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The Anatomy of the Global Football Player Transfer Network: Club Functionalities versus Network Properties

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  • Xiao Fan Liu
  • Yu-Liang Liu
  • Xin-Hang Lu
  • Qi-Xuan Wang
  • Tong-Xing Wang

Abstract

Professional association football is a game of talent. The success of a professional club hinges largely on its ability of assembling the best team. Building on a dataset of player transfer records among more than 400 clubs in 24 world-wide top class leagues from 2011 to 2015, this study aims to relate a club’s success to its activities in the player transfer market from a network perspective. We confirm that modern professional football is indeed a money game, in which larger investment spent on the acquisition of talented players generally yields better team performance. However, further investigation shows that professional football clubs can actually play different strategies in surviving or even excelling this game, and the success of strategies is strongly associated to their network properties in the football player transfer network.

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  • Xiao Fan Liu & Yu-Liang Liu & Xin-Hang Lu & Qi-Xuan Wang & Tong-Xing Wang, 2016. "The Anatomy of the Global Football Player Transfer Network: Club Functionalities versus Network Properties," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(6), pages 1-14, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0156504
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0156504
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Novillo, Álvaro & Gong, Bingnan & Martínez, Johann H. & Resta, Ricardo & del Campo, Roberto López & Buldú, Javier M., 2024. "A multilayer network framework for soccer analysis," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    2. David Matesanz & Florian Holzmayer & Benno Torgler & Sascha L Schmidt & Guillermo J Ortega, 2018. "Transfer market activities and sportive performance in European first football leagues: A dynamic network approach," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(12), pages 1-16, December.
    3. G. P. Clemente & A. Cornaro, 2023. "Community detection in attributed networks for global transfer market," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 325(1), pages 57-83, June.
    4. Eremin, G., 2018. "Analysis of Factors Influencing the Pricing of Transfers in European Professional Football," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 40(4), pages 174-183.
    5. Jon Manuel Vega & Asier Gonzalez-Artetxe & Jon Ander Aguinaco & Asier Los Arcos, 2020. "Assessing the Anthropometric Profile of Spanish Elite Reserve Soccer Players by Playing Position over a Decade," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-9, July.

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