Real Madrid 166-156 Barcelona

“We have the best academy in the world.” That was Florentino Pérez’s emphatic statement during Real Madrid’s most recent General Assembly. He put La Fábrica at the center of his speech - a bold claim backed by statistics. Year after year, Valdebebas continues to produce elite talent, feeding players into the highest level of football.

The numbers are undeniable: in the past two decades, no club has produced more players who have gone on to play in Europe’s top five leagues (Spain, England, Italy, Germany, and France) than Madrid. A total of 166 players trained at Valdebebas have reached that level. In terms of total minutes played at the top level, Madrid also leads the way with 1,078,118 minutes – over a million minutes of football. Barcelona comes closest, but still falls short (156 players, 1,043,263 minutes). Meanwhile, PSG (111 players), Lyon (103), and Manchester United (103) round out the top five, trailing at a distance.

Valdebebas is not just Real Madrid’s academy – it is Europe’s talent factory.

CIES confirms Madrid’s dominance

The CIES Football Observatory, in a special report marking its 20th anniversary, confirmed Madrid’s status as the best talent-producing club. The study used UEFA’s official criteria for academy players – defining them as those who spent at least three years between the ages of 15 and 21 at a club.

That same standard applies to current Madrid stars, with Pérez proudly highlighting the contributions of Dani Carvajal, Lucas Vázquez, Fran García, Federico Valverde, Rodrygo, and Vinícius Júnior. While Valverde’s path included a loan spell at Deportivo La Coruña, he still qualifies. Meanwhile, Eduardo Camavinga - signed from Rennes at 18 – also meets the criteria.

Madrid’s academy influence is growing even further this season. Carlo Ancelotti has handed minutes to a new wave of homegrown talent. The standout is Asencio, an international player with 2,011 minutes played and counting. But he is far from alone. Five more academy graduates have featured this season:

• Gonzalo (already a hero at Butarque)
• Jacobo Ramón (started against Leganés)
• Diego and Lorenzo Aguado (both started against Minera)
• Chema (two games, 34 minutes)
• Dani Yáñez (made his debut in the 89th minute at Montilivi)

In total, of the 29 players used by Real Madrid this season, 13 were trained at the club – 44.8% of Los Blancos' squad is ‘made in Madrid’.

The most successful Madrid academy graduates

Among the 166 players trained by Madrid, only Carvajal ranks in the top 10 active players in terms of minutes played. The right-back, who was among the first players to train at Valdebebas, has logged 25,088 minutes at the top level – all in white, except for 2,781 minutes with Bayer Leverkusen in 2012-13. That places him fourth on the list, while Nacho (16,724 minutes) sits at tenth (with his Saudi league minutes not counted in the ranking).

The leader is Dani Parejo, who has accumulated 40,289 minutes across 509 matches with Valencia, Villarreal, Getafe, and Real Madrid. Behind him are José Callejón (31,313 minutes, 482 games) and Juan Mata (28,490 minutes, 407 games) who complete the top three.

Which team has benefitted most from Madrid academy?

Looking back to 2005-06 as a starting point, many Real Madrid-trained players have since retired – some of them club legends.

Among them:

• Iker Casillas (third, 27,975 minutes, with his Porto years excluded)
• Álvaro Arbeloa (seventh, 19,076 minutes, spanning Real Madrid, Liverpool, Deportivo, and West Ham)
• Raúl (ninth, 17,290 minutes, limited by the study’s 2005 cutoff, otherwise he’d be even higher)

But Madrid’s academy influence extends beyond Los Blancos – even to their rivals. Juanfran, a product of Madrid’s youth system who never played for the first team, tops the list of minutes played (32,672 minutes, 421 matches) while forging a legacy at Atlético Madrid. Similarly, Borja Valero (second, 32,338 minutes) made his mark at Fiorentina, Villarreal, Mallorca, Inter Milan, and West Brom without ever debuting for Madrid.

Curiously, the club that has benefited most from Madrid’s academy isn’t Atlético – it’s Getafe. The Azulones have featured 26 former Madrid academy players, more than any other club. They are followed by Espanyol and Málaga (15 each). Meanwhile, 59 players have gone on to feature for Real Madrid’s first team.

La Fábrica continues to produce at full speed.

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