German clubs left trailing: The world’s top youth academies

Lionel Messi, Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, David Beckham, Vinícius Júnior, or Sami Khedira – the list of players who have launched their international careers thanks to a youth academy could go on and on. But which youth academy actually produces the most stars of tomorrow?

The 'CIES Football Observatory' has once again published its annual ranking of the best academies in the world. They focused on which clubs have produced the most players currently playing professionally in one of the 49 football leagues worldwide.

Other parameters crucial to the ranking include: the total number of players trained at the academy, the level of the clubs they played for after the academy (only clubs where the talents played for at least three years between the ages of 15 and 21 are counted), and the number of minutes played. All these factors combine to create an index that determines the success of the football school.

Only the football nerds among you have probably heard of the Argentine first division club Vélez Sarsfield. But did you also know that players like Nicolás Otamendi or Diego Simeone started their careers here?

Top of the Spanish league, but in the ranking of the best youth academies, the Royals only managed 9th place. Particularly impressive: Of the ten best talent factories in the world, Real's players have the most playing time on average at their first professional stations.

South American clubs have been proving for years that they rarely let themselves be outdone in youth work. So it's not surprising that a Uruguayan first division club is also in the top 10.

You don't associate Dinamo Zagreb with exceptional youth work? Then think again of stars like Luka Modrić, Sosa, and Josko Gvardiol!

The Portuguese academy is named after its most famous protégé: "Academia Cristiano Ronaldo". The main focus here is on training offensive players. How successful this is shown by an impressive statistic: Ten talents from the Sporting academy formed the backbone of the squad with which the Portuguese became European champions in 2016.

📸 Matthias Hangst - 2016 Getty Images

The Argentine football academy is known for its tough, aggressive playing style, and the South Americans have been working closely with Barcelona's youth department for several years. All this helps the club secure a spot in the top 5 of the best youth academies worldwide.

The Dutch have been known for their exceptionally good youth work for several years. Among others, Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten, Dennis Bergkamp, Wesley Sneijder, and Matthijs de Ligt were trained here.

The youth academy known as "La Fábrica" has already produced stars like the current football world champion Julián Álvarez. It is already the third Argentine club in the top 10 of the best football academies.

📸 Julian Finney - 2022 Getty Images

Just a few percentage points shy of first place is the Spanish youth academy "La Masia". Especially Lamine Yamal, who was trained there, is currently making waves. Comparing the "Level" category, it becomes clear: Among the top 10 clubs on this list, Barça's talents play on average at the most successful clubs in the world.

As in the previous year, Benfica Lisbon's football academy takes the top spot in this ranking. 93 players have made the breakthrough to professionals with the Portuguese. Only River Plate was more successful in this regard with a total of 97 talents. Nevertheless, it was enough for the title defense.

German football academies, by the way, perform rather poorly in international comparison: Only FC Bayern Campus made it into the 'CIES' list, in 54th place with an index of only 45.9.

Leagues like France, Italy, and England also fall behind in international comparison. With 19th place (PSG) and 21st place (Manchester City), other top clubs besides Bayern are still far from the world elite in terms of youth work.

This is not surprising, especially in the Premier League. There, the focus has been on breaking one transfer record after another for years and attracting talented players to the island for billions of euros. Relying on their own youth has so far been rather secondary.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 PAU BARRENA