Chelsea 70th – Which clubs have handed most league minutes to teenagers this season?

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Real Madrid 32nd 

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There’s few better feelings for football fans than watching a youngster progress into an important first-team player. That sense of pride is only enhanced when the starlet has developed through the club’s youth academy and is viewed as ‘one of their own’. Managers can often overlook youngsters as their focus is fixated on getting immediate results due to the increased pressure to deliver short-term success. 

But other clubs have clearly prioritised the development of young talent with their business model dependent on selling talents for substantial profits. Across the top five leagues, French clubs hand substantially more minutes to teenagers than any of the other four nations. But which clubs across those leagues have handed the most minutes to teenagers so far during the 2024/25 season? Transfermarkt has analysed the data – league fixtures only – to provide the comprehensive results. 

Barcelona have enjoyed a brilliant start to the season under Hansi Flick with their famed La Masia academy pivotal to their success. The Catalan side are comfortably top for most minutes to teenagers in the league this season (2,621) with five U19 players used in LaLiga. Lamine Yamal is the most valuable teenager in the world but Pau Cubarsí and Marc Bernal have also played important roles under Flick. As the graphic below illustrates, seven Ligue 1 clubs feature in the top ten list as there’s a willingness to hand youngsters opportunities in France. 

Reims (1,867) rank second, PSG third (1,807) with Montpellier giving minutes to the most teenagers with eight different players used. There’s no English Premier League or Serie A clubs in the top ten but two Bundesliga outfits feature in RB Leipzig and Hoffenheim. The first English club to feature is Manchester City in 12th with Real Betis the top Spanish club in 16th. Some major European clubs feature lower down the list with Manchester United 26th, Real Madrid 32nd and Chelsea 70th. Perhaps surprisingly, 17 clubs across the top five leagues have failed to hand a single minute to a teenager in the league so far this season.