The 542nd CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the U23 outfield players currently active in 67 leagues worldwide who have performed best over the last six months. The rankings have been compiled based on players’ performances across eight game areas (Impect data), the sporting level of matches played, results and playing time*.

The following footballers top the table in their respective position: Pau Cubarsí (centre backs), Warren Zaïre-Emery (wide backs), Aleksandar Pavlović (central midfielders), Kenan Yildiz (attacking midfielders), Lamine Yamal (wingers) and Vítor Roque (centre forwards). The three youngest players in the top 100 are Lennart Karl, Konstantinos Karetsas and Kerim Alajbegović.

The highest scores for players outside Europe’s big-5 were recorded for Mika Godts (Ajax), Andreas Schjelderup (Benfica) and Carlos Forbs (Bruges). The top three in South America are Vítor Roque (Palmeiras), Lautaro Di Lollo and Milton Delgado (both Boca Juniors). Armando González (Chivas) tops the table for North and Central America, and Musab Al-Juwayr (Al-Qadsiah) for Asia.

>>> Method

>>> Full data (top 20s per league)

>>> More about Impect

The 541st CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post highlights the clubs currently competing in 50 top divisions worldwide where footballers who had not yet turned 21 have played the highest percentage of minutes in domestic league matches over the last five years. Denmark’s FC Nordsjælland top the list with no less than 44.7% of minutes by U21s.

The Slovakian side MŠK Žilina (35.3%) and the Austrian side RB Salzburg (35.0%) complete the podium. The top three clubs outside Europe are Uruguay’s SC Defensor (25.4%), Colombia’s Fortaleza CEIF (24.1%) and Venezuela’s Caracas FC (21.5%). Among current big-5 league clubs, Barcelona (20.7%) leads the way ahead of Strasbourg (18.6%) and Sunderland (18.5%).

Across all 50 leagues studied, Nordsjælland is also the club that fielded the highest number of players who had not yet turned 21 at the time of at least one match played (63). The Danish club is ahead of the Dutch side Volendam (60). At the other end of the scale, in the bottom two places, are the Italians of Napoli (2) and the Chinese side Tianjin Jinmen (3).

>>> Full data analysis

>>> New Prospect Sheet with Impect: Nathan de Cat

The 540th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 100 clubs worldwide that have earned the most from the transfer of players from their youth academies* over the last ten years. The top three are Portugal’s SL Benfica (€589 million), Netherlands’ AFC Ajax (€454 million) and England’s Chelsea FC (€442 million).

The top 10 also includes two clubs from France’s Ligue 1 (Olympique Lyonnais and Monaco), another Portuguese club (Sporting CP), another English one (Manchester City), as well as teams from Spain (Real Madrid), Brazil (SE Palmeiras) and Germany (Bayer Leverkusen). In total, 19 associations are represented by at least one club in the top 100.

The Post also sets out the revenue generated over the last five years alone, with Chelsea FC (€366 million) topping the list, ahead of Manchester City (€318 million). This result reflects the growing emphasis on youth development also within the elite tier of English clubs, both in terms of developing players for the first team and reaping financial rewards.

* Training clubs are defined as the first ones where players spent at least three seasons between the ages of 15 and 21. The figures shown include add-ons regardless of effective payment and sums earned from sell-ons.

>>> Full data

Dear subscribers,

A big thank you to everyone who has already completed our online questionnaire on men’s professional football !

We are sending this message to remind those who have not yet responded, in order to maximise the sample size of respondents. Thank you for helping us to better understand the measures you believe are necessary to improve football.

The results of the survey, which is completely anonymous, will be published in the form of a freely accessible report, ahead of the next World Cup. We will of course keep you informed. Please take three minutes at most to complete this questionnaire, and long live football !

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The 539th Weekly Post presents the hundred U23 players not yet under contract with one of the ten most powerful clubs worldwide* with the top estimated transfer value according to the CIES Football Observatory’s statistical model. Juventus’s Turkish young star Kenan Yildiz is well ahead of the rest. His transfer could be worth up to €133 million (including add-ons and for 100% of transfer rights).

Inter Milan’s Italian Pio Esposito (€95 million) and RB Leipzig’s Ivorian Yan Diomandé (€84 million) round off the top three. The top five also includes Bayer Leverkusen’s Cameroonian Christian Kofane (€81 million) and Porto’s Danish midfielder Victor Froholdt (€80 million). All these players have contracts running until at least 2029, which strengthens the negotiating power of their respective clubs.

Twelve domestic competitions are represented in the top 100, with the English Premier League at the top (25 players), and the following top three: Paraguay’s Diégo Gómez (Brighton & Hove), Netherlands’ Xavi Simons (Tottenham) and France’s Junior Kroupi (Bournemouth). Behind Froholdt, the highest-rated players outside the big-5 are Vítor Roque (Palmeiras) and two other FC Porto’s footballers: Samu Aghehowa and Rodrigo Mora.

>>> Top 100

>>> Top valued player per club in 70 leagues

>>> New Prospect Sheet: Oskar Pietuszewski

* In alphabetical order : Arsenal, Atlético Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Paris St-Germain and Real Madrid.

Dear subscriber and football passionate,

The CIES Football Observatory mission is to advance the frontiers of knowledge for the balanced development of football worldwide. With this in mind, we have drawn up a questionnaire to find out your views on a range of current issues relating to men’s professional club football.

Your responses will help us identify the measures you believe needed to ensure that football continues developing in a positive direction. The results of the survey, which is completely anonymous, will be published in the form of a freely accessible report, ahead of the next World Cup. We will of course keep you informed !

Please take three minutes at most to complete this questionnaire, and long live football !

>>> TAKE PART

The CIES Football Observatory team