Annual Review of the european football players labour market Raffaele Poli, Loïc Ravenel & Roger Besson 2011 With the collaboration of Andrea Pessina and Giambattista Rossi Copyright 2011 CIES Football Observatory - All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior written permission of the authors
About CIES Football Observatory The CIES Football Observatory was set up in 2005 by Raffaele Poli and Loïc Ravenel under the name of the Professional Football Players Observatory (PFPO). Since 2011, it is one of the cornerstones of the vast CIES Observatory project, dedicated to the statistical analysis of sport in all its diversity. As well as the realisation of two annual reports, the CIES Football Observatory regularly carries out mandates for various stakeholders of the football industry. Our team of researchers is notably specialised in the demographic study of the footballers labour market, performance analysis on team and player levels, as well as in the elaboration of predictive models to determine the outcome of competitions. Methodological rigour coupled with a deep knowledge of football guarantees high quality analyses at competitive rates. Le CIES Football Observatory a été créé en 2005 par Raffaele Poli et Loïc Ravenel sous le nom de Professional Football Players Observatory (PFPO). Depuis 2011, il est l un des pilliers du vaste projet CIES Observatory dédié à l analyse statistique du sport dans sa diversité. En plus de la réalisation de deux rapports annuels, le CIES Football Observatory effectue régulièrement des mandats pour différents acteurs de l industrie du football. Notre équipe de chercheurs est notamment spécialisée dans l étude démographique du marché des footballeurs, l analyse de performance à l échelle des équipes et des joueurs, ainsi que l élaboration de modèles prédictifs pour déterminer l issue des compétitions. La rigueur méthodologique associée à la connaissance du football garantissent des analyses de grande qualité à des tarifs concurrentiels. For more information: www.eurofootplayers.org Plus d informations : www.eurofootplayers.org 2 Annual Review of the European Football Players Labour Market 2011
Origin
% of expatriate players on the pitch 40.5 38.6 43.0 42.1 43.4 42.7 43.9 43.5 42.6 42.3 in the squad 31.5 46.0 45.8 39.0 % of expatriates, by age group (20) < 22 22-26 27-31 > 31 The presence of expatriate players in squads has slightly decreased since 20. Last season, this trend was observed also for footballers on the pitch. Nevertheless, expatriates still represent more than 40% of players both at squad level and on the pitch. This proportion remains greater than that observed in 20. During last season, the highest percentage of expatriates was measured among players aged between 22 and 26 (46%). A similar percentage was observed among 27 to 31 year old footballers. Conversely, the proportion of this category of players among footballers under 22 years of age is less than one third (31.5%). 45
Rank Players Evol* 1. Arsenal FC (ENG) 9.62 2. Internazionale Milano FC (ITA) 9.43 3. Wigan Athletic (ENG) 9.06 4. Blackburn Rovers (ENG) 8.47 = 5. Chelsea FC (ENG) 8.45 = 6. VfL Wolfsburg (GER) 7.90 7. Calcio Catania (ITA) 7.84 8. Tottenham Hotspur (ENG) 7.67 9. UD Almería (ESP) 7.52 10. Fulham FC (ENG) 7.49 = 11. Udinese Calcio (ITA) 7.49 12. Liverpool FC (ENG) 7.43 13. S.S. Lazio (ITA) 7.38 14. Real Madrid (ESP) 7.16. Manchester United (ENG) 7.16 16. West Bromwich Albion (ENG) 7.14 new 17. Manchester City (ENG) 7.08 = 18. Real Zaragoza (ESP) 7.00 27. OGC Nice (FRA) 5.73 32. Milan AC (ITA) 5.55 Average number of expatriate players on the pitch (20) Values weighted by the number of minutes played by each footballer (max 11) Rank Players Evol* 54. Borussia Dortmund (GER) 4.54 59. FC Barcelona (ESP) 4.39 67. Blackpool FC (ENG) 3.91 new 72. OSC Lille (FRA) 3.53 = 83. Montpellier HSC (FRA) 2.66 84. CA Osasuna (ESP) 2.65 = 85. Stade Brestois (FRA) 2.51 new 86. Sampdoria UC (ITA) 2.50 87. Stade Rennais FC (FRA) 2.47 88. Real Sociedad (ESP) 2.35 new. FC Sochaux (FRA) 2.35 = 90. Sporting Gijon (ESP) 1.98 = 91. AS St-Etienne (FRA) 1.93 92. AS Nancy-Lorraine (FRA) 1.60. Levante UD (ESP) 1.60 new 94. Cagliari Calcio (ITA) 1.35 = 95. FC Lorient (FRA) 1.13 = 96. SM Caen (FRA) 1.02 new 