Dear reader,
As you have already seen from the title, today we are talking about the UEFA Champions League.
It's true, the Champions League is probably the most prestigious club competition in the world, and it's the trophy, along with the FIFA World Cup, that all players aspire one day to lift.
This topic could have come up because in a few days we have the final of another edition, which will oppose Pep Guardiola's City to Simone Inzaghi's Inter.
But no. The main reason is that we have reached a round number of completed editions. That's right, it's been 30 Champions League seasons since the rebranding. This nomenclature and imagery, even if there have been some format changes, came into effect in the 1992/93 season. At that time, to the delight of the French, the champion was Marseille of Deschamps, Ayew, Desailly, Völler, Bokšić, Barthez and company. Little did they know that they would be the only French team to win the “Ol’ Big Ears” to this day (bonjour PSG, ça va bien?)...
However, what I propose to bring you today is a different analysis, a little more comprehensive. I will analyse this competition from a “nationalistic” perspective and thus bring you a bit of the intensity of the duels between countries into the world of clubs and, of course, the Champions League.
In terms of winners, the math is simple:
Spain is the big, apparent, leader, much to the credit of the “glutton” Real Madrid. England and Italy, who are fighting for the title this season, complete the podium. Either the Italians draw, or the English extend their advantage. As if there weren't already enough ingredients to make us cling to our television sets on June 10...
Well, but the analysis of the winners is too simple, and you would not need to read this Factball just for this. So let's go deeper into the matter by resorting to the facts, of course.
The Champions of Nations
My analysis will focus on the main protagonists of this beloved game of ours, the players, throughout the 30 completed seasons added to the current season. The data was extracted from FBref and does not include the qualifying rounds.
In all, athletes of 142 different nationalities have already entered the game sheets, which will almost certainly make this the most global competition in the football.
For this reason, let's look at the evolution of this indicator over the years.
This difference over the years is not shocking, since:
It was from 1995 onwards that the Bosman ruling, already discussed here, came into force and allowed football players to transfer freely.
The number of competing teams also increased, automatically giving rise to a greater variety of players.
However, looking at the graph, it appears we have reached a safety threshold, and it does not seem that there is an upward trend in the number of countries placing players in this competition.
As a curiosity, I also leave you the 3 nationalities that had players in this competition, but didn't get to play any minutes: Andorra, Mauritius and Philippines.
Top 5
Brazil, not belonging to the continent where the competition is played, appears in second place, with 49 athletes on average per season, about 7%, thus confirming its status as the great exporter of talent worldwide.
France, Germany, and Italy complete this ranking.
Number of players
To analyse this evolution, we can see in the graph above that the number of players has generally increased for all countries. However, we can clearly see certain predominances at certain times.
In the early 2000s, France took the lead a few times, but always closely followed by Spain. From 2005 we can see a rapid rise of Brazil, which remains in the lead until 2012. From then on, Spain would never relinquish the top spot, which it holds to this day.
Minutes played
The segment of my more avid readers will already know, via one of my pieces previously published here, that I am a big fan of considering minutes played as a measure of the athletes' value. As such, this analysis couldn't be short of a minute’s played ranking either.
Moreover, the difference between the Italians and the others has also been more noticeable in recent years, and the latest data on the chart already includes the 3 semi-finalists of this edition (Naples, Milan and Inter), hence the visible increase.
The decrease of Brazil and Spain in the recent past is also quite fascinating and contrasts with their numbers in the ranking by number of players.
Conclusion
The data is not deceiving, and there are clearly some countries that place far more players in Europe's premier club competition.
I believe there are some lessons to be learned from this data and some considerations to be made for the future.
The analysis of the minutes played will be the most pertinent, and in this sense it is necessary to think about the Brazilian and Spanish players. Being these the two countries that have placed more players and played more minutes in the past 30 years, it is interesting that the number of minutes played has been decreasing. If on one hand, the results of the Brazilians can be explained by the greater need to adapt to the different tactics between the European and the Brazilian ones, the results of the Spaniards are more difficult to explain. One of the possibilities is the fact that the Spanish player, on average, is pricier to be acquired by clubs from other leagues, and thus they stick more to clubs from their country, which lately have not reached the later stages of the competition, except, of course, Real Madrid.
If we look at France, the fact that their league is the 5th best in the continent gives a lot of room for clubs from the other 4 leagues above to hire and hold on to the best players from this nationality. In addition to this, the great work developed in the youth levels and the talent that has emerged in recent generations, make this nation a potential candidate to grab the leadership of this ranking in the near future, if, of course, their clubs also manage to get further in the knockout stages of the competition.
A note also for the stagnation in the number of nationalities. This is clearly a sign that there are already many countries participating in the competition, but it also shows that in general, the football landscape has not seen significant developments in terms of new sources of talent or competitiveness outside what is already known. Of the 142 nationalities that have participated in the competition, only an average of 78 over the last 10 years have had players called up. Maybe the “global development” eagerly proclaimed by FIFA is not producing the desired results, or perhaps we have really reached the maximum level of diversity (I find it hard to believe this second option).
That's all for this week. As you may have noticed, there has been a change in the look of the publication, so I'd be happy to hear what you think. In the end, it is for you that I keep writing. Thank you for being on that side.
Best regards and a dribble from Mané Garrincha,
João Francisco
Extra Time
Fact 🔍
The first football match ever broadcast live on the radio was an Arsenal vs Sheffield United on January 22, 1927, on the BBC.
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