Issue number 509 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks the agencies representing Europe’s big-5 league players according to the aggregate transfer value of their clients as per our exclusive statistical model. According to publicly available information, one agency manages the careers of players worth more than two billion euros : the CAA Stellar/Base group, the result of a consolidation process led by the Americans of Creative Artists Agency.

Two other agencies represent players with a combined transfer value in excess of €1 billion : the Portuguese of Gestifute and another American company, also based in Los Angeles, Wasserman Group. Like CAA, Wasserman Group has acquired a dominant position in the player representation market through the purchase of a number of smaller but influential agent companies, both in Europe and beyond.

Both CAA Stellar/Base and the Wasserman Group represent the interests of more than 100 players from the five major European leagues, making them essential companies for clubs. Gestifute, on the other hand, focuses on a smaller elite of players. Only agencies representing at least two players from the big-5 have been included in the rankings. Agents who only represent members of their family have not been taken into account either.

>>> Top 100

The 508th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 100 teams in the world with the most subscriptions on the following social networks : X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube. The Spanish side of Real Madrid tops the list with over 470 million subscriptions, just ahead of their great rivals Barcelona (424 million).

All the other clubs are much further behind. Manchester United completes the podium with 234 million, while Paris St-Germain is fourth with 199 million. In the top 10 are four other English teams (Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal), one German (Bayern Munich) and one Italian (Juventus).

The podium for non-European clubs is made up of Brazil’s Flamengo, Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr and Egypt’s Al-Ahly. The Post also presents the trends recorded since June 2024 (without YouTube). In relative terms, the biggest increase among the top 100 clubs was registered for Santos (+82%), certainly thanks to the recruitment of star player Neymar.

>>> All the data

Following the extension of his contract until 2031, FC Barcelona’s prodigy Lamine Yamal has become the player with the highest value on the transfer market according to the CIES Football Observatory statistical model: €402.3 million. This extraordinary figure is linked to equally extraordinary performances achieved at an age - 18 in July - when most players, even the best, are just starting out at professional level. Top 100 here.

Norway’s Erling Haaland (€239.6m) and England’s former leader Jude Bellingham (€233.8m) complete the podium of the best-valued players, ahead of Frenchman Kylian Mbappé (€192.5m), who also is the oldest player in the top 10 (26.5 years). The English Premier League is by far the most represented in the top 100 (42 players), followed by the Spanish Liga (19). Paris St-Germain, on the other hand, is the most represented club (11 players).

The highest values for defensive positions were recorded for Bart Verbruggen (€64.3m) among goalkeepers, Pau Cubarsí (€118.0m) for centre backs and Joško Gvardiol for full/wing backs (€100.7m). Only four of the top 100 footballers play outside the five major European leagues : two in Portugal (Samu Aghehowa and Viktor Gyökeres), one in Brazil (Estêvão Willian, already contracted by Chelsea) and one in Saudi Arabia (Jhon Durán).

>>> Top 100

The 506th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the most influential footballers of the season in 60 leagues around the world. The index used to rank the players is calculated on the basis of their performances in six areas of the game thanks to the data exclusively produced by our partners Impect, the minutes played and the results obtained.

The highest score overall was recorded for Mohamed Salah, ahead of two Barcelona players: Lamine Yamal and Pedri González. Two other Liverpool footballers top the list for defensive positions: Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold. Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen) heads the rankings for attacking midfielders, while Kylian Mbappé is ahead of Viktor Gyökeres for centre forwards.

The six areas of the game considered are aerial play (with Alexander Sörloth at the top of the list), ground defence (Moisés Caicedo), distribution (Nico Schlotterbeck), take on (Vinícius Júnior), chance creation (Lamine Yamal) and finishing (Ousmane Dembélé). Yamal aside, three other U20s feature among the 300 players listed (50 per position): Estêvão Willian (Palmeiras, on loan from Chelsea), Pau Cubarsí (Barcelona) and Jorrel Hato (Ajax).

>>> Top 50s per position

>>> More on demand

Issue number 505 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the top 100 of associations having exported the greatest number of footballers to 135 leagues around the world between 2020 and 2025. With no fewer than 3,020 distinct expatriates, Brazil is ahead of the last two World Cup winners : France (2,293) and Argentina (2,171).

