Pricing Football Players using Neural Networks

Football (or soccer, if you’re in North America) is the most widespread team sport played in the world [1]. Apart from international football, the bulk of football matches take place at the level of domestic clubs. Most countries have an established football league where clubs representing different geographical regions compete against one another. There are no restrictions on the players who may represent a particular club. For example, the current starting lineup for Chelsea – a club based in London – has 2 players each from Brazil, Spain, France and Belgium, and 1 each from Nigeria, England and Serbia. One of the most intriguing aspects of football, and possibly the biggest headache of a football manager, is buying and selling players for appropriate prices. The price of a player is a function of his technical abilities such as ball control and tackling, but it also depends a lot on physical attributes such as speed and stamina due to the high energy levels required in the modern game. Factors such as the age of a player and reputation on the international stage also influence the price. Till date, there are no standardized means to price a football players and some star players such as Paul Pogba have recently switched clubs for prices in excess of $100 million [2]. The question which therefore arises is: what is the right price for a football player?