By Paul Nicholson
January 11 – International players account for 90% of the minutes played by Real Madrid last year, compared to a much lower 70% at Barcelona. Europe’s other ‘international’ leaders are predominantly in England with Chelsea, Man City, Man Utd and, perhaps surprisingly, Spurs all at more than 80%.
The data on the percentage of minutes played by footballers who represented a national A-team in 2015 (an active international is classified as having played one match) has been compiled by the CIES Observatory.
While Real Madrid top the percentages, La Liga is at the bottom of the overall percentage analysis with an average percentage of 24% per club. This compares with 58% in the English Premier League, 40% in the German Bundesliga, 31% in the Italian Serie A and 29% in the French Ligue 1.
The data throws up some interesting comparisons with Paris St Germain lead in France with 67%, while in Italy Juventus are on top with 87% followed by Roma with 77%.
In Germany Dortmund top Bayern Munich with 75% and 71% respectively.
View the CIES data at http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2015/132/en/
Source: all tables CIES Football Observatory
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