Thanks to the collaboration with Impect, the CIES Football Observatory has developed performance indices on a 100 basis in eight areas of play. This Weekly Post presents the 50 outfield footballers with the highest values in each domain for the last six-month domestic league games, with each player appearing only in the ranking for the area in which they scored highest.

The 516th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post highlights the clubs whose estimated transfer value of players owned has changed the most, positively or negatively, over the past year.

The 515th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks teams from 69 leagues around the world according to the average age of line-ups fielded in the current domestic league season. Not including B-teams, the lowest value overall was recorded for Latvian side FK Metta (20.96 years), while the highest was measured for Saudi Arabia’s Khaleej FC (31.62 years).

With the real Ballon d’Or to be awarded today, the CIES Football Observatory has had fun ranking the 100 best players in the world over the past year using a purely statistical method. The latter takes into account the performances of outfield footballers during the last year in six game areas (data from Impect), as well their employment, matches’ sporting level and results.

Issue number 513 of the CIES Football Observatory’s Weekly Post presents the 100 clubs worldwide having committed the most money in transfer fees (including add-ons regardless of actual payment) to recruit their current first team squad players. Chelsea tops the list with a total investment of €1,314 million, of which €134 million for the most expensive signing (Moisés Caicedo, 10%).

The 512th Weekly Post of the CIES Football Observatory presents the results of a statistical model forecasting the probability of winning the title for clubs in 29 leagues. The model combines sporting variables (Impect data on passes in the opponent’s half), economic variables (transfer fees invested to recruit players fielded) and demographic variables (players’ last year minutes and their matches’ sporting level).

The 511th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses the financial results of transfer operations carried out in 2025. In total, clubs around the world invested approximately €14.2 billion, 14% more than the previous record set in 2023. This Post presents the balance sheets for the 121 teams worldwide involved in incoming or outgoing transactions totalling more than €50 million overall.

The 510th Football Observatory’s Weekly Post presents the 200 footballers worldwide who have not yet turned 20 with the best CIES ratings for matches played in 2025. The score is the average of two values : a performance index calculated from the data exclusively collected by our partners Impect, and an experience index taking into account minutes played, weighted by the sporting level of the matches.

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.

The 508th 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).

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.

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.