Money Talks: Team Variables and Player Positions that Most Influence the Market Value of Professional Male Footballers in Europe

Jose Luis Felipe,Luis Eduardo De La Riva,Javier Sanchez-Sanchez,Jorge Garcia-Unanue,Alvaro Fernandez-Luna,Pablo Burillo

doi:10.3390/su12093709

Jose Luis Felipe, Luis Eduardo De La Riva + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su12093709

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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse different interactions of the variables (age, position, or quality of the team and the league) and the crowdsourcing Transfermarkt values of male players in the top European leagues. All players (n = 2259) in the five most highly valued European leagues—Spain, England, Italy, France, and Germany—from the 2017/2018 season were included in this study. Data were retrieved from the open-source football database (Transfermarkt). The present economic value (VPRESENT) and maximum economic value (VMAX) of all players with professional contracts were registered. Regression analysis evidenced a significant influence of the level of the team, the birth month, the league, the playing position and the age of the player on mean and maximum economic value (p < 0.05). This analysis confirms that the players participating in the UEFA Champions League, Premier League teams, playing as attacking midfielders, and born in the first quarter of the year are the most economically valued in terms of both current value (R2 of 0.33) and maximal value (R2 of 0.36). Therefore, international football entities must take into account the financial balance between competitions—and not only at the domestic level, as the attractiveness and balance of European competitions may be directly affected.

Highlights

In professional male football, movements of players among clubs involve, in most cases, economic transfers whose underlying inflation seems to have no limit
The variance analysis revealed a higher mean (+9.47 mill; CI 95%: 8.40 to 10.55; ES: 0.86; p < 0.001; Table 1) and maximum (+10.53 mill; CI 95%: 9.41 to 11.66; ES: 0.89; p < 0.001) economic value of players in teams at the top of the table in comparison to teams situated at the bottom of the league
Teams playing in the UEFA Champions League evidenced a higher VMEAN than UEFA Europa League teams (+11.98 mill; CI 95%: 9.91 to 14.03; ES: 0.66; p < 0.001) and teams not playing in either European competition (+17.90 mill; CI 95%: 16.32 to 19.47; ES: 1.27; p < 0.001)

Summary

Introduction

Movements of players among clubs involve, in most cases, economic transfers whose underlying inflation seems to have no limit. The market value of a player has been defined as ‘an estimate of the amount of money a club would be willing to pay in order to make [an] athlete sign a contract, independent of an actual transaction’ [16]. This market value gives useful information for clubs according to the estimated monetary value of players, crucial in transfer negotiations. The role of football fans has become more important [17] through the use of new technologies and the Internet This phenomenon is called crowdsourcing, and it has been applied in other business areas, as well [18]. The most important example of crowdsourcing in today’s football business is Transfermarkt

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