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FBref alternatives (2026)
On 20 January 2026 Sports Reference announced that FBref had lost access to its advanced data provider. FBref removed advanced stats such as xG and now has basic and historical data only. Below are 17 sources where we verified xG, player stats or event data on the source's own site, ranked with free xG first.
Leer en español · What FBref still has
Best free xG replacement, league by league
Free xG by website
- FotMob: Live scores and stats app/website covering 500+ leagues, with Opta-style league stat leaderboards including expected goals for many competitions. (Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Championship +18 more)
- FootyStats: Stats tables for 1,500+ leagues (goals, corners, cards, xG tables), with a free tier and a Premium subscription. Strong orientation toward betting-style stats. (Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, MLS +4 more)
- xG Lab: Football analytics site with win-probability replays, xG timelines, shot maps and openly explained match predictions. (Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Champions League +2 more)
- xG Stat: Player xG-per-90 rankings, percentiles, match reports and shot maps for the Premier League and five other leagues. (Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Championship)
- Understat: Free expected-goals (xG) site for teams and players in six European leagues, with a built-in export of tables as CSV, JSON or XLSX. (Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1)
- American Soccer Analysis: Volunteer analytics group publishing free xG, xPass and Goals Added (g+) models and interactive tables for North American leagues, plus a public API. (MLS, USL Championship, NWSL)
xG and events you can download or query
- StatsBomb Open Data: Free event data (JSON) for selected competitions, including many women's competitions, released by Hudl StatsBomb. (Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Champions League +12 more)
All FBref alternatives compared
| Source | Free? | Format | Replaces | Leagues covered | Notes | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FotMob | Free | Website | xG, Player stats | Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 +19 more | Checked FotMob's own league data for each competition: xG leaderboards present or absent as listed. Terms forbid automated scraping. | 2026-10-19 |
| StatsBomb Open Data | Free | Dataset | xG, Events | Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 +13 more | Selected, mostly past seasons only. 360 freeze-frame data for some matches. Credit StatsBomb when you publish. | 2026-10-19 |
| FootyStats | Free · Freemium overall | Website | xG | Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 +5 more | — | 2026-10-19 |
| xG Lab | Free | Website | xG, Player stats | Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 +3 more | — | 2026-10-19 |
| xG Stat | Free · Freemium overall | Website | xG, Player stats | Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 +1 more | Blocked automated checks on 2026-10-19 (Vercel checkpoint); based on the 2026-10-18 check. xA, xT and exports are Premier League only. | 2026-10-18 (partial) |
| Understat | Free | Website | xG, Player stats | Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 | Also covers the Russian Premier League. Tables export to CSV/JSON/XLSX. | 2026-10-19 |
| American Soccer Analysis | Free | Website | xG, Player stats | MLS, USL Championship, NWSL | Also USL League One, USL Super League and MLS Next Pro. Free public API, no key. | 2026-10-19 |
| Sportmonks Football API | Paid · Freemium overall | API | Player stats (paid) | Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 +16 more | Paid plans from €29/month (pick 5 leagues). xG is a paid add-on and the page does not list which leagues it covers. Liga MX Femenil is #1579 in the coverage table. | 2026-10-19 |
| ScoutingStats.AI | Free · Freemium overall | AI tool | Player stats | Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 +6 more | — | 2026-10-19 |
| Opta Analyst | Free | Website | Player stats | Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 +4 more | — | 2026-10-19 |
| DataMB | Free · Freemium overall | Website | Player stats | Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 +2 more | — | 2026-10-19 |
| FootyStats API | Free · Freemium overall | API | Player stats | Premier League, Liga MX, NWSL, WSL, Liga MX Femenil | — | 2026-10-19 |
| Scout Lab (Streamlit app) | Free | Website | Player stats | Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 | Based on the listing's 2026-10-18 check; the app now redirects automated requests. | 2026-10-18 (partial) |
| WhoScored | Free | Website | Player stats | Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 | Blocked automated checks on 2026-10-19; based on the 2026-10-18 homepage check. | 2026-10-18 (partial) |
| Dribble | Paid | API | Events (paid) | Premier League | xG and stats for 23 leagues; the league list was not readable. | 2026-10-19 |
| LIGA Femenil (official site) | Free | Website | Player stats | Liga MX Femenil | Official stats tables (goleo, minutos, tarjetas). No xG. | 2026-10-19 |
| LIGA MX (official site) | Free | Website | Player stats | Liga MX | Official stats tables (goleo, minutos, tarjetas). No xG. | 2026-10-19 |
If you scraped FBref
These libraries and tools read FBref, so they now get basic data only from it. Most also read other sites:
- Football Data MCP: MCP server that lets AI assistants (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Gemini) query player stats, xG, comparisons and shot maps for 10 leagues; hosted or self-hosted.
- LanusStats: Spanish-language Python scraping library for FBref, FotMob, SofaScore, 365Scores and Transfermarkt.
- ScraperFC: Python package for scraping soccer data from Capology, ClubElo, FBref, Sofascore, Transfermarkt and Understat.
- soccerdata: Python scrapers for Club Elo, ESPN, FBref, Football-Data.co.uk, Sofascore, SoFIFA, Understat and WhoScored returning pandas DataFrames.
- worldfootballR: R package for extracting football data from FBref, Transfermarkt and Understat.
FAQ
What happened to FBref xG?
On 20 January 2026 Sports Reference announced that its advanced data provider had ended FBref's access. FBref removed advanced Opta stats such as xG, xA and progressive actions, and kept basic and historical stats.
What is the best free FBref alternative for xG?
For the big five European leagues, Understat and FotMob both publish free xG; FotMob covers more competitions (including MLS, Liga MX, NWSL and the WSL). For MLS, NWSL and USL, American Soccer Analysis has free xG and a free API. For event-level data you can download, StatsBomb Open Data is free but only covers selected seasons.
Is there an FBref alternative with an API?
Yes, but the APIs with xG are paid: Sportmonks Football API and Dribble. American Soccer Analysis is the free exception, for North American leagues only.
Do FBref scrapers like soccerdata or worldfootballR still work?
They can still read whatever FBref publishes, which is now basic and historical data only, so they no longer return FBref xG. worldfootballR is archived. Several of these libraries also read Understat or other sites, which do have xG.
Which leagues have no free xG after FBref?
Of the leagues in the table above: Liga MX Femenil.
Coverage checked 2026-10-19. Source for the FBref change: Sports Reference blog, 20 Jan 2026.