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

This article presents a novel model for evaluating the performance of field players in football. Based upon Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), we employ a nonconcave 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.