Real Madrid Europe's third most proactive youth recruiters

Swiss based (CIES) Football Observatory has carried out a study across Europe's top five leagues (England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France) looking at signing policies of the member clubs over the past decade. The analysis doesn't focus on sums of money invested on recruitment but on the average ages of players signed. The study (which began in 2010) focused on 42 clubs in the five European leagues who maintained top flight status during the period in question.

The study reveals that Bundesliga sides are the most proactive when it comes to signing younger players with Serie A outfits preferring to recruit a more mature player.

Leverkusen top the podium

Bayer Leverkusen lead the way in European football with their signing policy with recruits drafted into the German club during the study having an average age of 23.38. Players such as Leno (19), Bellarabi (21), Vida (21), Milik (19), Son (20), Emre Can (19), Brandt (17), Çalhanoglu (20) and Bailey (19) were all drafted into the Bay Arena at a young age and this week the Bundesliga side added to this trend with the acquisition of Exequiel Palacios, who moves from River Plate, and although his signing falls outside the time-frame of the CIES study, the acquisition of the Argentine epitomises Leverkusen's police with the player being 21-years-old.

Borussia Dortmund come second in the study with the likes of Achraf (19), Sancho (17), Dembélé (19), Isak (17), Weigl (19), Gündogan (20), Kagawa (21) or Lewandowski (21) all pulling on the famous yellow shirt with 23.51 the average age of BVB recruits during the study.

Real Madrid (third)

Breaking the German dominance on the podium are Real Madrid with the LaLiga giants signing players with an average age of 23.54 during the duration of the study. Özil (21), Canales (19), Varane (18), Casemiro (21), Carvajal (21), Isco (21), Lucas Silva (21), Kovacic (21), Vallejo (18), Asensio (19), Theo Hernández (19), Ceballos (20), Vinicius (18), Brahim (19), Lunin (19), Odegaard (16), Jovic (21), Militao (21), Rodrygo (18), Soro (20), Kubo (18) all joined the Spanish side and the bulk of these acquisitions remain with the Bernabéu side or are out on loan.

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Propping up the list of 42 clubs is Serie A's SS Lazio, with the Rome based side tilting towards a veteran profile with 26.56 being the average age of their recruits in the past decade.

Apart from Real Madrid in third place, the other LaLiga sides are distributed in the following way in the study: 20th Valencia (25,11 average age), 22nd Athletic Bilbao (25.23), 25th FC Barcelona (25.38), 26th Atlético Madrid (25.39), 29th Espanyol (25.51) and 32nd place goes to Sevilla with an average age of 25.69.

Average signing age since 2010 for 42 clubs in CIES study