Highlights
Exclusive training clubs European rankings
Issue number 238 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post highlights clubs having trained the most players currently present in 31 European top divisions and the big-5 leagues respectively. The highest figures were recorded for AFC Ajax for players in the 31 top divisions (77) and Real Madrid for footballers in the big-5 (36).
Compared to 2017, Dynamo Kiev went up from 7th to 2nd place at European level (+ 15 players), reaching Partizan Belgrade (+10). The number of players trained by AFC Ajax also increased (+ 7). At big-5 league level, the top three remained the same. However, Olympique Lyonnais went up from 3rd to 2nd position (35 players, + 4), approaching Real Madrid (36, -4) and outranking Barcelona (34, =).
Following UEFA definition, training clubs are teams where footballers played for at least three seasons between 15 and 21 years. The percentage of minutes played by club-trained footballers in all of the teams from the 31 competitions studied is available in the exclusive CIES Football Observatory Demographic Atlas. More exclusive data is published through Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Most productive training clubs
Number of players - Date of reference: 1st of October
31 European top division leagues: AUT, BEL, BLR, BUL, CRO, CYP, CZE, DEN, ENG, ESP, FRA, FIN, GER, GRE, HUN, ISR, ITA, NED, NOR, POL, POR, ROM, RUS, SCO, SRB, SUI, SVK, SVN, SWE, TUR, UKR
CIES Football Observatory