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Footballer data
at 13:54 21 Feb 2025

We all know Christian Nourry talks a good data game.

And we also know he likes to play his cards close to his chest and not give away any information he doesn't have to.

So what's the craic with footballer data?

I can't find a sensible answer online to how tall Sam Field is. Soccerbase says he's 5ft 10in, and ESPN has him five inches taller:

https://www.soccerbase.com/players/player.sd?player_id=91434

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/team/squad/_/id/334/eng.qpr

But I have seen football programmes where broadcasters are able to pull up heatmaps showing exactly which parts of the pitch a player covered during a game. Not to mention in-game xG metrics.

At the last World Cup FIFA were even publishing how far players ran during games. Not much in Lionel Messi's case, but who's cares when you win the bloody thing!?

I'm guessing it's the governing body who owns the data and decides which commercial partners it's sold to.

But where do you draw the line?

I'm guessing clubs have no control over match data.

But what about training and physical conditioning? I'm sure the sports analytics companies would want to know that sort of thing. But would Need-to-Know Nourry willingly share that information?

There are strong data protection laws governing medical data so I guess that is out of bounds. Which is probably why I can't get a sensible answer to how tall Sam Field is. And besides, how are you going to sell your duds to Harry Redknapp if the whole world knows he has no cartilage in his knees!?

So if any data pros can shed light on what data is collected and how it's shared I would be curious to know.

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