saudi Pro League is at the opposite end (1.6%).

Regarding the average age of line-ups fielded, the lowest values were recorded in the Croatian top division (25.3 years of age), the Mexican Liga Expansión and the Danish Superliga. At the other end of the spectrum are three non-European leagues: the Paraguayan top division (28.9 years of age), the Thai League 1 and the Primera División in Bolivia.

More information on clubs from 31 top divisions of UEFA member associations is available for free in the exclusive CIES Football Observatory Demographic Atlas. Additional data is published on our social media accounts: Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Do not hesitate to follow us to gain even more knowledge on our beloved beautiful game!

Issue number 373 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks 90 top divisions worldwide according to the average tenure duration of coaches (as per last 1st March). The values stretch from 1,536 days in Northern Ireland to only 156 days in Saudi Arabia. More exclusive analysis on coaches is available in the 73th edition of the Monthly Report.

The average tenure duration of coaches in Europe is greater than in other continents: 506 days for clubs in UEFA member associations and 402 days for teams in other continents. An even shorter average tenure duration was recorded in clubs from the South American confederation: 303 days. This goes hand in hand with a greater player turnover.

The average tenure duration is much higher than the median one: 459 days compared to 243 days. This reflects the fact that some coaches are able to hold their position for much longer than the usual period. However, on the 1st of March, only 20% of coaches had been in their position for more than two years. At the opposite, 39% were in place since less than six months.

Issue number 372 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the net spending on international transfers concluded since July 2017 by clubs of the 40 most active nations from an incoming and outcoming fee volume perspective. England (- €4.35 billion) and Portugal (+€1.15 billion) recorded the most negative and, respectively, positive trade balances.

Italy has the second most negative trade balance on international transfers concluded since the start of the 2017/18 season (-€910 million), followed by China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Spain. At the opposite end of the table, Brazil (+€1.02 billion) is just behind Portugal and outranks the Netherlands, France, Argentina and Belgium.

The data includes eventual add-ons irrespective of their effective payment, as well as sell-on percentages. However, this information, such as that on transfer fees themselves, is not always available. The figures presented are thus to be considered approximations that are as accurate as possible. FIFA’s annual reports with official aggregated data are available for free here.

Issue number 371 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks 38 leagues worldwide according to the InStat data on stoppage due to fouls. The two greatest figures were recorded for Latin American leagues, the Mexican and Colombian top divisions, while the highest fouls’ pause time out of the 33 European leagues surveyed was measured in Portugal.

All the five Latin American championships included in the sample are in the top 10 positions of the rankings. On average, the stoppage time for fouls is 15’43” in Latin America and 13’04” in Europe. This reflects a higher number of fouls per match (on average 27.0 vs 25.7), but also a greater time pause per foul (35.2” vs 30.8”).

The extreme values for fouls per match were recorded in Serbia (30.7) and the Netherlands (20.3), while those for stoppage time per foul were measured in Colombia (38.3”) and Belarus (25.3”). The data refers to the ongoing season for winter leagues and to the 2021 season for summer ones (including current season’s matches if already started).

Dear subscribers, thanks to the vigilance of many of you, we have found several omissions in our 370th Weekly Post. We are really sorry about it. Finally, the Portuguese side of SL Benfica leads the table with about €379 M.

Real Madrid ran the second most profitable academy from an economic perspective during the period considered (€330 M), while AS Monaco completes the podium (€285 M) ahead of the Dutch side of AFC Ajax (€283 M). Flamengo (13th), River Plate (27th) and Santos (28th) are in the top three positions for non-European teams.

With €2.03 billion, English clubs generated then most money by the transfer of academy graduates since July 2015, just ahead French teams (€1.61 billion). Spanish clubs (€1.39 billion) complete the podium per nation, ahead of the Italians (€1.11 billion), the Brazilians (€951 M), the Germans (€916 M), the Portuguese (€788 M), the Dutch (€709 M) and the Argentineans (€566 M).

Issue number 370 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the top 50 of clubs worldwide having generated the most incomes since July 2015 from the transfer of players graduated from their youth academy. Thanks to the paying fee transfer of nine players trained, including Kylian Mbappé’s record one to PSG, AS Monaco (€246 M) tops the table, ahead of Real Madrid (€235 M) and Olympique Lyonnais (€228 M).

