Official talent providers. They are the ones the Football Observatory of the International Center for Sports Studies (CIES) decided to highlight this Monday in its 394th weekly letter. In this new study, he thus established “the rankings of the teams having trained the most active footballers in 31 top divisions of UEFA member associations, as well as, respectively, in the big-5 league”. However, it is specified that “training clubs are those where players have played for at least three years between the seasons of their 15th and 21st birthdays” and “the 31 leagues covered correspond to those available in the Demographic Atlas”.
Regarding this ranking, which therefore took into account the 31 championships, Ajax Amsterdam comes first with 85 players trained at the club, including 8 in its ranks this season. The Dutch are ahead of Benfica (73 players) and Dynamo kyiv (72 players), who have 17 players from training in their first team this year (only Krasnodar is doing better with 18 players trained without their own team this season). Then come Dinamo Zagreb (69 players), Shakhtar Donetsk (64 players), SK Partizan (63 players), Real Madrid (60 players), Red Star Belgrade (60 players), FC Barcelona (59 players) and Sporting CP (58 players).
OL and PSG in the top 5 of the big-5
Paris Saint-Germain (56 trained players, 11th) and Olympique Lyonnais (50 players, 12th) fail at the foot of the top 10. But the two French teams are much better positioned in the ranking concerning only players playing in a club big-5 leagues in Europe (Germany, England, Spain, France and Italy). Thus, Real Madrid is in the lead with 43 players trained at Casa Blanca, 5 of whom are playing in Carlo Ancelotti’s group this season. Then comes FC Barcelona with 38 players, 8 of whom are pure products of La Masia. On the third step of the podium, we find OL with 34 players from the academy, 12 of whom are still at the club.
It is certainly for this reason that Les Gones are ahead of PSG, fourth with also 34 players trained at the club who play in one of the five major European leagues (3 at the club). However, Paris has a better average age (22.9) than OL (25.4). Finally, Manchester United (28 players) completes the top 5 of the big-5. Note that Stade Rennais (23 trained players) and AS Monaco (22 players) rank 13th and 14th. Ligue 1 is therefore rather well represented, the self-proclaimed League of Talents.
