Explaining the Price of Talent: Football Player Valuation in the Premier League and La Liga
Abstract
This paper aims to determine the most important factors which determine the market values of professional footballers, and to compare these factors regarding the two elite football leagues of the world (Premier League and La Liga). The focus of this study will be to look at the physical, demographic, performance and experience-based characteristics of professional footballers that can be measured and compared among leagues. The final data set consisted of 218 players who competed in the Premier League and 117 players who competed in La Liga. Descriptive statistics, independent sample t-tests, and regression analysis were conducted to evaluate the data. The results of this study showed that there is a statistically significant difference in the mean market value between Premier League and La Liga players, as the average market value of Premier League players is higher than the average market value of La Liga players. The findings of the study support that the market value of professional footballers is determined by a combination of specific player attributes and league-specific methods for determining the market value of player assets. The statistical results from the regression demonstrated that there was a statistically significant relationship between age and market value (negative), and between experience and goals/assists per game and market value (positive). In addition, there were different relationships between each of the variables in both the Premier League and La Liga. Experience and top speed had significantly larger coefficients in La Liga, and goals/assists per game had significantly larger coefficients in the Premier League. Overall, these statistics support that market valuation for soccer players is based on past performance, experience, and their physical attributes.
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