Who hasn’t wondered who is actually the most beautiful player in the Bundesliga? Right, everyone!
That’s why we’ve made it our mission to provide a scientifically sound answer to the question: Who is the most beautiful Bundesliga player? And which team has the most attractive athletes on average?
We had an AI analyze all 542 players to determine who is the most beautiful based on the “golden ratio”, also known as the “golden ratio”. This refers to a mathematical principle that is also used in art and architecture to describe aesthetics – in this case, the ratio of different facial features to one another.
Best Bundesliga players: No chance against Leipzig
The analysis looks at facial proportions and the closer they are to the golden ratio, the more beautiful a face is perceived to be. This golden ratio can have a value of 1 and 10, with 10 being the maximum value.
Six players were selected in the analysis as the most beautiful Bundesliga players. They all have a value above 8.00, with a clear number one.
This is Leipzig’s Yussuf Poulsen, who has a score of 8.62 and thus leads the ranking. His lead over Hoffenheim’s Mergim Berisha in 2nd place with 8.50 is already quite large.
But the gap behind him is even greater. Dortmund’s youngster Jamie Bynoe-Gittens (8.29) is in third place, ahead of another bull in Peter Gulasci (8.22). The top 5 is completed by Bayern’s newcomer Michael Olise, with a score of 8.15.
Ramon Hendriks (8.11) is the last player with a score above eight. Kingsley Coman and Rasmus Kristensen just miss the threshold with 7.95, as does Ilaix Moriba (7.91).
The average of all players is around 6.82 and more than half of the 277 players are below this value. At the bottom of the ranking are a number of players with a score of just over 5.00.
Bochum’s Erhan Masovic is in last place. The AI found his face to be less than symmetrical, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder anyway
The teams with the most beautiful Bundesliga players
You attentive readers will already have noticed that a relatively large number of RB Leipzig players are at the top of the beauty rankings.
It should therefore come as no surprise to you who is in first place among all teams: Leipzig. They have the most beautiful players in the Bundesliga on average, with a Golden Ratio score of 7.25.
It’s almost as if they put their team together based on this. Because the lead over Borussia Dortmund, who have a score of 7.03, is already quite solid. Their lead over Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt (both 7.02) is therefore minimal.
The other teams have values below 7.00 and are very close together, as sixth place (Leverkusen) to 13th place (Augsburg) are in the 6.86 to 6.80 range.
FC Heidenheim are clearly at the bottom of the table with a golden average of 6.53. As long as they don’t occupy this position in the actual table at the end of the season, they won’t really care.
Methodology
This project aims to evaluate Bundesliga players based on their facial aesthetics, using the golden ratio as a measure of attractiveness. By analyzing official images from the Bundesliga website and Transfermarkt, we create a ranking based on facial attractiveness.
Our data collection process involved sourcing 911 images from official Bundesliga websites and Transfermarkt, focusing specifically on players. This allowed us to ensure that we obtained high quality and relevant images for analysis.
To maintain the quality and relevance of the analysis, the collected images were subjected to a filtering process. Images with low resolution or without clearly visible faces were removed. This cleaning process was performed using machine learning models designed to obtain only suitable images for aesthetic analysis.
The core of our project lies in the application of machine learning techniques to evaluate the facial aesthetics of players and managers. Using OpenCV and MTCNN for image processing, each face was analyzed based on the golden ratio, a classical measure of beauty. The analysis included:
- measuring the length and width of the face, aiming for an ideal ratio of approximately 1.6, which indicates a balanced proportion of the face.
- Dividing the face into three segments (from forehead hairline to eye distance, from eye distance to bridge of nose and from bridge of nose to chin) and assessing their symmetry to further determine the attractiveness of the face.
- These measurements were supported by an advanced OpenCV neural network model tailored for face recognition, demonstrating the application of various techniques in facial analysis.
After the machine learning analysis, we calculated the average golden ratio for Bundesliga players and managers. Using this metric, we were able to rank them according to their perceived facial attractiveness, providing a unique perspective on aesthetics in professional soccer.
