February 21 – The cost of buying players increased at an annual rate of 13.8% between the 2013/14 and 2019/20 seasons. The inflation bubble was burst with a -0.2% drop in the three seasons following the pandemic but player prices resumed their spectacular growth in 2022/23, suggesting a rapid return to record levels, said the CIES Football Observatory.
February 17 – Only two clubs in Europe’s Big 5 leagues have fielded home-grown players for more than 50% of the total minutes played this season – Athletic Club in LaLiga (56.6%; 13 players ‘trained’), and Olympique Lyonnais in Ligue 1 (52.2%; 11).
February 9 – Manchester City may be facing more than 100 charges of breaches of the Premier League’s financial fair play rules, but from 2018 to now the club has been the model sensible dealing in the transfer markets compared to their Premier League competitors.
January 27 – Chelsea have spent more than double the amount of next biggest spending club Manchester United in the last two transfer windows.
January 13 – The winter transfer market has still to ignite with big money deals but a new report by the CIES Football Observatory ranks players by their ‘Impact Scores’, and perhaps pointers to where the best value lies in the transfer market.
January 6 – Jude Bellingham is the hottest property in world football going into the January transfer window, with an estimated transfer value of €208 million.
December 20 – An analysis of the Argentine player data from World Cup qualifying to World Cup final by the CIES Football Observatory shows how coach Lionel Scaloni used 40 players en route to the big prize.
December 15 – Dutch giants Ajax have trained more players for World Cup teams (11) than any other club, according to latest data from the CIES Football Observatory.
December 2 – Portugal’s players have on average had more playing time in 2022 than any other nation at the Qatar 2022 World Cup, according to a ranking of nations by average number of player minutes in competitive action.
November 11 – The CIES Football Observatory has completed an analysis of 100 players outside the big-5 who have not yet turned 25 with the highest estimated transfer value.
November 1 – On average, Manchester City starting lineups for Premier League games fielded playing stock to the value of €605 million in transfer fees.
October 24 – AFC Ajax is Europe’s engine room in terms of developing youth talent capable of playing at the highest national league levels.
October 21 – Youth or experience? Real Madrid on average recruit the youngest players out of the Big 5 European leagues at 22.87 years of age.
September 13 – New data ranking the top 10 players under 25 into 15 different positional categories has been released.
August 30 – Erling Haaland may be grabbing all the Premier League headlines, but club mate Phil Foden is one of six players born in the same year (2000) who are ranked as hotter prospects. Vinícius Júnior tops the 2000 year group.