The strongest European football academies in 2022.

Miniature - AFC Ajax official website photo.

It’s not a secret that many footballers enter top clubs at the age of 14, but who then has done all the major work before and deserves much more attention? Which football schools in Europe are stronger than others in training and developing players? Who instilled a passion for football and made them grow further?

Beerschot AC official website photo.

In this article, I am going to consider the top 11 football academies in terms of training and player development, not selection. After all,  these are the places where the experts in their field work, whose talent, knowledge, diligence and endurance made it possible to prepare players of the highest level.

While working on the article, I analyzed various European national teams from national to U19 youth teams, looked at hundreds of international players, where they started, where they moved, how many years they trained before getting into a famous club and where they ended up. I analyzed only those players who met the certain conditions:

- started training at the academy no later than at the age of 10,

- trained in the club for at least 5 years,

- the age of the footballer is no older than 30 years now.

This made it possible to identify those football clubs whose academies have trained and developed the largest number of pupils over the past 15 years. Therefore, the 20 years ago merits for Luis Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi do not count.

Red Star Belgrade official facebook photo.

I estimated how much time the players spent in the academy of their club, at what age, when they received an invitation to their National Team, how many matches they played for the main team, which club they currently play in and, finally, how many such students the club has.

So here we go:

11th place.

Red Star Belgrade

This is very famous Serbian football club and academy. Together with FK Partizan, they are constantly fighting for the championship and are rightfully considered two serious forges of football youth for clubs from all over Europe. Although in recent years, Red Star has taken the lead in terms of the number of players in various teams of its own and other European countries. Among the latest students are: Stefan Mitrovic, Aleksa Terzic, Strahinja Erakovic, Marko Grujic, Dejan Joveljic, Luka Jovic.

10th place.

FC Barcelona

The most famous club in the world and its academy have clearly lost something in their preparation since the days when nine of their students played in the first team and in the Spanish national team.

The academy now can boast some very good, talented footballers such as Marc Bartra, Martin Montoya, Carles Planas, Gerard Deulofeu, Marc Navarro, Adama Traore, Ansu Fati, Eric Garcia and Miguel Carvalho, but unfortunately many recent graduates have arrived in Barcelona after schools of other clubs.

9th place.

Athletic Club Boulogne Billancourt (ACBB)

A little-known French sports club from the suburbs of Paris, which, in addition to football, also has departments for teaching rugby, figure skating, cycling, swimming and other sports. Its merits are simply amazing: 67 of their athletes are European champions, 42 students are World champions and 28 won Olympic medalists. The football club plays in Regional 1, the sixth division of France.

Athletic Club Boulogne Billancourt official website photo.

Thanks to the club's academy, player like Khéphren Thuram, Marcus Thuram, Allan Saint-Maximin, Loic Badé, Myziane Maolida, Adama Soumaoro and Georges-Kévin Nkoudou continued their careers in the top clubs in Europe and in various national teams.

8th place.

Paris Saint Germain

This is one of the richest football clubs on the planet, where the most expensive footballers play, the club pursues only the highest goals. The peculiarity of French football is that almost all Ligue 1 clubs select children after 14 years old for their academies. Before this age, footballers play in clubs within their geography of residence and, we must pay tribute to the very developed system of sports in France, there are a lot of such kind of clubs.

Paris Saint Germain official website photo.

However still, PSG keeps apart and is the leader in the number of it  students in the National Teams. Among them: Matteo Guendouzi, Kingsley Coman, Presnel Kimpembe, Arnaud Kalimuendo, Mohamed-Ali Cho, Éric Junior Dina Ebimbe, Sékou Mara, Vincent Sasso and Andy Diouf, by the way, the last three guys were under 13 when they were in the PSG academy, and then moved to the Academy of the Athletic Club Boulogne Billancourt.

7th place.

AS Saint-Priest

Another representative of France and a club that only plays in the National 2, the fourth division, but its talent farm is truly impressive.

AS Saint-Priest official website photo.

Among the students of the academy are: Pierre Kalulu and Rayan Cherki, who started their careers here at the age of 7, and after 5 years continued with Olympique Lyonnais, Florent Duparchy, Stéphane Diarra, Romain Del Castillo, Anthony Toumanian, Yanis Sellami, Dejan Kuzmanovic, Mathéo Marmorat and others.

6th place.

C.F. Damm

This Spanish club from Barcelona does not have any high merit, but is completely focused on the education of young people and has succeeded tremendously: the academy is a fertile ground for FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, RCD Espanyol and other elite clubs in Spain and other countries. If you look at the tables of youth championships in Catalonia by different ages, it turns out that CF Damm constantly takes prizes along with FC Barcelona and RCD Espanyol, and often beats his main competitors.

Catalan football federation official website photo.

Among the students of the academy are Sergio García, Gerard Moreno, Isaías Sánchez, and from the young Keita Baldé, who has been in the club since the age of 5 and continued his studies at the Barcelona academy from the age of 11, was a player in Lazio, Monaco, Inter, Sampdoria, Cagliari, and now plays for Spartak Moscow.

