CIES/EFC: players' careers negatively impacted if they are transferred abroad before the age of 18

"Players who remain with their training clubs within their home country until the age of 18 are statistically more likely to achieve higher levels of senior playing experience compared with players who make early years international transfers," according to "The Impact of Early Transfers in European Football" study, published jointly by European Football Clubs and the CIES Football Observatory on 25/11/2025.

The study looks at the influence of young players' transfers on their long-term careers, using the concept of "experience capital" which "combines the amount of senior football a player accumulates and the level at which those minutes were played."

Other findings highlighted by CIES and EFC include:
• "Cultural distance compounds the risk: young players who moved from Eastern to Western Europe accumulate 25% less experience capital, showing the challenge of adapting to major cultural and footballing shifts.
• Making several early years transfers can be particularly impactful: players who represented seven or more clubs between ages 15 and 23 accumulated less than half the senior…