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.