The last CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post for 2023 ranks the clubs in 53 leagues around the world according to the average size of the line-ups fielded in the current or last completed season.

Almost 13 centimetres separate the ‘tallest’ and ‘shortest’ teams: Hungary’s Kecskeméti TE (187.13cm) and Japan’s Sagan Tosu (174.18cm).

While Japanese clubs monopolise the bottom three places (Sagan Tosu, Albirex Niigata and Yokohama FC), three German clubs are in the top four positions: TSG Hoffenheim, FC Schalke 04 and FC Heidenheim. Rayo Vallecano is the only European big-5 league team with an average height on the pitch shorter than 180cm (178.61cm).

The world average is 181.46cm, with higher values in the UEFA association leagues (182.65cm) than in the other continents (179.54cm).

All 55 teams where players over 185cm played a majority of minutes are from the Old Continent.

More demographic data for 31 European top divisions are available in this Atlas.

>>> Data per club

About the CIES Football Observatory

The CIES Football Observatory is a research group created in 2005 within the Swiss-based Centre International d’Étude du Sport (CIES). It specialises in the statistical analysis of football, in particular in the areas of demographics, transfer values and performance.

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About the CIES

The International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) is an independent study centre located in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. It was created in 1995 as a joint venture between the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the University of Neuchâtel, the City and State of Neuchatel.

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