Have boots will travel. Expats swamp Europe's top 31 leagues, finds report

By Paul Nicholson
January 21 – The percentage of club-trained players making it into first team squads in Europe has hit an all-time low, according to data from the CIES Football Observatory’s sixth annual Demographic Study.

The report finds that just 21.2% of footballers across 31 top divisions in Europe are playing for the club where they were trained. At the same time the proportion of non-national players in squads has reached a new average high of 36.8%.

Within this there are some major differences between leagues. Cyprus has the highest number of expatriate players in its top tier clubs, but the English Premier League is second with a massive 60.4%.

The statistics add further fuel to the fire new English FA chairman Greg Dyke is trying to light under English football in his bid to get more home-qualified young players into club squads. Whether this can be done organically or if it becomes a matter for football legislation remains to be seen. With the trend to more expatriate players in English football, the statistics point towards the organic route as probably being wishful thinking.

The report also finds that in a time of apparent economic austerity the transfer market has more activity than ever. A record high of new signings was achieved in the period from January 2013 onwards – a chunky average of 41.3% of squads (10.2 signings per club). More questions here for the custodians of the game on a range of issues.

Brazil is still the biggest exporter of players with 471 playing in the leagues survey – this is in fact a drop from a high of 538. France is the second biggest exporter of players with 306.

In terms of club trained players in the top five leagues, Bracelona head the ranking in Spain with 64%, Lyon in France with 53.6%, Freiburg in Germany with 34.6%, Arsenal in England with 32.5% and Atalanta in Italy with 28.6%.

When it comes to size, Barcelona are still one of the shortest playing squads in Europe on average (second to bottom with an average low of 177.4cm) but have the longest average player contracts at 5.5 years per player. The Bundesliga has the highest average height (183.8cm), perhaps proving that big is beautiful and certainly successful.

The 6th edition of the CIES annual Demographic Study covered 31 top division leagues in Europe – 472 clubs and 11,653 players. For more information go to www.football-observatory.com.

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