Many of the world’s biggest football clubs have prioritized the promotion and sponsorship of their academy systems on the basis of producing a steady stream of available young talent, which also has the potential to earn a lot of money. from transfers.
The CIES Football Observatory examined which clubs are the most popular when it comes to their youth production lines and have come up with a list of the top 50 teams generating the most income from their academy. them since July 2015.
The data takes into account the income generated directly from the transfer of players who have spent at least three years in a given club’s academy between their 15th and 21st birthdays.
Portuguese Giant Benfica topping the list having made a staggering €379 million in profits from the transfers of their academy graduates over the past seven years, but there are plenty of other big names behind them at the top of the table. .
Here are some key takeaways from the CIES report, which you can see in full here.
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Benfica the big winners
According to CIES, Benfica can boast the most “profitable” academy by some margin, having made €379 million in transfer income from graduates since 2015. An impressive 32 % of all Benfica created by just one player, Joao Felix126 million euros moved in Atlético Madrid in July 2019, still the fourth-biggest transfer of all time. The next Portuguese club on the list is Sporting Lisbon, who are ninth on the CIES list with an academy income of 209 million euros.
Real Madrid most prominent among Europe’s elites
According to CIES, Real Madrid is operating the second most profitable youth system in world football, earning 330 million euros. The player responsible for the highest percentage of Madrid’s total since 2015 is Alvaro Morata, who, oddly, has been transferred by the club twice: once when Juventus signed him for 20 million euros in 2014 and, after Madrid activated the clause to re-sign him two years later, in 2017 when he signed with Chelsea in an initial €60 million deal.
Monaco takes the top three spots
The AS Monaco won the Ligue 1 title and advanced to the semi-finals of the 2016-17 Champions League was predicted before parting with rising stars like Bernardo Silva, Fabinho, Thomas Lemar and Tiemoue Bakayoko All of them go to top clubs for huge fees. But it is the youth product of Les Monegasques himself, the striker Kylian Mbappe, who created the biggest buzz in world football. Therefore, it is not surprising that his 180 million euros move in Paris Saint-Germain in 2018, the second largest transfer fee of all time, accounting for a whopping 63% of Monaco’s profits from their academy since 2015. Monaco’s domestic rivals, Lyonranked fifth on the list.
Individual gusts of wind
But when it comes to the single players who have made the highest individual proportions of their former academy’s economic success in the CIES list, not even Mbappe can come out on top. Jack Grealish. The England British international record moved from Aston Villa arrive City of Manchester Last summer for 117 million euros (£100 million) or 89% of the total generated by Villa’s youth academy (132 million euros), putting Villa 23rd on the list. The only player that comes close to Grealish is Christian Pulisicwho made 79% Borussia DortmundAcademy earnings of 64 million euros move to Chelsea in 2019.
Chelsea and Liverpool raise the flag for the Premier League
Chelsea and Liverpool are the only English teams in the top 10 of the list. Defending European champions Chelsea are well known for their youth system, which has produced more loaned players in their club’s starting XI. However, many have gone on to have respectable careers elsewhere and the academy has generated €210 million in transfer income for the club since 2015. Liverpool are the only club in the top 10 that has not. reached the 200 million euro mark, with 171 million euros produced by their youth graduates in the same time frame.
The biggest fee Chelsea received came from Tammy Abraham40 million euros recently transferred AS Romawhile Liverpool’s most lucrative academy fall is produced by Raheem SterlingA massive €59m (£49m) move to Manchester City in the summer of 2015. City are the next highest Premier League side on the list in 17th place with a transfer income of €145m, share percentage the highest of which is generated by Kelechi Iheanacho30 million euros (£25 million) moved to Leicester City in 2017.
South America
The CIES data takes into account every top club in the world and while European teams certainly dominate, there are still a handful of clubs from further regions occupying positions in the Premier League. top 50. Indeed, the top three non-European teams are Flamengo of Brazil (The 13th, mostly thanks to Vinicius Juniortransfer of 45 million euros to Real Madrid), River Plate of Argentina (27th) and Brazil’s Santos (28th).
English club rule roost
Grouped across the country, English clubs have generated a staggering €2.03 billion from the transfer of academy graduates since July 2015 – more than any other country any other. French clubs are second (1.61 billion euros) while Spanish clubs are third (1.39 billion euros) ahead of Italian clubs (1.11 billion euros) in position Wednesday. Brazilian clubs ranked fifth overall, having generated more money from the sale of their young prospects (951 million euros) than clubs in Germany (916 million euros), ranked sixth overall.
Despite having two clubs in the top 10, Portuguese clubs collectively could only hold seventh place with a combined total of 788 million euros, narrowly ahead of their Dutch rivals (709 million euros). euros) and Argentina (566 million euros).
