Keep pulling the thread on Joris Beckers, Mike Tracy.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is projected to generate over 90 petabytes of match-based data from its 104 matches.
The data volume from the 2026 FIFA World Cup is expected to be a 45-fold increase over the volume produced in the 2022 World Cup.
The massive increase in data generation for events like the FIFA World Cup is largely driven by the collection of "skeletal data," which captures up to 27 coordinate points for each player's body pose.
In Major League Soccer, a designated player like Lionel Messi, who earns over $20 million in salary, may only have a salary cap charge of around $750,000.
Joris Beckers builds open-source software designed to help smaller soccer clubs build advanced analytics models like graph neural nets and expected possession value models.
In 2016, Mike Tracy sourced on-ball soccer data for building models for AFC Bournemouth by hiring a developer from Ukraine via Upwork who had connections to professional bettors.
Michael Caley's regular posting of "expected goals" (xG) charts on Twitter for Premier League matches was instrumental in popularizing the metric and stimulating discussion around its validity.
Chelsea player Nicolas Jackson scored three goals in a single match against Tottenham after Tottenham was reduced to nine men.
The three goals Nicolas Jackson scored in one match against Tottenham represented approximately 20% of his total goals for that entire season.
In-game tactical adjustments based on data analytics in soccer typically occur at halftime or during hydration breaks in events like the World Cup.
Jude Bellingham is capable of playing four or five different positions at the highest level, including any position on the pitch except for goalkeeper.
Analytics in Major League Soccer (MLS) requires a "portfolio management" approach due to its complex salary cap and roster rules, distinguishing it from European leagues that focus on recruitment and first-team analysis.