March 30 – If the best players play in the biggest leagues for the most amount of time and win the most matches, then the winner of the 2016 European Championships will likely be France, Italy or Spain. England and Germany are in contention but probably lagging just behind, depending on how you interpret the stats from the CIES Football Observatory.
Their latest stats rank the 24 qualified nations for Euro2016 by the combined number of minutes played by the total number of players from each nation.
Their figures show that more French national team players have played more minutes than any other nationality in the big five leagues this season. French coach Didier Deschamps has used 35 players totaling 66,961 minutes. This equates to 1,913 minutes per match with the French players generating 1.72 league points per match.
The nationality that generates most league points per match is the Spanish at 1.95. But while Spain have used 34 players they have played less minutes at 1,676 per player.
Italy come second in the CIES ranking with 38 players (more than any other nationality) playing on average 1,649 minutes generating 1.77 league points per match.
England’s 34 players average 1,585 minutes at 1.61 league points per game, compared to Germany’s 28 players who average 1,749 minutes at 1.79 points per game
It is not surprising that home-based players dominate the Big-5 leagues’ national teams, but how far they will dominate the European Championships remains to be seen. World ranked number 1, Belgium, in the CIES stats have 19 players in the Big 5 leagues averaging 1,552 minutes per player and 1.73 league points per game. This is more average points per player than England or France.
Portugal would also look to pose a championship threat with 17 players averaging 1,651 minutes per game for an average of 1.67 league points per game.
The Swiss are also high in the table with 22 players averaging 1,508 minutes, but look less of a winning threat with an average of 1.43 league points per game.
Bottom of the table is Russia with just one lonely Russian having played 484 minutes averaging 1.13 points per game.
To view the full table go to http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2015/143/en/
Source: CIES Football Observatory
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