Afful is the most fielded Stars player in 2015

The first CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report of 2016 analyses the characteristics of players fielded in 2015 by 50 national A-teams from around the world.

The national sides have been selected according to their average FIFA ranking throughout 2015.

Among them, we find 32 European associations, six from South America, six from Africa, three from Asia and three from North and Central America.

The study first compares national squads from the point of view of the age of players fielded (Chapter 2).

It then examines the differences observed in terms of height and weight (Chapter 3).

Chapter 4 investigates clubs where footballers were employed when they played their international games.

This analysis takes into account both the localisation of the employer clubs (within, or outside of, the country represented) and the level of their league (top division or not).

Finally, we study the proportion of players born outside of the country represented (Chapter 5).

The analysis covers 1,785 footballers. In 2015, a team played on average 11 matches and fielded 35.2 players. Mexico was the most active country: 23 matches played and 58 footballers used.

At the opposite end of the scale, four European teams played just 7 matches: Albania, Israel, Wales and Croatia.

No other country used as few players as Austria’s total of 24. In an appendix, we present the data for all of the teams.

The most used footballer in absolute terms was Michael Bradley from the United States.

The Toronto FC footballer played 18 matches for a total of 1,669 minutes. The second most fielded player is another member of the United States squad: Gyasi Zardes.

The Los Angeles Galaxy footballer celebrated his first cap on the 28th January 2015 and went on to play a total of 19 matches and 1,409 minutes.

According the search by CIES Football Observatory Monthly of 2016, the most fielded player in the Black Stars in 2015 was Columbus Crew defender Harrison Afful.

He played 1044 minutes of a total 15 matches the Black Stars played in 2015 fielding 52 players in total.

Afful appeared 13 times of the 15 matches the Black Stars played in 2015.

Six African Cup of Nations (AFCON 2015) matches in Equatorial Guinea, two African Cup of Nations 2017 qualifiers, three international friendlies and two World Cup 2018 qualifiers representing 1044 minutes.

The former Feyenoord Academy and Asante Kotoko fullback earned his first international cap for Ghana in 2008 and has 60 caps to his name since then.