The International Basketball Federation and the International Centre for Sports Studies published this year’s International Basketball Migration Report, highlighting a continued trend of growth for the popularity of the game.
“In the 14th edition that we publish Wednesday, we observe that FIBA’s digital platform managed no less than 13,500 transfers in just 12 months, a new record. We are very satisfied to see more players, and especially more women, finding professional basketball opportunities both at home and abroad,” said FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis last week.
The annual report reviewed the global governing body’s data on international transfers with the CIES’s established analytics to detail player movement trends as well as other global basketball tendencies for the period 2024-25. Basketball continued its global growth, and more records were broken, as shown in the IBMR 2025.
The number of international transfers (13,555) rose once again, with both the totals of men’s transfers (10,361) and women’s transfers (3,194) getting new benchmarks. The number of international transfers, up from 13,149 for 2023-24, has increased 120 percent since the 2010-11 season, which was the first season reviewed by the IBMR.
The top three exporters remained the same, with the USA once again the largest exporter of players by a large margin, with a total of 1,994 players. Spain remained in second place with 628, while France was third again with 619 players.
Non-US players made up 26 percent of the NBA and 15 percent of the WNBA rosters. Leagues in Spain, Germany, and Australia also registered the highest number of foreign players.
Meanwhile, Africa nearly quadrupled its number of transfers between 2021 (124) to 2025 (485); however, it maintains a neutral balance in terms of exports/imports. Asia experienced an even larger surge, with transfers jumping from 92 to 456 over the same four-year stretch, 2021–2025.
Argentina has the most U21 players, followed by the BNXT League in Belgium and the Netherlands, and Brazil. U21 players receive the most playing time in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).
More men’s and women’s players headed to the United States to play in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I basketball. A record total of 888 men’s international players competed in the college game, up 7.5 percent from the previous season, while women’s college basketball had a record 951 international players, up 14.9 percent from 2023-24. FIBA established an expert group during the 2024-25 season to monitor this player movement and support young players, families, National Federations, clubs, and agents in making informed collegiate decisions, while continuing to provide guidance on eligibility, contracts, and professional pathways as outlined in a newly published document.
“Certain trends, especially in Africa and Asia/Oceania, are directly attributable to FIBA’s recent efforts to shape international club competitions into a coherent pyramidal framework. We are also pleased with the growth of the domestic leagues in Europe and Latin America, while we maintain our focus on the flows of young players to the NCAA. FIBA will continue to invest resources in boosting the growth of the sport across the globe, and understanding player movement is a major part of achieving that,” Zagklis concluded.
—Insidethegames
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