The International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) has published a new ranking of the countries that have earned the most from transfers of players trained in their club academies over the past 10 years. Domestic deals were not taken into account, only transfers to other leagues were considered.
Idman.Biz reports that France leads the list.
The teams of this country earned a total of 3.98 billion euros from the international sales of academy players, including bonuses and commissions from subsequent transfers. This is about 400 million euros per year.
Brazil is second (2.60 billion euros), and Spain is third (2.24 billion euros). The clubs of Portugal, the Netherlands, England, Germany, Italy and Argentina have also earned more than 1 billion euros.
The top 50 also includes Poland, the USA, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Morocco.