Issue number 459 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the world’s top 100 players who have not yet turned 23 and whose transfer value has increased the most over the last six months. Barcelona’s and Spain’s 16-year-old prodigy Lamine Yamal tops the list with an increase of €134m (from €11m to €145m).

The 458th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post highlights the teams in 61 leagues around the world having fielded U21 footballers for the highest percentage of minutes in the domestic league matches played over the last 365 days.

Issue number 457 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks almost 800 clubs from 48 leagues around the world according to the average age of recruitment of the first team players signed over the last ten transfer windows (July 2019 to date). The lowest value overall was recorded for the Austrians of RB Salzburg (20.93 years), while the highest was measured for the Qatari side Al-Gharafa SC (30.27 years).

The Weekly Post number 456 of the CIES Football Observatory presents the ten players with the highest estimated transfer values across 66 leagues worldwide (the most important outside the big-5).

The 455th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks teams from 54 leagues around the world according to their shooting efficiency. The latter was measured from the residuals of a statistical model explaining 78% of the differences in goals scored per team (not including penalties).

The 454th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 20 outfield players for six positions playing in 28 leagues around the world whose number of accelerations* per match (SkillCorner data) deviates most positively from the value expected with respect to their position and their team’s style of play (level of possession, pressure and verticality), according to a statistical model explaining more than half of the differences observed between players.

Issue number 453 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses the StatsPerform and Wyscout data on the number of cards, fouls and injury time measured over the last year for 71 leagues around the world. The study shows major differences between leagues in terms of all the indicators taken into account, reflecting different ways of interpreting the game by both players and referees.

Number 452 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 169 clubs in the world whose volume of incoming or outgoing player transactions over the last five seasons exceeded the €100 million threshold, as well as their net spending for the last ten, the last five and the last season.

On this Valentine’s Day, the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post highlights the footballers from 60 leagues around the world who have been in the first team squad of their current club for the longest uninterrupted period.

The 450th issue of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses the game intelligence data produced exclusively by our partners SkillCorner to reveal the one hundred midfielders with the best statistics in terms of ball retention under high pressure in 28 leagues around the world.

The 449th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 402 footballers who played in the big-5 before turning 18 during the 15-year period from January 2009 to December 2023. Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma is the player who has played the most minutes in the five major European leagues as a minor (4,879), followed by Alban Lafont, Eduardo Camavinga, Florian Wirtz, Pablo Gavi and Warren Zaïre-Emery (ongoing).

The 448th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 50 clubs in the world with the most positive and negative transfer balances for non-academy players signed and transferred between 2014 and 2023. The figures range from a positive balance of €386 million for LOSC Lille (Pépé, Osimhen, Botman, etc.) to a negative balance of €631 million for Barcelona (Coutinho, Dembélé, Griezmann, etc.).

The 447th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 100 centre backs in the world with the best aerial play statistics* according to an index computed from the number of aerial duels won, in relation to the playing time and the frequency of aerial duels at employer team level, the percentage of aerial duels won and the sporting level of the matches played. Liverpool’s Dutchman Virgil van Dijk is ahead of Bayern Munich’s South Korean Min-jae Kim.

The 446th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 100 clubs with the most profitable academies in the world in terms of revenues generated over the last ten years by the transfer of players who spent at least three seasons there between the ages of 15 and 21. Portuguese side Benfica are clearly in the lead with €516 million, two thirds of which has been collected in the last five years.

The 445th issue of the Weekly Post presents the 100 players in the world with the highest estimated transfer values according to the CIES Football Observatory statistical model. English youngster Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid) tops the list with a transfer value of €267.5m, ahead of Norway’s Erling Haaland (Manchester City) and his two Brazilian teammates Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo Goes.

The last CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post for 2023 ranks the clubs in 53 leagues around the world according to the average size of the line-ups fielded in the current or last completed season. Almost 13 centimetres separate the ‘tallest’ and ‘shortest’ teams: Hungary’s Kecskeméti TE (187.13cm) and Japan’s Sagan Tosu (174.18cm).

Issue 443 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the exclusive data from our partners SkillCorner on the players* with record values in 40 competitions around the world for three indicators: distance covered, number of sprints during possession, as well as the same indicator during phases without the ball, in all three cases per 90’ of presence on the pitch.

Issue 442 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the footballers in the world who have played the most minutes in official matches (clubs as well as national U21- and A-teams) up until December 4th. Topping the list in absolute terms is the Paraguayan centre back Gustavo Gómez of the Brazilian side Palmeiras, with 6,213 minutes in 70 matches.