Ranking players by DEA the case of English Premier League

Abstract

It is crucial for team managers and coaches to select best players. This is related to the costs and performance of the team. In this paper, a two-phase approach has been proposed to select and rank the best football players of the English Premier League. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) model has been utilised to identify the best players. Then, another type of DEA model has been used to rank the selected players. The proposed approach has been examined in the English Premier League 2010–2011. Findings imply that Rooney, Drogba and Tevez are ranked as first, second and third players, respectively.