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Player grades
How players are graded from S to E
A sorlineup grade sums up a player's last 10 matches in one letter, from S to E. It counts how much he plays as well as how well he scores, and that is what it adds to the L10. Among players with an L10 between 50 and 60, those with the higher grade played more often in the matches that followed.
A grade looks back. Players graded A had an L10 of 67 on the day of the grade and averaged 55 over their next five matches. On average, scores fall after a high grade.
How is the grade built?
A player gets six marks from 0 to 100. Each mark comes from a fixed scale: the same value gives the same mark, in any position and any league. The grade is the average of the marks, and some weigh more than others.
- Rating, weight 3: his average score over his last 10 matches.
- Game time, weight 2: the share of the minutes he played across those 10 matches.
- Decisive, weight 1.5: his decisive points per match.
- Consistency, weight 1: the share of his matches at 60 or more.
- Form, weight 1: his average over his last 5 matches.
- Resilience, weight 0.5: his average when his team does not win.
Resilience needs at least three matches his team did not win: without them, the grade is the average of the five other marks. When the grades were measured, that was the case for Kylian Mbappé and about 1 player in 9.
The result is a number out of 100, turned into a letter.
More than half of active players were graded E, and 10 were graded S
Share of active players at each grade, with the number out of 100 each grade starts from.
Why is an S so rare?
Because an S starts at 95 out of 100, and the scale is fixed. At 95, there is room for one weaker mark if the other marks are at the top. Players are not ranked against each other, so no letter has a quota. Ten players were S, fewer than 1 in 1,000. Four played in the Chinese Super League, none in the five big European leagues. Mbappé was an A, at 91.9.
Lionel Messi had 100 on five marks and 78 on Game time, with 85% of the minutes. His result was 95.1, an S.
What does the grade add to the L10?
It was a better guide to how often a player played in the matches that followed. When he did play, the L10 was a slightly better guide to his score.
Take players with an L10 between 50 and 60. When they played, the scores of those graded B and those graded D were about 1 point apart. But those graded B played in 86% of their club's next five matches, those graded D in 72%.
For two players with an L10 between 50 and 60, read the grade for game time, not for the score.
Method and limits
Grades cover 11,582 active players in all leagues on 23 September 2026: a player counts as active when his club is in a league, he has played at least 5 matches in his window, and his last match is on or after 1 July 2026. The comparison with the L10 uses 23,160 grades rebuilt at five dates in 2026 from the matches played before each date. The group with an L10 between 50 and 60 holds 703 B grades and 1,601 D grades, and the figures on scores keep only the players who played five matches in the next 60 days. The marks count national team matches. The scale does not adjust for the league or the position, and the comparison covers five dates in one year.