Six teams outside of big-5 league countries are in the top 20 positions of the rankings: AFC Ajax (4th, €211 M generated by the transfer of ten academy pupils), SL Benfica (5th, €202 M), PSV Eindhoven (8th, 142 M), Dinamo Zagreb (11th, €110 M), Sporting CP (12th, €106 M not including the further €20 M to come for Rafael Leão following the recent CAS award), RSC Anderlecht (16th, 91 M), as well as RB Salzburg (20th, € 76 M).

With €1.17 billion, French clubs generated then most money by the transfer of youth academy players since July 2015, just ahead English teams (€1.13 billion). Despite their low propensity to field club-trained footballers, Italian teams complete the podium with €743 M (with Atalanta 1st), ahead of the Spanish (€703 M, of which one third by Real Madrid), the Dutch (€564 M), the German (€551 M, with Bayer Leverkusen 1st) and the Brazilians (€403 M).

The 72nd Monthly Report presents the method developed by the CIES Football Observatory to rank footballers according to their style of play. From the data gathered by InStat, the study notably calculates statistical distances between players, a particularly useful approach from a scouting perspective. The sample is composed of 7,215 footballers from clubs in 36 top and second division leagues across Europe.

The analysis reveals that, for example, James Maddison is the big-5 league footballer closest to Kylian Mbappé from the perspective of the technical actions performed. This exercise can be carried out for any player. Always at big-5 league level, Dusan Vlahovic is the footballer who is closest to Erling Haaland, Paulo Dybala to Lionel Messi, Romain Faivre to Neymar Junior, Dominik Szoboszlai to Kevin de Bruyne, Remo Freuler to Jorginho Frello or Jonathan Tah to Virgil van Dijk.

The study also puts forward footballers whose performances deviate most positively from those of teammates for each of the eight player profile classes built from a principal component analysis. The three youngest players in the top 10 of a class are Yvan Dibango (FC Isloch, 6th in the “Trippier” class), El Bilal Touré (Stade de Reims, 8th in the “Lukaku” class) and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Rubin Kazan, 9th in the “Sterling” class”).

Clubs and agents interested in knowing more about the work of our research group, notably the freshly developed Toolkit, are kindly invited to contact us.

Issue number 369 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks teams from 50 top divisions worldwide according to the number of players fielded in domestic league games during the last 365 days. For current big-5 league teams, the values stretch from an eye-staggering 55 players for Genoa down to only 27 for West Ham United.

The highest figure overall was recorded for Deportivo Pasto. The Colombians fielded up to 70 players in the 40 domestic league matches played during the last year. They outrank the Romanians of Dinamo Bucuresti and the Welsh of Cefn Druids (both 63 players). The four highest figures in the big-5 were all recorded for Italian Serie A teams: Genoa (55), Salernitana (53), Venezia (47) and Spezia (46).

The record figures for UEFA Champions League teams are much lower: 38 players for Paris St-Germain and 36 for Juventus. LOSC Lille and Manchester City are at the opposite end: 28 players for both. By league, the average values per club vary between 31 players in England and Moldavia, up to a maximum of 47 in Colombia.

More exclusive squad management policies data and many other key statistical indicators are available in the freshly conceived CIES Football Observatory Toolkit, a unique platform specifically devised for club directors and top management. Do not hesitate to contact us (football.observatory@unine.ch) to know more about this brand new tool.

Dear subscriber and friend of football,

The CIES Football Observatory academic team devised a brief and anonymous questionnaire aiming at understanding what people passionate about football consider as worrying in the beautiful game today. We would be grateful if you could take one minute to answer.

The main findings will be published online on our website and social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). A report outlining the main results of a previous survey on professional football is available here.

Please click here to complete the questionnaire. Thank you!

Issue number 368 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post crunched the InStat data on goal scoring chances and effective playing time for 36 European leagues since 2018/19 (or 2018) to determine the level of “game openness”. The findings show that clubs in leagues from the North/West part of the continent tend to play more openly than those from the South/East.

With an average of 11.7 chances and 63’21” effective time per match, the Dutch Eredivisie recorded the highest Game Openness Index, ahead of the German Bundesliga and the Belgian Pro League. At the opposite end is the Spanish Segunda División with just 8.7 chances and 55’06” of effective time. The Greek Super League and the Romanian Liga I also are at the bottom three of the rankings.

On average, the effective playing time of matches in the 36 leagues survey is just above 59 minutes: from 63’21” in the Netherlands to 54’55” in the Czech Republic. Teams create on average 10.2 goal scoring chances per match: from 11.9 in the German Bundesliga to 8.7 in both the Spanish second division and the Greek top one.

