The third report of the CIES Football Observatory Summer Series on Match Calendar and Player Workload in men’s professional football analyses the characteristics of the most in-demand players (>4 500 official game minutes per season), notably including the study of the breakdown of their minutes per type of competition (club national, club international and national teams).

The second report of the CIES Football Observatory Summer Series on Match Calendar and Player Workload analyses the trends in the number of official games played by clubs in 40 of the top leagues worldwide between 2012/23 and 2023/24. The study notably reveals that only about 5% of clubs play 60 or more games per season (not including friendlies), with stable figures since the 2000s.

This first report of the CIES Football Observatory Summer Series on Match Calendar and Player Workload in men’s football analyses trends in the number of games and minutes per season played over the last twelve years by footballers from 40 of the top leagues worldwide, as well as their breakdown according to organisers and projections for the 2024-28 period.