Prof. Link and Jinying Jiang Receive Award at International Congress

Mexico defeats South Africa in the opening match, the USA put in a convincing performance against Paraguay, and Germany also lives up to its status as one of the tournament favorites. Data-driven analysis and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are playing an increasingly important role in sporting success. The use of AI in professional sports is continuing to gain significance at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. A major scientific contribution to this field comes from Prof. Dr. Daniel Link and Jinying Jiang of the Chair of Experimental Exercise Science: their publication, “Availability is Associated with Success in Football,” has been honored with the Best AI Application Award 2026.

The award was presented during the 15th ISPAS World Congress of Performance Analysis of Sport in Split, Croatia. All submitted scientific papers were evaluated using a hybrid assessment process combining international peer review and AI-supported analysis, focusing on methodological quality, innovation, and scientific relevance.

Prof. Link emphasizes the importance of scientifically validated AI methods in elite sports: “AI-driven approaches have become indispensable in modern professional football. What matters, however, is that these methods provide a transparent and meaningful contribution to performance analysis.”

The award-winning study investigates the concept of “availability,” which describes the probability that a player in possession of the ball can successfully pass to a teammate. The approach considers all potential passing options and aggregates them into a single probability value.

“Using a dataset from 48 German Bundesliga matches, we were able to demonstrate that performance indicators derived from availability are positively associated with sporting success,” explains Jiang, an external doctoral researcher and first author of the study. According to the findings, teams whose players move quickly into open spaces after regaining possession are more likely to retain control of the ball and achieve territorial gains. “With the help of specialized software, such situations can be identified automatically, players’ off-the-ball movement can be analyzed, and practical implications for training and competition can be derived,” Jiang adds.

The ISPAS World Congress of Performance Analysis of Sport is an international platform for sports science, artificial intelligence, and applied innovation in both elite and health-oriented sports.

Visit the homepage of the Chair of Experimental Training Science
Visit the homepage of the ISPAS World Congress of Performance Analysis of Sport

See publications:

• Jiang, J, & Link, D (2026). Availabilty is asssociated with succes in football. Zenodo Electronic Journal. Advance online publication. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.20633636

• Dick, U., Link, D., & Brefeld, U. (2022). Who Can Receive The Pass?  - A Computational Model for Quantifying Availability in Soccer. Data mining and knowledge discovery, 36 (3), 987-1014. doi: 10.1007/s10618-022-00827-2

Contact

Prof. Dr. Daniel Link
Chair of Experimental Exercise Science
Am Olympiacampus 11
80809 München
Phone.: 089 289 24507
E-Mail: Daniel.Link(at)tum.de

Article: Bastian Daneyko
Photo: Private