No prizes for guessing who comes first…
JOE always imagined that there is a big tree in Barcelona’s La Masia academy that has a sign next to it which reads ‘This is where all of our incredibly talented and technically gifted young players come from’.
It’s probably more the result of hard work, dedication and excellent coaching though.
Figures released from the CIES football observatory (what an awesome place that sounds like) have revealed that Barca produce more footballers that anyone else that are playing in Europe’s five elite leagues; La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and The Premier League.
43 players have been schooled in the art of tiki-taka including 13 members of Barca’s current squad and ex players like Bojan, Cesc Fabregas, Christian Tello and Thiago Alcantara amongst others.
Manchester United are second having produced 36 players while Real Madrid (34), Lyon (33) and PSG (27) complete the top spots.
The research found that Ligue 1 club squads contained the highest proportion of home-grown players (24.6 percent), followed by La Liga (20.4 percent), Bundesliga (16.4 percent), Premier League (13.9 percent) and Serie A (9.6 percent).
It comes as no surprise to see the Basque clubs, Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad, rank high on the list due to their preference to develop homegrown players while the presence of some relatively smaller clubs like Lens, Rennes and Espanyol is very welcome indeed.
98 clubs were surveyed and the study provides a very interesting insight into the fabric and turnover of top players amongst some of Europe’s most prestigious academies.
Info via – Football Observatory
