How much did players selected for the upcoming Euro 2021 play since the COVID break in 2020? Issue number 342 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks the footballers according to minutes played in official games for both clubs and national teams (A-teams and U21) since the 16th May 2020. With 6,472 minutes and 81 matches, Manchester United’s and Portugal Bruno Fernandes heads the table.

Manchester United’s and England centre back Harry Maguire ranks second (6’449 minutes, 72 official games) ahead of Milan AC’s and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma (6’420 minutes, 71 matches). Four other goalkeepers are in the top 10 (Kasper Schmeichel, Hugo Lloris, Manuel Neuer and Thibaut Courtois), alongside Rúben Dias (Manchester City and Portugal), Jules Koundé (Sevilla and France), as well as Andrew Robertson (Liverpool and Scotland).

Per national team, the three top values of minutes per player were recorded for England (4,442), Portugal (4,258) and Germany (4’214). At the opposite end, we find North Macedonia (2,595), Wales (2’704) and Slovakia (2,738). With only 209 minutes in official games since the COVID break, the 19-year-old Welshman Rubin Colwill from Cardiff City played the least minutes among all footballers selected for the Euro 2021.

Three English talents are at the top of the biannual ranking of the greatest estimated transfer values for big-5 league players. According to the CIES Football Observatory algorithm, €190 million should be proposed to eventually convince Manchester City releasing Phil Foden. Two Manchester United’s players complete the podium: Mason Greenwood (€178 M) and the former leader Marcus Rashford (€159 M). The top 100 is available in the 341st Weekly Post.

Erling Haaland has the top estimated transfer value for players outside of the English Premier League. With respect to fees paid in the past, an investment of €155 M would be necessary to sign the Norwegian striker. With only one year of contract remaining, Kylian Mbappé (€118 M) is only 12th. Only three of the 20 big-5 league footballers with an estimated transfer value of more than €100 M are over 25 years of age: Bruno Fernandes, Timo Werner and Bernardo Silva.

Ederson Moraes (€62M) has the greatest estimated value for goalkeepers. His teammate at Manchester City Ruben Días (€114 M) tops the table for centre backs. Alphonso Davies (€131 M) from Bayern Munich is at the top for full backs and no other defensive midfielder has an estimated value as high as Barcelona’s Frenkie de Jong (€138 M). Transfer value intervals for all big-5 league footballers are available on the CIES Football Observatory website.

National teams with players active in the most competitive clubs have greater chances to win trophies. Issue number 340 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post compares selections qualified from the perspective of the average sporting level of the teams of employment of players in squads. France tops the table ahead of Germany and Spain.

The Post also presents the average number of domestic league minutes played since September 1st 2020 by footballers from the 24 teams qualified. The maximal value was recorded for players of the English team (2,496 minutes), while the lowest one was measured for Ukraine (on average only 1,390 domestic league minutes per player).

With an average age of 24.9 years on June 1st, Turkey is the youngest team. It outranks England (25.2 years) and Wales (25.5 years). At the opposite end we find Sweden (29.2 years), followed by Belgium (29.1 years) and Slovakia (28.2 years). Born on the 16th October 2003, the Polish Kacper Kozlowski is the youngest player, while the Dutch goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg (22.09.1982) is the oldest.

With the five major European leagues ended, issue number 339 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the best line-ups for each championship. Players were selected according to the CIES performance index developed using data from OptaPro. Only footballers fielded for at least two thirds of domestic league minutes were included in the line-ups.

The formation selected for the English Premier League is a 4-2-1-3, with Bruno Fernandes as an attacking midfielder behind Harry Kane and besides Raheem Sterling and Mason Mount. The defense is made up of three Manchester City players (Ederson Moraes, Rubén Dias and João Cancelo), plus Victor Lindelöf and Andrew Robertson, with Rodri Hernández and Granit Xhaka as holding midfielders.

Some outstanding but not yet very known players are included in the line-ups for the remaining leagues. We notably find Ridle Baku (Wolfsburg) as right full-back in the German Bundesliga’s best 11, Aurélien Tchouaméni (Monaco), Farid Boulaya (Metz) and Romain Faivre (Stade Brestois) in the French Ligue 1 selection, Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo) in Italy and Javi Galan (Huesca) in Spain.

How frequently are teams fouling their opponents across Europe? Issue number 338 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post answers this question using the data provided by In Stat. At the level of the five major European leagues, the lowest foul frequency was measured for Arsenal (one foul every 10’44”), while Getafe is at the bottom end of the table (one foul every 5’44”).

