Messi named CIES Football Observatory big-5 league player of the season

Lionel Messi is the first winner of the CIES Football Observatory gold medal for the Most Productive Player (MPP) in the big-5 leagues. The Barcelona FC superstar outranked 908 other players who qualified for analysis as a result of completing at least 50% of all playing minutes over the duration of the 2011/12 season.

CIES Football Observatory's rankings classify players according to their pitch productivity per minute played in the following areas of the game: shooting, chance creation, take on, distribution and recovery. For the general index, each indicator was weighted according to the strength of the correlation with points achieved by clubs at the end of the season.

Aggregated at team level, all of the Football Observatory indicators are significantly correlated to club results for all leagues and seasons. This ensures their relevance and objectivity. Player pitch statistics are provided by our partner company Opta.

Other big-5 league gold medal winners for the 2011-2012 season are as follows:
Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid CF) for shooting
Mesut Özil (Real Madrid CF) for chance creation
Franck Ribéry (FC Bayern München) for take on
Xavi Hernández (FC Barcelona) for distribution
Arturo Vidal (Juventus FC) for recovery

 

At league level, the Most Productive Players (general index) were as follows:
Lionel Messi (Spain)
David Silva (England)
Andrea Pirlo (Italy)
Franck Ribéry (Germany)
Anderson Nenê (France)

Lionel Messi is also the Football Observatory's most decorated player of the season. In total, he achieves two gold, three silver and one bronze medal. Other multi award winners are Franck Ribéry, Andrea Pirlo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Xavi Hernández and Mathieu Valbuena (4 medals each).

The complete list of the CIES Football Observatory medal winners can be found in the special edition of our Big-5 Weekly Post, which is available for free download on our website.

 

Annual Review pre-ordering:
Further analysis will be presented in August, when the CIES Football Observatory will publish the 7th edition of its Annual Review. The electronic version of the specific section on player performance will be already available by mid-June. This will allow interested parties accessing this essential information prior to the opening of the summer transfer window.

The player performance section notably includes rankings which highlight the best performing footballers when compared to their team-mates. This is particularly useful to identify relatively unknown potential signings. The whole section can be obtained by pre-ordering the full CIES Football Observatory's Annual Review at a cost of CHF 299.- (?) + postage.

To order or for further information, please contact us at: [email protected]

About the CIES Football Observatory:
The CIES Football Observatory was set up in 2005 under the name of the Professional Football Players Observatory (PFPO). Since 2011, it is one of the cornerstones of the vast CIES Observatory project, dedicated to the statistical analysis of sport in all its diversity.

About the CIES:
The International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) is an independent study centre located in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. It was created in 1995 as a joint venture between the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the University of Neuchâtel, the City and State of Neuchatel.

CIES - International Centre for Sports Studies
Raffaele Poli
Avenue DuPeyrou 1, 2000 Neuchâtel
Switzerland
Phone +41 32 718 39 00 - Fax +41 32 718 39 01
Email: [email protected]