About Fixter

This study set out to analyse the relationship between footballers and their cars, focusing on the 2020/21 season of the English Premier League (EPL). The following data points were collected for the players in the study, based on annual salary and position in the team:

• Player
• Citizenship
• Position
• Team
• National Team (if applicable, based on current teams)
• Age
• Car and Model
• Price
• Playing Time to Afford Car (Hours : Minutes : Seconds)
• Number of Games to Afford Car

The final ranking is based on the most expensive car model, ranked from highest to lowest.

Playing Time to Afford Car is based on the assumption that the players play all the games of the season, which is 38 games at 90 minutes, assuming no extra time:

Playing Time to Afford Car = (Car Price)/(Annual Salary/3420)

Number of Games to Afford Car = Playing Time to Afford Car/Game Time (90 minutes)

Player Selection & Data Collection:

• The study focuses on the 2020/21 season of the English Premier League, and includes players from the following clubs: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Brighton and Hove Albion, Burnley, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Everton, Fulham, Leeds United, Leicester City, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Sheffield United, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, West Bromwich Albion, West Ham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers.
• The top players from these 20 clubs were selected based on their annual salary and position in the team:
  • 1 goalkeeper (GK)
  • 3 forward players (F)
  • 3 midfielders (M)
  • 3 defenders (D)
  • + any prominent start player of the season within the current team
• Only players with available annual salary data and those participating in the 2020/21 season were included in the final list.
• Players' annual salary data was collected from Spotrac and Salary Sport

Sources: Premier League website, Transfermarkt, Spotrac, Capology, Salary Sport

Player’s annual salary data was collected from Spotrac. For players without up-to-date salary data in Sportrac, estimates were taken from alternative sports sites fmdataba and sofifa.

Car Collection:

Data was compiled for all personal-use cars used throughout each player’s career (defined as “cars they drive to the training grounds”). This information was collected via image and media footage available of the player’s cars. Due to this methodology, if there is no photo, video or written evidence of a player owning a specific car available online, then it will not have been included in this index. Rented cars and club sponsorship cars have not been included, where identifiable. Each player’s most expensive car model has been utilised for the final table of results. If you wish to inquire into the entire fleet of each player, or inquire about a specific source, please contact us for this information.

Image Collection & Identification:

The data was sourced by analysing each player’s public profiles on social media, news sites, fan clubs, Google images and Youtube videos. Google image search, in particular, reverse image recognition, was utilised to identify the closest resembling make and model of each car as well as published articles, help from crowdsourced groups of car fans, and other online sources referencing to footballers lifestyle.

Sources: Transfermarkt, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, media outlets, various search engines (including Google, Yandex, Duckduckgo.)

Car Prices, Models & Categories

The price and model of each car were determined depending on the information available. If the exact car make and model was easily identifiable, then the price for this exact car was sourced. If only the make or incomplete model was known, then the cost correlates to the starting price of the newest similar base model or model of the same class, with no custom-made elements or additions taken into account. All prices are in GBP from local car dealerships or manufacturers in the UK.

Sources: H.R. Owen, Audi, Autoebid, Whatcar, Express, Dapcars, BMW, Autotrader, Drivek, Autoexpress, Autopromag, The Parking Cars, Classic Trader, Jaguar, Jeep, Maserati, Mercedes Benz, Car Wow, EV Database, Sytner, Evo, Orange Wheels, Land Rover, Driving.co.uk, Top Speed.

Note: Exceptions were made for players whose car models had to be estimated because of lack of visual elements or information on the model. Please find below which car model estimates were utilised for this reason:

• All unidentified Mercedes Coupe (Compact Class) were estimated to be Mercedes C Class.
• All unidentified Mercedes Full-Size Luxury Class were estimated to be Mercedes GLS.
• All unidentified Audi were estimated to be Audi A7.
• All unidentified Range Rovers were estimated to be a Range Rover.

List of players who required the estimated car models above:

• Mathew Ryan
• Anthony Martial
• Victor Lindelof
• Andriy Yarmolenko
• Yerry Mina
• Richarlison de Andrade
• Yoshinori Muto
• Martin Dubravka
• Dwight Gayle

All car models were grouped according to Wikipedia’s car classification and narrowed down to 5 main categories:

• Compact Cars: (Compact Cars, Compact Crossovers, Compact Executive Cars (D), Minicompact, Sport Compact, Subcompact Car B-segment, Subcompact Executive Car)
• Grand Tourer (Grand Tourer, Sports Grand Tourer)
• Large Compact (all executive cars that are not compact)
• Sports Car (all sports cars)
• SUV (all Full-Size Luxury, Full-Size Luxury SUV, Compact Crossover SUV, Mid-size Crossover SUV, Compact Luxury Crossover SUV, Classic Car Collection, Compact Luxury Crossover SUV, Pick Up/SUV, Subcompact Luxury Crossover SUV And SUV Class)
• Van (all light commercial vehicles such as Mercedes V Class)
• Exceptions were made for the Mercedes Benz G63 AMG/ G Wagen - for the purpose of this study this model is assigned to SUV class.

Note: Due to multiple players owning the same car, where players would have an equal ‘rank’ based on car Price, the Playing Time to Afford Car has been taken into consideration.