Measuring the technical efficiency of football legends: who were Real Madrid's all-time most efficient players?

Many football players contribute to aggregate results throughout a football club's history. However, no scientific research has pinpointed the most technically efficient players in a football club's history considering their position on the field. The aim of this paper is to propose an output‐oriented nonincreasing returns to scale super‐efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA) model in order to measure football players’ performance. The model is applied empirically to Real Madrid's best players (white legends) from the signing of Luis Molowny to Raúl González's departure. Results are also calculated and compared with the standard DEA in order to form the most efficient and super‐efficient historical squad of Real Madrid footballers.