Barca head Big 5 ranking of clubs using U21 players; Saints in ...

September 20 – Barcelona leads a ranking of European big-5 clubs who have put their faith in their youth players. Olympique Lyonnais rank second and Le Havre third.

The CIES Football Observatory ranks clubs in 58 top tier leagues by the percentage of minutes played by U21 players in domestic games played over the last three years.

Barca showed a total of 22.6% of minutes played by U21 players with Lamine Yamal (pictured) one of a number of standout players to have come through. Looking at the ranking across all leagues Barca rank 16th. Ukraine’s Rukh Lviv top the overall ranking (41.1%) while Denmark’s Nordsjælland (40.7%) rank second and Uzbekistan’s Olympic (39.9%) third.

The top 10 ranking within the Big 5 leagues is dominated by French clubs (6), followed by three Spanish clubs and the highest ranked Premier League club, Southampton, in tenth.

The CIES data also looks at the number of U21 players who are at clubs outside their home countries. “In the top three positions are Switzerland’s FC Basel (24 foreign U21 players), Austria’s RB Salzburg (22) and Denmark’s Nordsjælland (21). Parma heads the rankings for the big-5 (16 players), while United Arab Emirates’ Al-Wasl FC tops the table among non-European clubs (13),” highlights the CIES report authors.

To see the full data, click here.

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