Communications of the ACM
Are the World's Highest Paid Football Players Overpaid? Big Data Says Yes
Lawrence Technological University researchers analyzed the salaries of 6,082 professional European football players using machine learning and data science.
Credit: Getty Images Europe
Researchers at Lawrence Technological University have used machine learning and data science to analyze the salaries of 6,082 professional European football (soccer) players.
They compared each player's salary for the most recent season to 55 attributes reflecting their skillset. The attributes included measurements related to performance, behavior, and abilities. The combined salaries and attributes formed a model that enabled computation of each player's pay based on their skills, in comparison to the skills of all other players in the same field position.
The model indicated although Lionel Messi should the world's highest-paid player, he is vastly overpaid.
In addition, the model determined some players earn far less than their skillset would warrant, while underpaid players are better skilled than their overpaid peers in terms of agility, acceleration, speed, balance, and their ability to track the other players' positions.
Across all leagues, the model strongly correlated skills with salaries, with better skills typically leading to higher compensation.
From Lawrence Technological University
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2017 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
No entries found