REAL MADRID
Real Madrid’s La Fábrica academy outperforming Barcelona’s La Masia academy
The CIES Football Observatory has drawn up a list of the clubs that make the most use of their home-grown talent.
Real Madrid has one of the best youth academies in Europe. The CIES Football Observatory revealed in one of its weekly reports that the club has the most players from in its academy playing in Europe’s top five leagues (Spain, Italy, Germany, France and England) with 44, ahead of Barcelona (40), Lyon (31) and Valencia (29). The presence of these academy players in the first team is rare, given the demands of Real Madrid, so Valdebebas ends up being in many cases a source of income for Madrid. Since 2009, the club has made €395 million ($431m) in player sales from those who came through the club’s academy in the Spanish capital.
However, a new publication by CIES reveals that, contrary to popular belief, Madrid are using their academy more than Barcelona, at least this season. The Football Observatory has drawn up a list of the clubs that make the most use of their home-grown players, although the definition of a youth-team player is the same as FIFA’s, i.e. players who have spent at least three years at the club between the ages of 15 and 21. Players such as Vinícius and Rodrygo therefore count, as does Pedri, for example, at Barcelona.
Top % of minutes by club-trained players
Athletic Club come out on top, which is hardly surprising given the Basque club’s transfer policy. They have given their 14 home-grown players 68.9% of the minutes. A long way behind are second-placed Lyon (45.6%) and Real Sociedad (45.4%); and in fourth place comes Real Madrid, who have given their eight home-grown players 36.3% of the minutes available. Barcelona are in ninth place, also with eight eligible players who have been given 29.1% of the minutes. Rennes (30.6%), Valencia (31.3%), Osasuna (33.3%) and Freiburg (34.5%) are also ahead of Barcelona.
Seven of the top ten clubs in the CIES statistics are from LaLiga (Las Palmas complete the top 10), with two from France and only one from Germany. The tendency of the Premier League sides is to give much more weight to new signings. The first British club appears in 14th place (Arsenal), and in the top 30, there are only four Premier League clubs (Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Brighton).