May 11 – A report by the CIES Football Observatory provides insights into the global flows of football expatriates, revealing that the labour market of footballers is increasingly internationalised with player flow between countries still on the increase.
The study defines expatriates as those players who have grown up outside the national association of their employer club and having moved abroad for sporting reasons. 12,425 expatriate footballers are included in the global study playing in 2,235 teams from the 142 leagues of 93 national associations as of 1st of May 2018. Those included were first team squad members recorded as having been fielded or on the bench in domestic league matches during the 2017/18 season.
The study finds expatriates represent 21.2% of players at global level (up 1.2% compared to 2017), equivalent to 5.6 footballers per team.
The study found Brazil is the most represented country with 1,236 expatriates (up 42 compared to 2017), followed by France (821, up 45) and Argentina (760, down 26). The nationals from these three associations make up 22.7% of the total number of expatriates.
The study also analyses the flows by age, with the AFC having the oldest set of expatriates, includes analysis of rate of expatriates per million of inhabitants – where Iceland comes top and includes analysis of main origins per confederation.
The study concludes with a useful visualisation of the flows, showing the Brazil to Portugal route is the most travelled followed by England to Scotland and Argentina to Chile.
See the full report at http://www.football-observatory.com/
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