Football Market Strategies: Think Locally, Trade Globally

Every year football clubs trade players in order to build competitive rosters able to compete for success, increase the number of their supporters and amplify sponsors and media attention. In the complex system described by the football transfer market can we identify the strategies pursued by successful teams? Where do they search for new talents? Does it pay to constantly change the club roster? In this work we identify archetypal market strategies over 25 years of transfer market as depicted by UEFA professional clubs and study their impact on sportive success. Our analysis underline how, regardless from clubs' available budgets, transfer market strategies deeply impact - on the long run - football sportive performances.