A Team’s human capital and its sporting success. An analysis of the first and second German soccer league

This article analyses whether professional soccer clubs are more successful in sporting terms the greater the human capital of their players. Using the Transfer-markt.de values as a proxy for human capital and the final table positions, as well as the points scored, as a proxy for sporting success, we show for the German 1st and 2nd Bundesliga with the help of a random-intersect model that those clubs achieve greater sporting success that have a higher human capital value. In addition, an analysis of the human capital allocated to the player positions based on the LASSO method shows that investment in human capital in the goal and mid-field positions in the 1st Bundesliga and in defence in the 2nd Bundesliga has the strongest impact on sporting success. Thus, this study makes an important contribution to identifying the success factors of professional soccer clubs.