Giving youth a chance
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Witnessing a young player breaking into the first-team and establishing themselves remains one of the most satisfying emotions for football fans. That feeling is enhanced when the starlet progresses through the academy but excitement is also sparked when a club signs a talented youngster. The importance of developing young players is so important with many clubs’ business model centring around selling starlets for vast profits.
Scouts are dispatched all around the world with the aim of unearthing future superstars with enormous potential. Ligue 1 has developed the reputation as the best top five league for giving youth a chance and that’s backed up by statistics. French top-flight clubs have handed 102,910 minutes to U21 players this season with LaLiga second (88,216’) and Premier League this (84,538’) – Serie A is fourth (60,506’) and Bundesliga fifth (60,323’). But which clubs have provided most minutes to U21 players across the top leagues? Let’s find out using Transfermarkt data.
Strasbourg provided the most minutes to U21 players across the 2023/24 campaign and their top again this season (17,220’). The Ligue 1 side were purchased by BlueCo – the consortium that owns Chelsea – and there was immediately pivoted their policy to developing young players. They currently have four players on-loan from Chelsea and 20-year-old Andrey Santos ranks second as Strasbourg’s most-used players with 2,304 minutes and Diego Moreria in third (2,131’). As the graphic below illustrates, Barcelona ranks second (16,373) with Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsí, Alejandro Balde and Marc Casadó all U21 players with more than 2,000 minutes this season.
RB Leipzig are one of just two Bundesliga clubs in the top twenty with Benjamin Sesko, Xabi Simons and Antonio Nusa their most valuable U21 talents. PSG have switched their transfer policy from signing superstars to the best young players and it’s paid difference with their vibrant young team – the French champions rank fourth. Brighton are the top English clubs in seventh (9,172’) with Tottenham Hotspur also making the top ten. Juventus are the sole Serie A representatives in the top twenty list with Kenan Yildiz (2,742’) the U21 starlet with the most minutes for the Italian giants.
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