October 24 – AFC Ajax is Europe’s engine room in terms of developing youth talent capable of playing at the highest national league levels.
Ajax have trained 85 players now competing in the top domestic divisions of European leagues – training clubs are defined as where the player was active for at least three years between the seasons of their 15th and 21st birthday.
Ajax lead SL Benfica (73 players) and Dinamo Kiev (72 players).
Looking at the Big 5 leagues, Real Madrid tops the ranking (43 players) ahead of Barcelona (38 players) followed by Paris St-Germain and Olympique Lyonnais (34 players each).
“Sporting CP heads the rankings for non-big-5 league clubs having trained the most footballers currently playing in the five major championships (24), with River Plate at the top for teams outside of Europe (14),” finds the report authors.
Premier League clubs, more widely recognised for spending big on new players, feature reasonably highly in the ranking. Manchester United are ranked fifth (28 players), Chelsea and Arsenal are ninth (23 players) and Manchester City are 18th(19 players).
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