By David Butler
Although I’m not sure how they arrived at the order, last week OPTA sports ranked the English Premier League as number one in their men’s league rankings. Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga and Lique 1 naturally followed from 2-5, with Serie B in 6. While one can argue about rankings, there is no doubt that playing in these elite leagues over time is arduous and highly competitive. The ‘Big-5’ is the highest level in professional club football and as Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian argued last weekend, through the case of Raheem Stirling, ‘excellence is fragile’. The margins are minuscule at this level. A small performance drop after a glittering career can quickly spell doom.
Clubs and players see this coming. Given the strong economic incentives for players and clubs, the destination for the best aging talent is often Saudi Arabia, China or the USA. Once upon a time it was Ireland. Moves to Saudi Arabia, China and USA nicely illustrate the standards drop and the intensity of the ‘Big 5’. The graph below shows the performance in goals of 22 attacking players that have moved to these locations – these include the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Drogba, Rooney, Henry, Zlatan, Keane and Benzema. We see a declining trend in average number of goals scored in seasons prior to the move (blue line), followed by a bounce once the player has dropped down the levels (red line). This increases into the second season of the new club and decays as players usually come to the last days of their career.
Although I’m not sure how they arrived at the order, last week OPTA sports ranked the English Premier League as number one in their men’s league rankings. Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga and Lique 1 naturally followed from 2-5, with Serie B in 6. While one can argue about rankings, there is no doubt that playing in these elite leagues over time is arduous and highly competitive. The ‘Big-5’ is the highest level in professional club football and as Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian argued last weekend, through the case of Raheem Stirling, ‘excellence is fragile’. The margins are minuscule at this level. A small performance drop after a glittering career can quickly spell doom.
Clubs and players see this coming. Given the strong economic incentives for players and clubs, the destination for the best aging talent is often Saudi Arabia, China or the USA. Once upon a time it was Ireland. Moves to Saudi Arabia, China and USA nicely illustrate the standards drop and the intensity of the ‘Big 5’. The graph below shows the performance in goals of 22 attacking players that have moved to these locations – these include the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Drogba, Rooney, Henry, Zlatan, Keane and Benzema. We see a declining trend in average number of goals scored in seasons prior to the move (blue line), followed by a bounce once the player has dropped down the levels (red line). This increases into the second season of the new club and decays as players usually come to the last days of their career.
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