Who are we?

Network Science, also known as Complex Network Theory, is based on the analysis of the structure of networks to explain the processes occurring in them. This discipline is fostering the knowledge of countless networked systems, having applications that range from predicting trending topics on Twitter, to the spreading of epidemics or even to the early detection of neurodegenerative diseases through the analysis of brain networks. In the Complex Systems and Sports Analytics team of the King Juan Carlos University (Madrid, Spain) we go one step further and apply several of the Network Science methodologies to the analysis of football/soccer. “You can not describe the behavior of what a player does on the field by looking only at its individual numbers. It is necessary to include the information of the interaction, not only with its team mates, but also with its rivals”. This is the premise on which the Sciences of Complexity are based: it is not possible to analyze a complex system breaking it down into its individual parts: it must be analyzed as a whole. Paradoxically, the idea behind Complexity Sciences is being repeated, day after day, by all soccer players: “It is not me, it is the team.”