Apart from Getafe, the highest foul frequency per big-5 league was measured for Hellas Verona (5’54”), FSV Mainz (6’30”), AS St-Etienne (7’10”) and Fulham FC (7’48”). Conversely, apart from Arsenal, the following teams committed the least fouls per minute: FC Barcelona (10’29”), Bayern Munich (10’19”), SSC Napoli (9’37”) and Nîmes Olympique (9’13”).

Out of all the 30 leagues surveyed, the extreme values were measured for FC Zenit (one foul every 12’34”) at one end and for two Greek teams at the other: PAS Giannina and Volos NFC (one foul every 4’51”). Eleven Greek top division clubs are among the 20 ones committing the most fouls per minute. Conversely, eight Russian teams are among the 20 with the lowest foul frequency.

The CIES Football Observatory just disclosed a report analysing the presence of expatriate footballers in 145 leagues from 96 national associations worldwide. With 1,287 players abroad, Brazil tops the rankings for exporting countries. However, while the number of Brazilians went down by 14 compared to 2020, that of the second most represented nation abroad, France, increased by 124 to reach a new record high of 946.

On the 1st of May 2021, despite the pandemic, the number of expatriates grew by almost 5% in comparison to the same date in 2020: from 13,025 to 13,664. This increase in difficult circumstances confirms that the internationalisation of the footballers’ labour market is a well-established process. Expatriates represent 21.3% of players surveyed: from 26.4% in the domestic leagues of UEFA member associations down to only 8.9% in those of the CONMEBOL.

Overall, more than a fifth of expatriate players originate from Brazil, France and Argentina (21.4%). If we take the number of expatriates in comparison to the population resident in the country of origin, Iceland tops the rankings. There is one expatriate Icelandic footballer for every 5,584 inhabitants of the island. Montenegro is second (one expatriate for every 6,759 inhabitants), ahead of Croatia (10,792), Uruguay (11,889) and Serbia (15,742).

Access the Report for free! More exclusive data on the CIES Football Observatory’s Atlas of Migration.

Issue number 337 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post reveals the employment rate of club-trained footballers (i.e. those having been for at least three seasons between the ages of 15 and 21 in their employer club) in teams from 27 top divisions of UEFA member associations. The highest percentage of minutes by club-trained players overall was recorded for the Slovakian side MŠK Žilina (61.5%), while RC Celta de Vigo (49.0%) has the greatest figure for big-5 league teams.

Home-grown footballers played a majority of domestic league minutes also at Dynamo Kyiv (60.2%), Sigma Olomouc (52.0%) and FC Slovácko (51.1%). At the level of the five major European championships, the highest employment rates after Celta Vigo were observed for two Basque sides: Real Sociedad (48.5%) and Athletic Club (40.6%). AS St-Étienne (35.0%), Brighton & Hove Albion FC (30.1%), FSV Mainz (25.0%) and Genoa CFC (20.9%) top the table in the remaining big-5 leagues.

Per championship, the values stretch from 26.8% in Slovenia to 4.7% in Portugal. Among the big-5 leagues, only the Spanish Liga (15.7%) is above the European average (13.2%), with a minimum of 5.0% in the Italian Serie A. English teams (12.6%) relied more on club-trained footballers than French (11.8%) and German (10.5%) ones. The CIES Football Observatory Demographic Atlas presents more exclusive statistics on the composition of squads across Europe.

Issue number 336 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the index developed by the sports data company InStat to assess the performance of football players. This metric considers the technical gestures achieved by players, their playing time, as well as the level of the competitions in which matches were played. For footballers with more than 1,000 domestic league minutes this season, Lionel Messi (405) outranks Neymar Júnior (381) and Robert Lewandowski (371).

Manchester City’s full back João Cancelo (368) head the table in the English Premier League ahead of teammates Rodri Hernández, Kevin de Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez. At fifth position is Jesse Lingard (West Ham, on loan from Manchester United). Players from five different teams are at the top five positions of the Serie A rankings: Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli), Achraf Hakimi (Inter), Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus), Théo Hernández (Milan) and Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo).

The youngest players heading the table in their respective league are 21-year-olds Noa Lang (Club Brugge) in Belgium and Fabio Parisi (Empoli) in the Italian Serie B, as well as 22-year-olds Patson Daka (RB Salzburg) in Austria, Olimpiu Moru?an (FCSB) in Romania and Denys Popov (Dynamo Kyiv) in Ukraine. The InStat Index for almost 10,000 players from 32 leagues of UEFA member countries is available in exclusivity and for free here.