97. FC St. Pauli (GER) 0.56 new 98. Athlétic Club Bilbao (ESP) 0.00 = *Evolution compared to 20 Increase (at least +0.50 expatriate players) = Stability Decrease (at least -0.50 expatriate players) new Not available for 20 Bold: national champions p. 46 In four leagues out of five, the minimal level of expatriate players on the pitch for national champions was measured in the 20 season. The only exception is England, where Manchester United fielded on average 2 more expatriates than in 20, when they also won the Premier League title. Barcelona, Dortmund and Lille were champions by fielding a minority of players who did not grow up in their respective national association. The case of Barcelona is particularly interesting insofar as the significant decline in the average presence of expatriates on the pitch since 20 did not prevent them from winning all available trophies. p. 47 Four out of the five clubs in which expatriates played the greatest percentage of minutes are English. Only Inter Milan has a level of expatriate players on the pitch as high as Arsenal, Wigan, Blackburn and Chelsea. At the opposite end of the table, Athlétic Bilbao was the only big-5 league team who did not field expatriate footballers. French and Spanish clubs are over-represented in the last positions of the ranking, which reflects their greater tendency to field local clubtrained players. Many promoted teams fielded a low level of footballers imported. This partially explains the general decline in this category of players (see page 45). Origin 47
Origin 55.5 53.9 59.3 58.8 59.0 59.5 56.7 59.4 England 58.4 56.7 % of expatriates, by league Spain Germany 52.3 52.2 54.8 52.2 39.0 34.3 39.8 36.7 36.8 35.7 35.8 32.9 39.6 35.8 44.7 46.4 50.5 47.8 43.7 42.9 France Italy 32.9 32.8 31.5 31.3 32.3 30.6 32.2 31.4 30.1 27.7 28.7 26.9 36.4 33.6 39.4 39.0 42.0 41.4 47.0 46.4 Expatriate player Footballers who play outside of the national association in which they grew up, from where they departed following recruitment by a foreign club 48 Annual Review of the European Football Players Labour Market 2011
Origin 129 145 154 131 123 Brazil 76 91 96 101 France 107 Argentina Uruguay 84 89 98 114 106 29 41 40 30 37 Number of expatriates, by association of origin Six most represented national associations in 20 Switzerland The Netherlands 27 33 35 37 36 37 30 39 33 34 Number of expatriates Data are an average of the values measured at the end of each semester 52 Annual Review of the European Football Players Labour Market 2011
Ranking 1. Brazil...123... *(-8) 2. France...107...(+6) 3. Argentina...106... (-8) 4. Uruguay... 37...(+7) 5. Switzerland... 36... (-1) 6. The Netherlands... 34...(+1). Portugal... 30... (-1) 8. Spain... 30...(+12) 9. Serbia... 26... (-9) 10. Czech Rep... 25...(+2) 11. Denmark... 24...(+7) 12. Ivory Coast... 23...(0) * Evolution compared to 20 Association of origin of expatriates (20) p. 52 After having risen sharply between 20 and 20 (+25), the number of Brazilians in the big-5 leagues significantly dropped over the last two seasons (-31). The presence of Argentineans also first went up (+30 until 20) and then down (-8 last season). The highest increase over the 5-year period analysed is for French expatriates, who were never so numerous as in 20 (107, + 31 compared to 20). A rise was also observed for Uruguayan and Swiss expatriates, while the number of footballers from last season s sixth most represented country, the Netherlands, is stable. CIES Football Observatory Done with Philcarto p. 53 Brazil remains the country from where the majority of the big-5 league expatriate footballers originate. Most of them play in Italy (38) and Spain (27), but they are also well represented in Germany (26), France (22) and, to a lesser extent, England (12). On the contrary, French expatriates are much more present in the latter country (51), than in Italy (23), Spain (19) and Germany (15). Argentineans are even more concentrated in few leagues: 84 out of 106 play for Italian (43) and Spanish teams (41). The highest increase in the number of expatriates since 20 was for Spanish players (+12), while the greatest decrease was for Serbian ones (-9). League of employment England Spain France Italy Germany 125 13 1 Number of players Origin 53