This Wednesday, the CIES Football Observatory published its new study. It focuses on the youth academies of the top five European leagues (England, Germany, Italy, Spain, and France), examining the number of academy graduates currently playing for them and their minutes played this season. Paris Saint-Germain occupies third place, as it has for the last five and ten seasons.
The Top 21 Youth Academy Rankings
“The report also presents the rankings for the last five and ten years, with Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Paris Saint-Germain in the top three, and Olympique Lyonnais in fourth. However, OL is fifth this season in terms of minutes played by players based on their youth academy, with Real Madrid first and Stade Rennais third.
*Academy clubs are defined as the first clubs where players stayed for at least three seasons between the ages of 15 and 21.”
This is a remarkable achievement for PSG, whose youth academy has been steadily improving in recent years and is becoming a real asset. Both to feed the first team, as seen with Warren Zaïre-Emery, Senny Mayulu, Ibrahim Mbaye, and Quentin Ndjantou regularly this season, and to generate additional revenue through player sales. This includes percentages on future transfers, a technique often used by sporting advisor Luis Campos in negotiations.
It’s also worth highlighting the quality of French youth development, with France having the second-highest representation in this top 21 with five clubs. Only Spain has more, with seven clubs. This further underscores the strength of Spanish football (Barcelona and Real Madrid also hold the top spots over the last five and ten years, respectively). Rennes’ fourth-place ranking is significant, especially considering Ousmane Dembélé (28-year-old forward) and Désiré Doué (20-year-old midfielder/forward), two key players for Paris Saint-Germain and the French national team.