Issue number 367 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks current big-5 league clubs according to their net spending on transfer operations concluded over the last ten seasons. Manchester United tops the table with a negative balance of more than one billion euro, ahead of Manchester City and Paris St-Germain. Fourteen English clubs are in the top 20 of clubs with the most negative net transfer spending.

LOSC Lille clubs stands out at the opposite end with a positive transfer balance of €349 million over the last decade. The French side outranks league rivals Olympique Lyonnais and three Italian Serie A teams: Genoa, Udinese and Atalanta. The top three of current big-5 league clubs having generated the most incomes from transfers since 2012/13 are Chelsea, Monaco and Atlético Madrid. In total, 52 out 98 clubs have a positive net spending. This ratio is one (Brentford) out of 20 for Premier League teams.

Gathered with the greatest care through the cross-checking of all possible sources, whether official or unofficial, the data includes eventual add-on fees included in the deals, regardless of their actual payment. Within the limits of available information, incomes deriving from sell-on fees are also taken into account.

Issue number 366 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 100 players born in 2002 or after active in 31 European leagues outside of the big-5 with the highest InStat Index. The latter takes into consideration footballers’ pitch production depending on position played (centre back, winger, etc.) and the general level of the matches in which they participated.

The greatest score overall was recorded for AFC Ajax’s Ryan Gravenberch. Among midfielders, the Dutch talent ranks ahead Arsen Zakharyan (Dinamo Moscow) and Fábio Carvalho (Fulham). Running out contract, the latter is being courted by several major teams. The highest InStat Index for full backs was recorded for another AFC Ajax player who is attracting interest from clubs in the big-5: the 19-year-old Devyne Rensch.

The best score for other positions were measured for Oliver Dovin (Hammarby) among goalkeepers, Ilya Zabarnyi (Dynamo Kiev for centre backs and Jakub Kaminski (Lech Poznan) among forwards. Akinkunmi Amoo (Hammarby) and Sebastiano Esposito (Basel, on loan from Inter) complete the podium for strikers. The InStat Index for players from 36 European leagues is accessible for free in this exclusive tool. More information is available on demand.

For the first time, the CIES Football Observatory research team has compiled a study comparing from a demographic perspective the five major European leagues with ten additional competitions located in three other continents: America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, United States and Canada), Asia (South Korea, Japan, China), as well as Oceania (Australia and New Zealand). All the data is available for free in the 71st edition of the Monthly Report.

The study notably reveals that, during the second semester 2021, club-trained footballers played almost twice in non-European teams than in European ones: 19.4% of total domestic league minutes compared to 11.7%. However, for the MLS in the USA and Canada, players from clubs’ youth academies only played 9.2% of minutes. This is the second lowest figure after that recorded in the Italian Serie A (7.4%). The Argentinean Liga Profesional is at the opposite end with a record high of 29.4% of minutes played by club-trained footballers.

Boca Juniors stands out as the biggest training club with 78 footballers from its youth academy fielded by the 286 teams surveyed, 18 more than city rivals River Plate. The Colombians of Deportivo Cali (56 players) complete the podium of the most productive training teams, ahead of FC Barcelona (50), São Paulo (49) and Colo Colo (48). The 365th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the top 100 list of clubs having trained the most players fielded in the 15 leagues analysed.

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The 364th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the rankings of European clubs having obtained penalties the most frequently since the start of the 2018/19 season as per InStat data. The sample is composed of teams always present in one of the 31 leagues surveyed during this period. Crvena Zvezda is at the top with a penalty every 239 minutes, while Manchester United heads the rankings in the big-5 (one every 299 minutes).

Paris St-Germain (305 minutes), Lazio and Inter (both 315’), Real Sociedad (374’), as well as Borussia Mönchengladbach and RB Leipzig (both 397’ ) top the table in the other major championships. Real Madrid scored all the 24 penalties obtained. The lowest conversion rate among big-5 league teams was recorded for Montpellier (8 out of 14, 57%) and the lowest overall was measured for Stoke City (6 out of 15, 40%). In total, the teams surveyed scored 78.6% of the penalties awarded.

The Greek of Panathinaikos obtained the most penalties compared to the number of big chances created: one penalty every 15 goal scoring chances. Bristol City are at the opposite end with one penalty obtained every 91 big chances. This is partially due to different refereeing styles. The number of penalties awarded per match vary indeed between 0.23 in the English Championship up to almost the double in the Ukrainian top division (0.45).