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.