Issue number 483 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post compares 144 men’s senior national teams in terms of the average age of line-ups fielded in 2024. Values range from a high of 30.38 years of age for Peru (ahead of Iran) to a low of 23.05 years of age for the Cayman Islands (ahead of Puerto Rico).

The 482nd CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 100 players under the age of 20 (as of 27 November) with the most playing experience in 2024, while having played fewer than 900 official game minutes at senior level in the previous year. Despite being just 17.8 years old, Barcelona’s centre back Pau Cubarsí tops the list with a score of 91.5 out of 100.

While a consultation was opened following the regulatory changes requested by the Court of Justice of the European Union in the context of the ‘Diarra’ case, the 481st CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the financial statements of the transfer operations carried out over the last decade by the clubs of the world’s main leagues.

The 480th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the Wyscout data on shots taken and conceded from the danger zone (the central rectangle of the penalty area) by teams in 63 leagues around the world. With 6.9 more shots from this zone attempted than conceded per game, former Rúben Amorim and Portugal’s Sporting CP have the best record in absolute terms.c

The Weekly Post number 479 presents the 100 players in the world who have not yet celebrated their 21st birthday with the highest transfer value according to the CIES Football Observatory statistical model. The Spanish prodigy Lamine Yamal (Barcelona, €180.9m*) outranks Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United, €114.8m) and Warren Zaïre-Emery (Paris St-Germain, €109.0m). A fourth youngster is valued at over €100 million: Sávio Moreira (Manchester City, €101.0m).

The 478th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks football clubs and academies worldwide according to their ability to train top-level players. Portugal’s Benfica top the list, both for the number of footballers trained playing in 49 top divisions around the world, and with respect to the training index, a metric that weights the numerical presence of players trained by their sporting level.