Benfica, Barça, River Plate! Here are the top three in the annual ranking of the best youth academies, compiled by the CIES Football Observatory. To compile this top 100, the researchers used a youth academy index that takes into account the number of players trained by the club (provided they played there for at least three seasons between the ages of 15 and 21), the club's level of play last season, and the number of minutes played. As last year, Benfica ranks first with 93 players trained across the 49 leagues analysed, an average club level of 0.81 and 2,582 minutes played on average in official matches over the past year. Barcelona (76 players, 0.87 and 2,773 minutes) and River Plate (97, 0.81 and 2,305 minutes) complete the top three. The top 10 is made up of a second Portuguese team (Sporting CP), another Spanish team (Real Madrid), two Argentinian teams (Boca Juniors and Vélez Sarsfield), as well as Ajax Amsterdam, Dinamo Zagreb and Uruguay's Defensor.
Benfica, Barça, River Plate! These are the top three in the annual ranking of the best academies, compiled by the CIES Football Observatory.