Soccer players are looking for money, titles and, of course, not being sad. The first was easy to assess (they offer me more, I’ll be there), but the second and third not so much. At least not until Big Data arrived, which is capable of (trying) to answer these questions.
Kevin De Bruyne He is one of those great stars of world football. The 29-year-old Belgian player just announced that he renews for Manchester City for another four years. To make the decision hired some data analysts, who were in charge of assessing their role in the team and the options that City has to win titles.
I stay for Pep (but also because we still win titles with my help)
De Bruyne, who has been in the ranks of Manchester City since 2015, will probably end up becoming captain of the team this summer, when the contract of the current captain, the Brazilian Fernandinho ends, but the ambition of the player was clear when making the decision to renew.
In your comments to the Debruyne announcement especially mentions Pep Guardiola, the club’s coach, who he says sees football like him. That probably weighed heavily on the decision – Guardiola is expected to hold on for those four years that De Bruyne has renewed – but it certainly wasn’t the only factor. Neither has money.
They tell it in The Athletic (under subscription), where they reveal that hired some data analytics experts to assess the health of the team and if the squad is prepared to be successful in the future.
In that data analysis factors such as the age and skills of each player were taken into account, and according to The Athletic the conclusions seemed to be another of the elements that convinced De Bruyne that renewing the contract was worth it: his role at Manchester City seems assured, and according to data analysts, the titles will arrive.
We’ll see if they were right.
Vía | The Athletic