While player mobility has increased in recent years, squad stability remains a key success factor in football. Issue number 335 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post highlights the footballers among current squad members having played the most domestic league matches during the last ten years for 540 teams from 35 top divisions worldwide. Sebastián Viera holds the record figure with 395 championship games for Junior de Barranquilla (Colombia).

At European level, Leicester City’s goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel (372 domestic league games) outranks FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi (340) and Manchester United David de Gea (337). Karim Benzema is the current Real Madrid squad member who played the most championship games for the Merengues during the last decade (322), César Azpilicueta (292) for Chelsea, Sergio Agüero (272) for Manchester City and Marco Verratti (221) for Paris St-Germain.

At league level, the average number of games over the last ten years for the most used player per team varies between 263 in the English Premier League and 125 in the Australian A-League. All of the five major European championships are in the top eight position of the rankings. This result shows that stability goes hand in hand with money and that player mobility is exacerbated where clubs lack resources.

The 334th edition of the Weekly Post presents the squad transfer value for the 98 teams in the five major European leagues. The estimated value for players loaned to other big-5 league teams was computed for the clubs of belonging, while that of players on loan outside of the top five European championships is not considered. The estimates were calculated through the CIES Football Observatory transfer value algorithm.

Current Premier League leaders and Champions League semifinalists Manchester City are at the top of the table with a total squad value of €1.30 billion. Pep Guardiola’s team outranks two other English clubs: Manchester United (€1.16 billion) and Chelsea FC (€1.11 billion). FC Barcelona ranks first for non-English teams with an estimated squad value of €991 M, while Juventus FC (€829 M), Bayern Munich (€777 M) and Paris St-Germain (€603 M) head the rankings for the three other big-5 leagues.

The average squad value per club is €474 M for the English Premier League, €281 M for both the Spanish Liga and the German Bundesliga, €276 M for the Italian Serie A and €174 M for the French Ligue 1. The transfer value intervals for all big-5 league players are available for free here. The estimates refer to the situation on the 1st April. Updated figures and projections according to predefined scenarios are available on a consultancy basis.

The 64th CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report crunched InStat data to unveil the effective playing time and other indicators regarding the fluidity of matches in 37 European competitions. It notably shows that the fluidity of the game depends on geographical and cultural logics. The proportion of stoppage time due to fouls in comparison to the total length of matches, for example, varies between just over 10% in the Netherlands up to almost 20% in Greece.

The number of fouls and time lost due to them tends to be higher in Southern and Eastern European leagues than in the championships from the North and West of the continent. The Turkish Süper Lig stands out as the competition in which the time taken to restart play after a foul is the longest: about 35” of stoppage time as opposed to 30” for all leagues. It is also in Turkey that referees add the most extra time: almost 9 minutes on average compared to 6’14” for all competitions surveyed.

The average effective playing time is 61%. It goes from 67% in Israel down to 56% in the Spanish Segunda División. The study also reveals the absence of correlation between the effective playing time and the total length of matches. This shows that the level of fluidity in the game is not taken into account by referees when it comes to adding extra time. This could encourage players of teams in difficulty, or having gained an advantage, to disrupt the rhythm of the game, knowing that the stoppage time has not much influence on the number of minutes added.

Issue number 333 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the percentage of domestic league minutes by footballers who had not yet turned 21 at the time of the matches played this season for 999 clubs from 71 top divisions that are currently running worldwide. The highest percentages were recorded for the Danish side FC Nordsjælland (48.9%) among the 30 major European competitions and the Singaporean team Young Lions (47.1%) for the clubs surveyed outside of Europe.

At big-5 league level, the highest figures were measured for Borussia Dortmund (28.5%), followed by three French Ligue 1 teams: OGC Nice (24.3%), AS Monaco (24.1%) and Stade Rennais (20.7%). The greatest proportion of minutes in the other major championships were registered for Wolverhampton (16.2%), FC Barcelona (15.0%) and Hellas Verona (11.7%). At the opposite end, eight teams did not field any U21 player, among which Tottenham and Inter.

The highest percentage overall was observed for FK Metta (88.0%), the team of the Riga’s University of Latvia. U21 footballers played a majority of minutes in two other Latvian top division teams: Valmiera FC and BFC Daugavpils. Ecuador’s club Independiente del Valle (34.3%) and Alger-based Paradou AC (27.8%) lead the table for America and Africa respectively. The average age on the pitch for clubs in the 31 main European leagues are available in the CIES Football Observatory Demographic Atlas.