By Mark Baber
November 10 – The November issue of the CIES Football Observatory monthly report suggests that youth training in Europe is in crisis based on an analysis of the presence of club-trained players in 460 teams of 31 top division leagues in UEFA member associations. The report shows that the percentage of home-grown footballers in squads has decreased for the sixth consecutive season to reach a new record low of 19.7%.
According to the report the figures reflect a “lesser tendency of European top division clubs to give their chance to players from their youth academy. As a consequence, the average age of footballers in the 31 top division leagues surveyed has reached a new record high: 26.0 years. The decrease in the proportion of club-trained players also reflects the greater mobility of footballers from their youngest age.”
The report presents a rankings of the clubs who have trained the most players active in the leagues surveyed, with Partizan Belgrade top with 78 players trained followed by Ajax Amsterdam with 75 players.
A ranking of clubs who have trained the most players under contract with big-5 league teams is headed by FC Barcelona with 44 players ahead of Olympique Lyonnais with 35 players and Real Madrid with 34 players.
Although the decrease in percentage of club-trained players does appear significant, from 23.1% in 2009 to 19.7% in 2015, it has to be said the latest CIES report fails to analyse the factors behind this fall in any great depth or to substantiate claims of a crisis, particularly when the report itself illustrates the large regional variations in the figures, themselves inadequately explained.
The report takes a brief look at home-grown players and their “employment rate” in terms of minutes played on the pitch, which reveals little particularly as no attempt is made to factor out age.
Proper analysis of the regional differences the report finds, including a large fall in club trained players in Denmark Finland, Norway and Sweden and a large increase in club-trained players in Eastern Europe as well as the very significant differences in the figures between different zones with Southern Europe which is on 14% compared to 25.8% in Northern Europe, 24.8 in Central Europe, 16.9% in Western Europe and 22.3% in Eastern Europe would no doubt throw a lot more light on the dynamics of youth training and to what extent there is a real crisis.
View the report at http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/mr/mr09/en/
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