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 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.

In this Weekly Post, the CIES Football Observatory analyses the differences observed over the last year between 63 leagues worldwide in terms of referees’ propensity to hand out penalty cards for fouls. Referees in Japan’s top two divisions are the least likely to issue cards for fouls (around one penalty card every ten fouls), while the opposite is true in Chile and Colombia (around one card every five fouls).

The 496th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks the teams of 37 leagues around the world according to the percentage of ‘minutes secured’, i.e. the share of the current season’s domestic league minutes played by footballers still under contract with a duration beyond the year 2026. Chelsea tops the list with 91.8% of minutes secured.

The 495th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the world’s 100 best performing players from an attacking perspective in terms of their statistics in three areas of the game: take on, chance creation and finishing. Michael Olise tops the rankings with an average index of 88.5 in these three domains and a maximum value of 99.0 in chance creation.

Issue number 494 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 100 players from outside the big-5 European leagues whose transfer value has risen the most over the last six months. At the top of the list is Porto’s Spanish striker Samu Aghehowa, second top scorer in the Portuguese top flight, with an increase of €39 million (from €29.6m to €68.6m).

To celebrate its twenty years of existence and pay tribute to the clubs developing the talent that makes us love football, the CIES Football Observatory is very proud to present a study of the teams that have trained the most players fielded in Europe’s big-5 over the last two decades. The top three are Real Madrid (166 players), Barcelona (156) and Paris St-Germain (111).

Using technical data collected by our partners Wyscout, the CIES Football Observatory has developed various synthetic indices on a base of 100 to measure the level of performance of players in six areas of the game (more details ici). This Weekly Post presents the hundred U23 midfielders from 46 leagues around the world with the highest values in ground defence.

The 491st CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the U25 players who are sportingly the most deserving for a senior national team debut. The rankings were established on the basis of a performance index specifically designed by our research team using Wyscout data. They include the ten players with the highest performance scores from 50 nations around the world.

In the last two transfer windows, only one team has had a negative net spending* of more than €250 million: Brighton & Hove. Now firmly established in the Premier League, the English club recorded a deficit of €197 million during last summer and €56 million this winter. Premier League newly-promoted Ipswich Town and Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr round out the podium of the teams with the worst balance sheets.

Issue number 489 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post forecasts the results up to the end of the season of teams in 42 leagues around the world according to their performance level. The latter was measured on the basis of a statistical model including the number and location of the passes and shots made and conceded so far by teams (Wyscout data), regardless of the results obtained.

The 488th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 100 players who have scored the most goals in official club or national team matches (senior, U23 or U21) over the last year. Sporting CP’s Swede Viktor Gyökeres is clearly at the top of the list with no fewer than 64 goals: 54 for his club and 10 at national team level.