SigningLab · Annual Report

Signing Accuracy — La Liga 2025/26

Published on January 12, 2026

Executive Summary

225
Real signings
203
Evaluated
43%
Clubs' average hit rate
35
Successful
88
Unsuccessful

In total we identified 225 real signings by the clubs of La Liga in the 2025/26 season — academy promotions, loan returns, internal moves and transfers that never went through are excluded. Of these, 203 are included in the hit-rate calculation; 22 are youth investments (under-23 with no game time), classified separately. Signings without relevant minutes in the season count as unsuccessful.

League Analysis

Champions Barcelona posted a hit rate of 100% on signings (2 evaluated), holding 2nd place in the accuracy ranking. The bottom four in the table had an average hit rate of 30% on signings — below the league average (43%), highlighting the link between recruitment quality and sporting performance.

Real Madrid leads the accuracy ranking with 100% and Rayo Vallecano closes the list with 8%. p. over the clubs' decisions).

Club Ranking

ClubLeague positionSigningsEvaluatedSuccessfulFairUnsuccessfulHit rate %SigningLab*
1Real Madrid44400
100%
100%
2Barcelona22200
100%
100%
3Atletico Madrid1110541
70%
90%
4Real Sociedad10º65221
60%
80%
5Villarreal1211353
50%
73%
6Athletic Club12º33111
50%
67%
7Sevilla15º88233
44%
75%
8Elche13º27244128
42%
83%
9Celta Vigo66132
42%
100%
10Valencia1311173
41%
73%
11Osasuna16º85122
40%
100%
12Real Betis109234
39%
67%
13Girona19º1312336
38%
83%
14Levante18º262421111
31%
92%
15Mallorca17º55032
30%
80%
16Espanyol11º1210055
25%
90%
17Oviedo20º26252716
22%
80%
18Getafe1613058
19%
92%
19Alaves14º1110037
15%
80%
20Rayo Vallecano66015
8%
67%

* SigningLab: hit rate of SigningLab’s verdicts (recommend or not recommend) on each club’s evaluated signings, projected at the time of signing.

The difference between Signings and Evaluated are youth investments (under-23 with no game time in the season), classified separately. Signings without relevant minutes are unsuccessful (Did not deliver).

Season Highlights

The ten signings with the greatest technical impact of the season, according to the Player Impact Score (PIS).

PlayerClubPosMinG+AAvg ratingRatingSigningLab
Joan GarciaBarcelonaG27000+06.89Excellent
Dean HuijsenReal MadridD20372+27.06Excellent
Ferran JutglàCelta VigoF16699+35.90Excellent
Dávid HanckoAtletico MadridD24340+25.81Excellent
Georges MikautadzeVillarrealF211713+66.55Excellent
Aarón EscandellOviedoG32400+16.89Excellent
Trent Alexander-ArnoldReal MadridD11690+45.70Good
Aleix FebasElcheM31662+27.16Excellent
Marcus RashfordBarcelonaM17618+76.06Excellent
Álvaro FernandezReal MadridD23402+35.77Excellent

Methodology

Club assessment — the universe of signings

The report considers exclusively genuine signings for the first-team squad, identified by the player's effective incorporation into the group between seasons. Excluded from the universe are: academy promotions, loan returns, internal administrative moves and transfers recorded but never completed. The aim is to measure the quality of market decisions — and those alone.

Player Impact Score (PIS)

Each evaluated signing receives a score from 0 to 100 that combines four observable technical dimensions: individual performance (average match ratings over the season), output (goals, assists and decisive actions adjusted for game time), collective performance (starting status and correlation with the club's results) and availability (volume of matches, adjusted for interruptions). High-impact players with reduced game time are promoted through an alternative efficiency criterion.

Outcome classification

The rating tiers are: Excellent and Good (successful signings — a full point in the index), Fair (intermediate performance — half a point) and Below expectations / Did not deliver (unsuccessful signings). Two categories sit outside the calculation, for distinct reasons: Injury (a serious injury prevented a fair assessment) and Investment (an under-23 player with low game time — the return depends on development and cannot be counted for or against the club in this cycle). Signings that did not reach relevant game time in the season are classified as unsuccessful, reflecting the sporting cost of the decision.

A note on scope

This is SigningLab's public, simplified model, developed for transparent retrospective market assessment. SigningLab's commercial solutions for partner clubs use a substantially larger set of variables and dedicated predictive mechanisms, and are not fully reflected in this document.

Appendix — Signings by club

* Youth investment (under-23, no game time in the season) — outside the hit-rate calculation.

