Top 5 leagues in comparison
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At the age of 15, Lamine Yamal celebrated his professional debut at FC Barcelona and was almost two years younger than Lionel Messi, who first ran for the Catalans in 2004. The trend in world football is increasingly developing to scout the talents earlier and then sign for high sums. Chelsea has invested almost 400 million euros for the transfer of teenagers in 2022. In order for these young players to develop, they must be used in their clubs. In the blues, only two of their numerous talents, which are 21 or younger, received over 1,000 minutes this season. A look at the transfer market shows which clubs are most focusing on talent in Europe’s top 5 leagues.
French talents from Ligue 1 regularly switch to another top 5 league for a lot of money, to Paris St. Germain or AS Monaco. RB Leipzig also uses in France: El Chadaille Bitshiabu from PSG cost 15 million, Castello Lukeba from Olympique Lyon 30 million and Mohamed Simakan came from Racing Strasbourg for 15 million euros. Ligue 1 has created the call to be a very good place to create the breakthrough in the professional sector. This proves 102,910 minutes of use for players up to 21 years in the current season-no other top 5 league is better in this statistics. Laliga follows with 88,587 minutes, the Premier League (84,538) and Serie A (60.506) are lined up behind it, the Bundesliga (60.323) takes fifth place. However, she has the disadvantage of the leagues from England, Spain and Italy that two teams take less in the competition. The numbers of Ligue 1, in which 18 teams also compete, are all the more remarkable.
Clubs with the most U21 game shares-two Bundesliga clubs in Top-5
Unsurprisingly, a French association distributed most of the time to U21 players-Racing Strasbourg in this ranking enthroned in first place with 17,220 minutes. This is mainly due to the fact that the club, such as Chelsea, belongs to the Blueco consortium and acts as a training association for the blues. Only six professionals in the squad are older than 23, and among these “veterans” only goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic collected significant shares. With Andrey Santos (2,304 minutes), Diego Moreira (2,131), Ismaël Doukouré (2,054) and Habib Diarra (2,035), four talents received more than 2,000 minutes. 24 players who were 21 years or younger at the time of their efforts ran for racing-this is the best value in the top 5 leagues.
Only FC Barcelona can keep up with the table seventh of the Ligue 1 in this regard and distributed 16,744 minutes to its young players. The German coach Hansi Flick already used 14 U21 professionals, of whom 18-year-old Pau Cubarsí collected most with 3,195 minutes. Lamine Yamal (3,181), Alejandro Balde (2,986) and Marc Casadó (2,447) follow and make a large part to ensure that the Catalans have blossomed again to win the Champions League.
In third place follows with RB Leipzig (10,896) the first Bundesliga club in this ranking – Benjamin Sesko (21) and Xavi Simons (21) have a large part in it. The striker comes to 2,656 minutes, Simons played 2,062 minutes and therefore only seven less than Antonio Nusa, who completes the trio. The talents of Eintracht Frankfurt only got a little less: eleven U21 players reached 10,196 minutes together. Midfield engine Hugo Larsson has a weighty part of this, which contributed more than a quarter with 2,655 minutes. This ensures a third of the time that goes to players up to 21 years in the Bundesliga.
This is mainly due to the fact that four clubs are sometimes well below 1,000 minutes. The bottom of this ranking is Holstein Kiel, who has only used one player under the age of 21 with Dominik Javorcek. Before his 22nd birthday, the defense lawyer ran for a half against FC Bayern Munich. This is followed by Werder Bremen with 274 minutes and FC St. Pauli, who started three players who come together to 645 minutes. SC Freiburg, which has become an outstanding reputation in talent development in recent years, is surprisingly far behind in this ranking. The Breisgauer are in 14th place and only used three players who come together at 1,153 minutes.
An Italian club in top 20-Brighton leader in England
In the top 20 there is only an Italian club with Juventus Turin. The crising top club used ten U21 players who collected 7,653 minutes together. Most of this contributed to Kenan Yıldız, who ran in 41 games and came to 2,742 minutes. Equipped Samuel Mbangula, who was able to screw its market value to 14 million euros in the last update, is in second place in the team internal ranking with just over 1,000 minutes. The leader of the Premier League is Brighton & Hove Albion, whose 9,172 minutes split into 13 players. Carlos Baleba (2,346) and Jack Hinsshelwood (1,558) in particular contribute to this. Chelsea (8,363) follows in third place behind Tottenham Hotspur (8,646) with 17 players used.