In the top ten is a third South American country, Colombia, an African nation, Nigeria, and five additional European ones : England (notably due to the strong presence of English players in other British associations), Spain, Germany, Serbia and Croatia. The biggest increase between 2020 and 2025 in absolute terms was recorded for France (+372 expatriates), followed by Argentina (+216) and Nigeria (+181).

The 100th Monthly Report presents in greater detail the trends in the number of expatriates for the main exporting nations, as well as the main destinations and changes observed. Also available free of charge, the Migration Atlas is a valuable tool for understanding the global geography of footballer flows. For all these studies, the origin of the players was established on the basis of the association where they grew up.

>>> Post

>>> Report

The 504th edition of the Weekly Post presents the 100 players who changed clubs permanently during the last two transfer windows and whose current value would enable the teams owning them to make the biggest capital gains. Top of the list is Kylian Mbappé, who was signed for no transfer fee by Real Madrid last summer and is now valued at €182.5 million by the CIES Football Observatory statistical model.

Bournemouth centre back and new Spanish full international Dean Huijsen comes second with a potential capital gain of €68.5 million, although this does not take into account any eventual buy-out clauses negotiated last summer when he signed his contract with the English side. Manchester City’s Brazilian winger Savinho, also recruited a year ago at an affordable price, rounds off the podium with a potential capital gain of €59.9 million.

In the top five also are Frenchman Michael Olise (+€47.8 million) and Italy’s Moise Kean (+€41.7 m). To the extent of the information available, the sums mentioned take into account all add-ons regardless of their effective payment, as well as the eventual sell-on fees negotiated by previous clubs. All the details on the CIES Football Observatory’s statistical model to asses players’ transfer values can be found in this scientific article.

>>> Top 100

The 503rd CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks teams from 65 leagues around the world according to the percentage of domestic league minutes in the current season played by footballers aged 21 or under at the time of the matches. Among the seven teams having fielded U21 players for a majority of minutes notably are RC Strasbourg (4th, 59.4%) and RB Salzburg (5th, 55.3%).

Across all leagues, not including B-teams, the highest value was recorded for the Belgian side Lommel SK (69.4%), a club owned by City Group. The top three in the European big-5 are RC Strasbourg, FC Barcelona and Stade de Reims. Outside Europe, the three teams putting the most faith in young players are Uruguay’s River Plate, Colombia’s Envigado and Uzbekistan’s Sogdiana.

The Post also presents the percentage of minutes for the 22-25, 26-29 and 30 or over age categories. With 98.8% of league minutes played by footballers aged 25 or under at the time of the matches, BlueCo’s RC Strasbourg holds the world record for youth. The Demographic Atlas presents more data exclusively developed by the CIES Football Observatory for clubs from 50 leagues around the world.

>>> Full data

The CIES Football Observatory is delighted to announce a new partnership with the German data company Impect, a leader in the field of football analytics. This partnership will enable us to develop exclusive content for our website and social media, providing football fans with free analysis of an unrivalled level of sophistication on the performance of clubs and players around the world.

A first example is already available in the 502nd Weekly Post, which presents the 100 outfield players who have not yet turned 20 from 45 leagues outside the big-5 with the best values in terms of Impect PxT (Packing Expected Threat model), weighted by the sporting level of the matches played according to this method. The PxT measures the value of players’ actions in terms of increasing or decreasing the probability of scoring or conceding a goal.

Attacking midfielder Rodrigo Mora (Porto), who turns 18 in a few days’ time, is top of the table. The Portuguese is ahead of Argentinian Franco Mastantuono (River Plate) and his teammate Martim Fernandes. The Post also presents the estimated transfer values of the players in the top 100, with a maximum of €52.7 million for Jorrel Hato (Ajax). Only footballers who have played at least 450 minutes and 25% of domestic league playing time in the current season have been taken into account.

>>> Top 100

The 501st CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post compares 65 leagues around the world in terms of the tenure of coaches at the head of the teams currently managed. On average, three quarters of coaches have been in place for less than a year (75.3%). This percentage rises to 100% in the top divisions of Costa Rica, Ecuador and Mexico.

With 19 coaches in place for less than a year out of 20, Italian Serie A has the lowest rate of any of the European competitions analysed. The only exception is Inter coach Simone Inzaghi. In contrast, in the Dutch Eredivisie, 7 out of 18 coaches have been in charge of their team for a year or more, a record for Europe’s top divisions.

