Ranking Players by DEA: An analysis of Czech and Danish football

Abstract

Team managers and coaches need to choose the best players. The selection relies mainly on the cost and performance of the entire team. It is a common practice that several key players contribute to the overall results of the football team. The quality of players is one of the crucial features determining the failure or success of a sports team. The present article focuses on measuring player efficiency in the Czech and Danish top football competitions during the 2015/16 to 2019/20 seasons. The presented research aims to identify the most technically efficient players, considering their position on the field. The authors used an input-oriented model of data envelopment analysis and subsequently also cluster analysis to determine the best football players. The following article may be of interest to football club managers, football analysts, economists and others interested in the business of football because it combines two methods of measuring the efficiency of football players.