Data analysis pipeline

Finding the best of the best in soccer

Data analysis pipeline

Finding the best of the best in soccer

Data analysis pipeline

Finding the best of the best in soccer

The Challenge

There are a lot of world-class soccer players in the world and for the purpose of our group project, we have selected six famous players around the world namely Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zinédine Zidane, Neymar JR, Ronaldinho Gaucho, and Sunil Chhetri. The main goal of our project is to see among these six famous world-class players, who have had the most successful career in club soccer and who is considered the greatest player among them?

Initially, we wanted to just look at Messi and Ronaldo, some of our favourite players and the biggest ambassadors of soccer, however, we decided to look into different players to make our dataset more complex and to determine the greatness of a soccer player by looking at different aspects of the game. To find that out, we added more players from different parts of the world, meaning we could compare each one's individual statistics to see who has the most successful soccer career and why.

The Solution

We obtained comprehensive data from FBREF.com, a football/soccer analytics website, to answer our questions. We selected necessary information from various datasets, combined them and organized the data per player to compare them. Our dataset included players from different teams, nationalities, and eras, to ensure we accurately represent the individuality of the sport and its players. We compared players in visualizations and statistically to determine the greatest player among the six players. Using more than one dataset allowed us to investigate and look into different stats, giving us a wider picture to achieve our goal.

The cleaning process involved combining the player data sets and removing categories deemed unnecessary. The process was thorough, and the resulting dataset allowed for seamless player comparisons using visualizations. The decision not to include expected player stats and to average certain player stats enabled the generalization of player careers. The inclusion of an understandable dataset legend and color-coding facilitated easier interpretation and a more visually refined dataset.

The Result

Our analysis of the data and visualizations led us to conclude that Lionel Messi is the greatest player among the six chosen players. While Cristiano Ronaldo had an impressive career in terms of longevity and being the best penalty kick taker, Messi had the highest goal-scoring ratio and was the best outfield player with the most goal contributions in open play. Messi also had the fewest yellow and red cards, making him the fairest player. Our analysis provides insights into the performance of these players and helps answer our primary research question.