April 15 – France’s Ligue 1 leads the way amongst Europe’s Big 5 leagues as the continent’s football talent development factory, though Borussia Dortmund head a club ranking of having the most minutes played by players who are still to turn 21.
Borussia Dortmund data showed 28.5% of minutes were played by under 21 players. Dortmund were followed by three Ligue 1 teams: OGC Nice (24.3%), AS Monaco (24.1%) and Stade Rennais (20.7%). Ligue 1 clubs filled seven of the top 10 ranking slots.
Wolverhampton Wanderers (16.2%) were the highest ranked Premier League (9th), while FC Barcelona (15.0%) were the highest ranked in LaLiga, and Hellas Verona (11.7%) in Serie.
The CIES report authors highlight that at the opposite end of the Big 5 league club rankings, eight teams did not field any U21 player, among which Tottenham Hotspur and Inter Milan.
The data from the CIES Football Observatory analyses 999 clubs from 71 top divisions worldwide.
“The highest percentages were recorded for the Danish side FC Nordsjælland (48.9%) among the 30 major European competitions and the Singaporean team Young Lions (47.1%) for the clubs surveyed outside of Europe,” said the CIES report.
Top ranked Bid 5 League clubs:
Bottom ranked Big 5 League clubs:
Click here to see the full report.
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