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Assessing the performance of German Bundesliga football players: a non-parametric metafrontier approach

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Abstract

This article presents a novel model for evaluating the performance of field players in football. Based upon Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), we employ a non-concave metafrontier approach that permits estimation of players’ efficiency scores under consideration of their playing positions. The model is applied to a data set of Germany’s premier league football players covering the playing seasons 2002/03 to 2008/09. The results reveal a clear positive relationship between a team’s average player efficiency score and its rank in the league table at the end of the season. In addition, the metafrontier approach is used to identify a footballer’s optimal playing position in the team and to quantify the performance increase from moving to that position.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Kiel, Olshausenstrasse 40, 24098, Kiel, Germany

    Torben Tiedemann, Tammo Francksen & Uwe Latacz-Lohmann

  2. School of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia

    Uwe Latacz-Lohmann

Authors
  1. Torben Tiedemann
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  2. Tammo Francksen
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  3. Uwe Latacz-Lohmann
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Correspondence to Torben Tiedemann.

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Tiedemann, T., Francksen, T. & Latacz-Lohmann, U. Assessing the performance of German Bundesliga football players: a non-parametric metafrontier approach. Cent Eur J Oper Res 19, 571–587 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10100-010-0146-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10100-010-0146-7

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