Alaves (11 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Jonny Castro37299800Fair
Pablo Ibáñez Lumbreras37225311Below expectations
Lucas Boyé291959111Fair
Jon Pacheco Dozagarat33173400Below expectations
Denis Suárez32143212Fair
Calebe3776500Below expectations
Ibrahim Diabaté1458720Did not deliver
Mariano Díaz2729600Did not deliver
Ville Koski1228100Did not deliver
Carlos Ballestero *9900Investment
Raúl Fernández38000Did not deliver

Athletic Club (3 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Aymeric Laporte27206001Good
Jesus Areso37151301Below expectations
Robert Navarro35131161Fair

Atletico Madrid (11 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Dávid Hancko34243402Excellent
Matteo Ruggeri37177503Fair
Alejandro Baena30157223Good
Nicolás González24146050Good
Marc Pubill35138211Fair
Thiago Almada31131231Good
Johnny2389200Below expectations
Obed Vargas1673901Fair
Ademola Lookman1362240Good
Giacomo Raspadori1925101Fair
Mario de Luis *5000Investment

Barcelona (2 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Joan Garcia32270000Excellent
Marcus Rashford36176187Excellent

Celta Vigo (6 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Ionuț Radu38342000Fair
Ferran Jutglà35166993Excellent
Bryan Zaragoza21113511Fair
Manu Fernández3476500Did not deliver
Alvaro Núñez1333200Fair
Matías Vecino1014300Did not deliver

Elche (27 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Aleix Febas36316622Excellent
David Affengruber36295311Fair
Germán Valera36287445Fair
Marc Aguado35252212Fair
Álvaro Rodríguez37220075Good
Víctor Chust34216510Fair
Matías Dituro38198000Fair
André Silva331859100Good
Rafa Mir30181580Fair
Alvaro Núñez19165202Fair
Léo Pétrot37161500Below expectations
Iñaki Peña36144000Fair
Martim Neto35135325Fair
Adrià Pedrosa33107911Fair
Grady Diangana2692910Below expectations
Gonzalo Villar1671810Fair
Héctor Fort1750022Fair
Lucas Cepeda1740510Good
Yago Santiago1928900Did not deliver
Federico Redondo3521700Below expectations
Bambo Diaby1910700Did not deliver
Mourad El Ghezouani35000Did not deliver
Jairo Izquierdo González32500Did not deliver
Alejandro Iturbe *27000Investment
Piri *1000Investment
Bema Sina *1000Investment
Pejiño0000Did not deliver

Espanyol (12 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Marko Dmitrović38333000Fair
Tyrhys Dolan36243125Fair
Kike38174981Fair
Clemens Riedel34140201Below expectations
Ramón Terrats34106212Below expectations
Charles Pickel3171210Did not deliver
Cyril Ngonge1142602Fair
Jose Salinas3826800Did not deliver
Miguel Rubio3822610Fair
Alex Almansa *1000Investment
Pablo Ramon2000Did not deliver
Marcos Fernández *0000Investment

Getafe (16 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Mario Martín35213521Below expectations
Kiko Femenia29202011Fair
Martín Satriano18160461Fair
Abdelkabir Abqar23144002Fair
Zaid Romero15135010Fair
Luis Vázquez18120431Below expectations
Álex Sancris3371001Did not deliver
Javier Muñoz3456000Did not deliver
Sebastián Boselli1840600Fair
Abu Kamara2226400Did not deliver
Veljko Birmančević1614400Did not deliver
Yvan Neyou157300Did not deliver
José Luis Pérez *132000Investment
Hugo Solozábal *81000Investment
Marc Vilaplana *3000Investment
Jiří Letáček36000Did not deliver

Girona (13 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Vitor Reis36313811Good
Álex Moreno31256203Fair
Axel Witsel33253312Good
Vladyslav Vanat27196091Below expectations
Azzedine Ounahi24176652Good
Hugo Rincón38175811Below expectations
Thomas Lemar29127331Fair
Fran Beltran18102010Below expectations
Claudio Echeverri1861811Fair
Marc-André ter Stegen218000Did not deliver
Dawda Camara *27100Investment
Dominik Livaković16000Did not deliver
Rubén Blanco15000Did not deliver

Levante (26 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Mathew Ryan36324000Fair
Jeremy Toljan37317314Fair
Manuel Sánchez37281812Fair
Adrián de la Fuente34271031Excellent
Iván Romero35228771Fair
Matias Moreno33226600Fair
Carlos Álvarez31190831Fair
Pablo Martínez28186515Fair
Jon Ander Olasagasti35174815Fair
Kervin Arriaga31154433Good
Etta Eyong33144662Fair
Oriol Rey33132701Did not deliver
Víctor García29105621Fair
Roger Brugué20100711Did not deliver
Unai Elgezabal1695810Below expectations
Alan Matturro3095711Below expectations
Iker Losada3790931Below expectations
Unai Vencedor2581800Did not deliver
Ugo Raghouber1872100Below expectations
Diego Pampín3253500Did not deliver
José Luis Morales3538311Fair
Goduine Koyalipou1423910Did not deliver
Sergio Lozano31100Did not deliver
Dani Cervera *1000Investment
Joan Ruiz *1000Investment
Ignasi Miquel0000Did not deliver