In terms of the average tenure at the head of the clubs managed, the figures range from 2 years and 67 days in the German Bundesliga to just 88 days in Costa Rica’s Primera División. The German record is partly due to the exceptional case of Frank Schmidt, who has been in charge of Heidenheim’s first team for almost 18 years. Diego Simeone (Atlético Madrid) and Brian Schmetzer (Seattle Sounders) round out the podium of longest-serving coaches.

>>> Full data

Thirteen years after the first issue, the CIES Football Observatory research team is very proud to present its 500th Weekly Post ! For the occasion, we highlight the footballers born in 2001 or later who have played the most official matches in senior competitions since the start of their careers, by year of birth.

With no fewer than 379 official matches at senior competition level, Rodrygo (Real Madrid) ranks first among players born in 2001. The following footballers have accumulated the most appearances for the other years of birth : Eduardo Camavinga (2002), Jude Bellingham (2003), Ângelo Gabriel (2004), Vitor Roque (2005), Endrick Felipe (2006), as well as Lamine Yamal (2007 onwards).

The Post also presents the average number of games per year since the start of the player’s career. With an average of 59.7 games per year since his debut, Lamine Yamal leads all years of birth combined. The Barcelona prodigy is ahead of Pau Cubarsì (59.0) and João Neves (55.0). By year of birth, the leaders are Jason Knight (2001), Joško Gvardiol (2002), Jude Bellingham (2003), João Neves (2004), Malick Fofana (2005), Jorrel Hato (2006) and Lamine Yamal (2007 onwards).

>>> All the data

>>> All the studies

The 499th Weekly Post presents the 100 best performing goalkeepers in the world over the past year, according to an index on a scale of 100 specifically devised by the CIES Football Observatory*. The top three are Paris St-Germain’s Italian Gianluigi Donnarumma, Inter’s Swiss Yann Sommer and Real Madrid’s Belgian Thibaut Courtois.

Two players from outside the big-5 European leagues feature in the top ten : 23-year-old Russian Stanislav Agkatsev (FK Krasnodar) and Brazilian veteran João Ricardo (Fortaleza EC). They also are the two goalkeepers in the top 10 whose percentage of saves as per Wyscout data most exceeded expectations with respect to the goals conceded by their teams.

On average, the goalkeepers in the top 100 are 29.9 years old, with a high of 41.4 years for Remko Pasveer (AFC Ajax) and lows of 20.1 years for Ármin Pécsi (Puskás Akadémia) and 20.8 years for Slawomir Abramowicz (Jagiellonia Bialystok). Agkatsev aside, only one player who has not yet turned 26 ranks in the top twenty : Djordje Petrović (RC Strasbourg, on loan from Chelsea).

* The index is based on the sporting level of matches played according to this methodology, the results of the games, as well as the deviation in the percentage of saves at domestic league level compared to the expected value given the defensive strength of employer teams. Only goalkeepers with a positive gap on this last criterion feature in the ranking (minimum 20 league matches over the last 365 days).

>>> Top 100

The 498th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks more than 900 clubs in 55 leagues worldwide according to a territorial anchorage index calculated from the proportion of national players and club-trained nationals among those fielded in the domestic league over the last year*. The Colombians of Envigado lead the way with 93.8% nationals and 54.2% club-trained nationals.

The Basques of Athletic Club and the Ukrainians of Dynamo Kyiv complete the podium, while the third highest-ranked European team, CA Osasuna, is only seventeenth. Latin American teams are over-represented among the most locally anchored ones. Paraguay’s Club Libertad are fourth, ahead of Mexico’s Chivas Guadalajara and Colombia’s Millonarios Bogota.

Another Colombian club (Atlético Nacional), two Argentinians (CA Belgrano and Vélez Sarsfield) and one Venezuelan (Caracas FC) also are in the top ten. For Asian clubs, the podium is made up of Sanfrecce Hiroshima (23rd), Uzbekistan’s FC Nasaf (24th) and another Japanese team : Kashiwa Reysol (28th). Adelaide United tops the table for Australia and Seattle Sounders for the MLS.

* Nationals are players who have grown up in the association of their home club, while club-trained nationals are those who have played for at least three seasons between the ages of 15 and 21 in their club of employment. The index is calculated on the basis of the gap from the general average for these two variables. Data refer to the last year or, for a few newly-promoted clubs, to the current season.

>>> All data

>>> Last year rankings