Observatoire du football CIES

Planned-for-the-future squads: Chelsea at the top

Admin — 2025-03-17T13:51:09Z

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.
Monaco (91.3% of minutes secured) and AZ Alkmaar (89.2%) complete the podium of teams whose squad planning is most likely to bring stability in the coming (...)

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Best allrounder attackers: Olise at the top

Admin — 2025-03-06T08:56:51Z

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 in chance creation.
The Bayern Munich's French international is ahead of Barcelona's Spaniard Lamine Yamal (87.7) and Bayer Leverkusen's German Florian Wirtz (...)

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Rising values: non-big-5 league players

Admin — 2025-03-04T10:01:10Z

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).
Palmeiras' new Brazilian full international Estêvão Willian, owned by Chelsea, comes second with an increase of €30 million (from €30m to (...)

- Newsletter_EN / abonnement, Lettre hebdomadaire

Twenty years of the Observatory: tribute studies on training clubs

Admin — 2025-02-25T14:21:30Z

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).
Olympique Lyonnais and Manchester United (both with 103 players) are at the foot of the podium, followed by Stade (...)

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Ground defence: best U23 midfielders worldwide

Admin — 2025-02-18T13:41:29Z

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 here). This Weekly Post presents the hundred U23 midfielders from 46 leagues around the world with the highest values in ground defence (see below).
Borussia Mönchengladbach's Rocco Reitz has the highest score. The German is ahead of another big-5 league player, (...)

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Next full internationals: players to watch

Roger Besson — 2025-02-11T15:26:19Z

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.
For the major nations, the following U25 non-full international footballers are considered the most deserving: Santiago (...)

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Current season transfers: financial statement

Admin — 2025-02-04T14:49:25Z

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. All the data is available free of charge here.
In the other European big-5 leagues, the (...)

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Forthcoming results: predictions for 42 leagues

Admin — 2025-01-27T13:52:35Z

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.
In the five major European leagues, the best progress in terms of points per match should come from (...)

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Gyökeres top scorer for the last year

Admin — 2025-01-21T10:55:55Z

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.
Erling Haaland (Manchester City and Norway) and Harry Kane (Bayern Munich and England) complete the podium with 52 and 47 goals respectively. In terms of goal (...)

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Readiest for the next step U23 players

Admin — 2025-01-14T12:38:58Z

The 487th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the U23 players not yet in Europe's big-5 who are most ready to take the next step in their careers. The selection is based on an index considering the footballers' playing time over the last year, the sporting level of matches played, as well as their performances in six game areas (Wyscout data).
Sporting CP's Belgian full international Zeno Debast tops the table with an index of 87.5 out of 100. Another centre back, PSV Eindhoven's (...)

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