The first CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post was published in March 2012. To celebrate this birthday, we ranked the 54 clubs always present in the big-5 leagues during the last five years according to the number of players fielded in domestic league games. Italian side Genoa used the most players overall: 119! At the opposite end of the spectrum is Borussia Mönchengladbach (48 players).

Seven out of the ten teams always present in the big-5 who fielded the most players in domestic league matches since March 2012 are Italian. This reflects the very speculative transfer market approach existing in Italy. The greatest figures in squad turnover per league were recorded at Genoa (119 players), Granada (113), Sunderland (92), Nice (88, including many players from the youth academy), as well as Werder Bremen (81).

Many well-structured and performing teams fielded the fewest players during the period analysed. Among them, we notably find Champions League regular participants such as Bayern Munich (53 players), Barcelona (53 too), Arsenal (55), Real Madrid (56) and Manchester City (57). The Weekly Post also presents the footballer per club who played the most domestic league minutes during the last five years. St-Etienne’s goalkeeper Stéphane Ruffier tops the table: 16,650 minutes.