Wednesday, June 20, 2018

The Geography of the World Cup


The most expensive football team at this World Cup is France. The combined transfer market value of all the players in the French team is £972.45 million. Spain, who are many people's favorite to win the World Cup, have the second most expensive team, with a combined transfer market value of £930.60 million. Brasil have the third most expensive team.

You can discover the combined transfer market of every country's team on the FIFA 2018 National Squads interactive map. Teams in the 2018 World Cup are represented by red markers on the map. The country's with blue markers did not qualify for the 2018 Cup. Of these teams Italy stands out. The Italian team has a total transfer market value £598 million, making it the 8th most expensive team in the world. However all those expensive players were unable to help Italy qualify for this year's competition.

Where all those expensive players play their football is another matter. The English Premier League has the most players playing in the 2018 World Cup. 123 players in this World Cup play in the EPL. 81 players in the World Cup play in Spain. 67 play in Germany and 58 play in Italy.

You can find out more about where this year's World Cup players ply their trade on WC Rosters, a tableau visualization of where World Cup players play their club football. Only the England football team in this year's World Cup have all their players playing in their domestic league. Russia comes second in this regard with 21 of the 23 Russian squad playing in the Russian league (Russian league teams must play five Russians, this means Russian players demand high wages in the Russian league and have little financial incentive for playing abroad).

Manchester City in the English Premier League are the club with the most players in the 2018 World Cup. 16 players in this year's competition are owned by Manchester City. Real Madrid have 15 players and Barcelona have 14 players in the World Cup.

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