5th place.

Beerschot AC

Belgian football club Beerschot AC was founded in 1899. Now it plays in the second league of the Belgian championship. And although the club is constantly facing financial difficulties, its academy from year to year shows excellent results in comparison with the giants of Belgian football. Such well-known players as Jan Vertonghen and Thomas Vermaelen passed through the youth system of the club, and from the younger generation: Ilias Sebaoui, Ignace Van der Brempt, Jérémy Doku, Toby Alderweireld, who a few years later moved to the academy of Ajax Amsterdam, and later signed the first contract with them.

4th place.

Sporting CP

The club has been maintaining the glory of its own academy for years, from which Ricardo Quaresma, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rui Patricio, William Carvalho, Luis Figo, Joao Moutinho, Simao Sabrosa came out ... and although these players are not one hundred percent students of the Sporting CP academy, now young talented guys from this club are in demand in all over the world. Among them are Gonçalo Agrelos, Thierry Correia, Miguel Luís, Elves Baldé. Another Portuguese football academy, Benfica, also illustrates the excellent quality of work, but is still inferior to Sporting in the number of such stars in their National Teams.

Maisfutebol website photo.

3rd place.

Chelsea F.C.

The London Football Academy is clearly ahead of all other English clubs in developing talented players for its own first team, national teams and other clubs in the Premier League and Europe's top leagues. The Chelsea Academy is noticeably superior to competitors from other countries. And so that the recruited 8-year-olds are brought to the end and given at the age of 18-20 to second division clubs or even Premier League clubs, such as Tino Anjorin, Levi Colwill, Tino Livramento, Tariq Lamptey, Marc Guéhi, Conor Gallagher and many others.

2nd place.

AS Roma

This club is far ahead of its competitors from Atalanta BC, FC Internazionale, ACF Fiorentina in terms of the number of completely own pupils in the national teams and other clubs in Europe. These are Riccardo Calafiori, who at the age of 18 has already played ten times in the main team of AS Roma, Matteo Cancellieri - now on loan at Lazio, Jean Freddi Greco, who began his studies at the Roman Academy and moved 8 years later to Torino, Matteo Politano, who now in Napoli and, believe me, many, many others.

1st place.

AFC Ajax

By right and unconditionally, this academy is in the first place. Graduates of recent years play for their club or in the first leagues of European championships. The work of the academy for decades is a whole philosophy, including how to train, from what age and whom to take, with whom and how much to play, how to recover, learn, participate in tournaments. The core values of the club were laid down by Johan Cruyff, and now they are preserved for the benefit of the academy and the club.

AFC Ajax students of the last decade are: Davy Klaassen - came to the academy from HVV de Zebra's and HSV Wasmeer at the age of 10 - went all the way, played for Werder, Everton, returned to his native club in 2020. Sergiño Dest, a graduate of Almere City, has been in the AFC Ajax academy since the age of 11, appeared in the first team matches more than 20 times after which he signed a contract with FC Barcelona.

Optus com au website photo.

Donny van de Beek has been in the club since ten and signed a contract with Manchester United in 2020. Justin Kluivert has been in the academy from the age of 8, at 17 he made his debut for the first team. Owned by AS Roma for 2022. Matthijs de Ligt, Ryan Gravenberch, Noussair Mazraoui….

You can list young stars playing in the top clubs in Europe for a long time, but the point is the same, a child in the club system from 8-10 years old, at 16-18 he makes his debut for the first team, regularly comes on as a substitute and a year later signs a contract with FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich AS Roma…

There are several important processes that are characteristic of the academies of the highest level: the guys, if they were taken to the academy, are believed in till the end and given the maximum, the club is not afraid to release young players for the first team. The focus is on educating their bright, non-standard talents, and not selection of overall players and, as a result, football players continue their careers at the highest level.

Brescia Calcio official website photo.

The quality of training of other football academies focused on the development of their own students should be note, such as: Brescia Calcio, Paris FC, Cergy Pontonoise FC, AS Bondy - alma mater of Kylian Mbappé, Olympique Lyonnais, CF Rayo Majadahonda, RCD Espanyol, FC Servette, FC Zurich, Herta BSC, Manchester City, Arsenal FC, RSC Anderlecht, Manchester United, Toulouse FC, US Alfortville, SV Werder Bremen, OFK Beograd, FK TSC Bačka Topola, Sparta Rotterdam, Feyenoord Rotterdam, Fehérvár FC, RCD Mallorca, 1. FC Koln, Vasas FC, Atlético Madrid, Bucaspor, AC Sparta Praha, Flyeralarm Admira, Grazer AK. All these clubs, in addition to those listed, showed high results of their own football academies in terms of training young talents in the analysis of materials.

My goal was to draw attention to real football schools, which, being among the top academies, are undeservedly deprived of fame. Draw attention to their professional trainers, methods, conditions created by hard work, passion, great patience when working with children, and which, in turn, bring excellent results.