Loyal players: Gianluigi Buffon tops the list
Gianluigi"> heads the table for the big-5 league players who have been for the longest period in their club employment. The legendary Italian goalkeeper already played for 17 seasons at Juventus. This is sixth months more than the second ranked footballer, Sergio"> (Chievo), and one year more than for Andrés"> (Barcelona) and Roman Weidenfeller (Borussia Dortmund). The top 110 list is available in issue number 223 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post.
In total, 61 footballers played for at least ten seasons in their current club. Among them are many other legendary players such as
Lionel"> (14 seasons in Barcelona’s first team squad),
3d3dy5mb290YmFsbC1vYnNlcnZhdG9yeS5jb20vLVJhdGluZ3MtZW5nLT9jb2RlPTUwOQ>Sergio"> (13, Real Madrid), Michael Carrick (12, Manchester United), Marcelo">Franck Ribéry
(11, Bayern Munich), -cs3iDPx7TMq065qEna4_JwAF2To/12/jqtbLa9G3_a94Ea9gHU9xg/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mb290YmFsbC1vYnNlcnZhdG9yeS5jb20vLVJhdGluZ3MtZW5nLT9jb2RlPTUzMzg>Marek"> (11, Napoli), Fernando Torres (10, Atlético Madrid) and Cristiano Ronaldo (9, Real Madrid).
In five clubs, the most loyal squad member only played there for four seas
ons: Fiorentina (Martella), Getafe (Guaita),">Mendy, Pléa">Pouplin), as well as Caen (Vercoutre,">Féret,da"> and
tZW5nLT9jb2RlPTc3NjQw>Bazile). The freshly published 34th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report analyses the relationships between squad stability and success in 31 top division leagues of UEFA member associations.
