Yamal, Mainoo & Co. – Teenagers with most minutes from top five leagues this season

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Two Barcelona stars top 

There’s few things more gratifying for football fans than to watch a young player break into the first-team before tracking their development. The sense of pride is enhanced when the starlet has progressed through the club’s youth academy like Lionel Messi at Barcelona, Marcus Rashford at Manchester United or Trent Alexander-Arnold at Liverpool. 

European clubs are constantly scouring the globe with the aim of identifying the best young talent and some business models revolve around developing youngsters before selling them for profit. Benfica, Borussia Dortmund and Brighton are arguably the best clubs across Europe for implementing this strategy and it’s earned them hundreds of millions in transfer sales across the last decade. Lamine Yamal, Kobbie Mainoo and Arda Güler are amongst the best wonderkids in the world currently but which teenagers have received the most minutes across the top five leagues this season? Let’s find out and you can watch a video below! 

Barcelona’s La Masia academy has been central to Hansi Flick’s impressive start in LaLiga with two graduates occupying the top two places. Yamal is the most valuable Spanish player in Transfermarkt history at €150 million and he’s played 733 minutes for Barcelona in LaLiga – which is more than any other teenager in the top five leagues. Yamal’s teammate at the Camp Nou, Pau Cubarsí ranks second with 665 minutes. The young Spanish centre-back already established himself as a first-team regular at just 17 years old and is viewed as a generational talent.

 Guillaume Restes is tipped to be France’s next number one goalkeeper and the 19-year-old ranks third with 630 minutes for Toulouse. La Liga clubs have played two more games than Ligue 1 sides which impacts the list with Restes playing every league minute this season. Only two Premier League players feature in the top ten with Brighton’s Jack Hinshelwood fourth (608 mins) and Manchester United’s Mainoo sixth (574). Juventus’ Kenan Yildiz and PSG’s Warren Zaïre-Emery are both exceptional talents and they’ve also made an impression in the Champions League this season. Yildiz impressed for Turkey at Euro 2024 with his international teammate Güler ranking 35th with 251 minutes in LaLiga for Real Madrid.