Football stats blog
27 posts · tables recomputed 11 – 13 Oct 2026
Every post here is built on a table computed from our own match dataset — the 70,000-plus of its 110,000 season stat lines, one per player, club and league season, covering the Premier League and the Scottish Premiership from 1992/93, and La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga from 2000/01, when their minutes and cards begin. The posts are the cuts of that data nobody usually publishes: minutes rather than appearances, bookings rather than goals, one-club careers, scoring rates rather than totals, and the rules behind every table are written down once.
Each one states the seasons it covers and what it leaves out, because these are records within a dataset rather than the complete history of football, and a table that hides the difference is not worth reading. Where a figure needs a caveat to be read honestly — a minutes floor, an age approximation, a league with a shorter season — it sits directly under the numbers.
If you want the boards the games themselves are built from, those live on the records pages. If you want to know how a game works, start with the game guides.
La Liga's one-club players since 2000
The players who spent their entire La Liga career at one club this century, and the one whose loyalty came with an English interval.
Serie A's best goals-per-90 records since 2000
Italy's reputation is for stopping goals. These are the forwards who kept scoring them at speed regardless.
How rare is a hundred league goals?
Not who leads the list, but how many names are on it at all, and why the four leagues differ so much.
Europe's most sent-off players since 2000
Twenty players, three leagues, and a list that one Spanish centre-back dominates.
The most common top-flight career lasts one game
In every one of these five leagues, the single most common career length is a solitary appearance.
Yo-yo clubs: the most separate spells in the top flight
Up, down, up again: the clubs that have spent the century being promoted and relegated, and what all that travelling has bought them.
The best debut seasons in a new league
No settling-in period, no adjustment year: the forwards who scored straight away.
499, 399, 199: the Premier League milestones that got away
Finished careers that stopped a single game or goal short of a round number, and what got in the way.
Scoring every season: the longest runs
Not how many, but how often: the players who found the net at least once, every single season, for longer than anyone else.
The Bundesliga's most-booked players since 2000
One midfielder well clear of the rest, in a league that shows fewer yellow cards than Spain or Italy.
Every Premier League club's appearance record holder
Fifty-one clubs, fifty-one record holders, and some of the most famous badges in England claimed by surprisingly modest totals.
More goals than games: the careers that beat one a match
The oldest yardstick in the game, and the single long career that actually clears it.
The most common number of goals in a top-flight career is zero
Nearly half of the people who play top-flight football never score in it, and the median career total is a single goal.
The best single-season assist records in Europe
Spain owns the single-season goals table. The assists table belongs mostly to England, and three players appear on it three times each.
The best single-season goal hauls in Europe's big four leagues
Half of the twenty best league seasons belong to two players in one league. The other half include three broken records and two 42-game seasons.
Goals per 90 in England and Spain: what changes when you remove two players
Cristiano Ronaldo scored 0.53 goals per 90 in England and 1.12 in Spain. The two tables explain most of the difference, and the rest is about age.
The most appearances in La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga since 2000
In Italy and Germany the longest careers belong to goalkeepers. In Spain they belong to a winger from Andalusia and a midfielder from Navarre.
Messi, Müller, Totti: the assist leaders of Spain, Germany and Italy
In Spain and Germany one player has nearly twice the assists of anyone else. In Italy the leader is a forward whose table misses eight of his seasons.
The players who scored in all four of Europe's big leagues
Thirteen players have scored in England, Spain, Italy and Germany. Hardly any of them are great goalscorers, and four are defenders.
The goalkeepers with the most Premier League appearances
David James played in goal for six Premier League clubs over eighteen seasons. Twelve of the twenty behind him came from outside England.
The best Premier League goalscorers after 30
Jamie Vardy was playing non-league football at 25. After 30 he outscored everyone in Premier League history.
The longest Premier League careers, by seasons and by minutes
James Milner has played in more Premier League seasons than anyone. On minutes he is only twelfth, and the reason says a lot about how long careers end.
The most booked players in the Premier League and Serie A
Gareth Barry was booked once every five games for twenty years. In Cagliari, Daniele Conti managed one every two and a half.
The Premier League's great journeymen
Marcus Bent played for eight Premier League clubs in 215 games. James Milner played for six in 658. The same number can describe very different careers.
Which countries have played the most Premier League football?
England is first by a distance, France and Ireland are close behind each other, and Norway has played more Premier League football than Germany or Italy.
The longest stays at one Premier League club
Twelve of these twenty never played for another Premier League club. Everton have more of them than Liverpool, Chelsea or Arsenal, and Arsenal have none.
Who has been sent off most in the Premier League?
A striker, a midfielder and a centre-back share the record on eight. The quickest to seven needed only six seasons.