Mallorca (5 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Mateo Joseph30171023Below expectations
Pablo Torre38163744Fair
Zito Luvumbo1451902Fair
Lucas Bergström2745000Fair
Marash Kumbulla1543800Below expectations

Osasuna (8 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Víctor Muñoz34266862Fair
Valentin Rosier32255411Fair
Javi Galán21167401Good
Raúl Moro1762902Below expectations
Sheraldo Becker1817100Did not deliver
Raúl Chasco *4000Investment
Martin Pedroarena *1000Investment
Ismael Sierra Arnal *0000Investment

Oviedo (26 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Aarón Escandell38324001Excellent
Alberto Reina37248741Below expectations
Federico Viñas33245191Good
Nacho Vidal31227700Below expectations
David Costas30207510Fair
Santiago Colombatto36206901Fair
Haissem Hassan38194303Fair
David Carmo32178710Fair
Abdel Rahim36172600Below expectations
Javi López32172601Below expectations
Kwasi Sibo36168900Did not deliver
Dani Calvo38161700Below expectations
Leander Dendoncker24133910Below expectations
Eric Bailly31123610Fair
Salomón Rondón17103720Below expectations
Nicolas Fonseca20101900Below expectations
Santi Cazorla3294001Fair
Thiago Fernández1782204Fair
Luka Ilić3075610Did not deliver
Josip Brekalo1748300Did not deliver
Álex Forés3338201Did not deliver
Oier Luengo1622501Did not deliver
Ovie Ejaria1319600Did not deliver
Thiago Borbas *1719100Investment
Horațiu Moldovan3818000Did not deliver
Brandon Domingues9000Did not deliver

Rayo Vallecano (6 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Nobel Mendy31181120Below expectations
Francisco Perez35125021Did not deliver
Alexandre Alemão31114940Below expectations
Iliàs Akhomach Chakkour1271201Fair
Luiz Felipe2149100Below expectations
Carlos Martín1946700Did not deliver

Real Betis (10 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Álvaro Valles38252000Good
Valentín Gómez37188110Fair
Sofyan Amrabat18129600Below expectations
Rodrigo Riquelme3683811Below expectations
Junior Firpo2683201Fair
Pau López3281000Below expectations
Nelson Deossa3173600Fair
Álvaro Fidalgo1654710Good
Darling Bladi *2000Investment
Daouda Traore0000Did not deliver

Real Madrid (4 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Álvaro Fernandez33234023Excellent
Dean Huijsen29203722Excellent
Trent Alexander-Arnold24116904Good
Franco Mastantuono33104910Good

Real Sociedad (6 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Carlos Soler34233243Good
Jon Gorrotxategi32221513Fair
Duje Ćaleta-Car36215210Fair
Gonçalo Guedes32183984Good
Yangel Herrera1653000Did not deliver
Wesley *169100Investment

Sevilla (8 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Odysseas Vlachodimos36297000Fair
Gabriel Suazo30209601Fair
Batista Mendy32162410Below expectations
Alexis Sánchez31130542Good
César Azpilicueta21121801Good
Neal Maupay1487021Fair
Alfonso Gonzales1132110Below expectations
Fábio Cardoso2829800Below expectations

Valencia (13 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Copete24176800Below expectations
Arnaut Danjuma37162732Fair
Julen Agirrezabala22162000Below expectations
Filip Ugrinić31151303Fair
Lucas Beltrán27136612Fair
Guido Rodríguez16130840Excellent
Largie Ramazani30125061Fair
Unai Núñez1592100Fair
Baptiste Santamaria3777511Fair
Renzo Saravia1035300Did not deliver
Raba3629101Fair
Pere García *1000Investment
Aaron Ramsey *1000Investment

Villarreal (12 signings)

PlayerMatchesMinutesGoalsAssistsRating
Alberto Moleiro382490105Good
Renato Veiga35248500Fair
Santiago Mouriño32238412Fair
Georges Mikautadze342117136Excellent
Rafa Marín36198010Fair
Thomas Partey2993000Fair
Tani Oluwaseyi3692222Fair
Arnau Tenas3690000Below expectations
Alexander Freeman1835600Good
Alfonso Gonzales1433410Below expectations
Manor Solomon1215311Did not deliver
Ismael Sierra Arnal *1000Investment