Lent.az
The International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) has published a study identifying the best academies preparing footballers for Europe's top leagues.
According to Lent.az, citing foreign media, the CIES study analyzed the history of 55 leading football academies worldwide, with data covering a wide period from the 2005/06 season to the 2024/25 season.
Experts consider players who have spent at least three seasons in the club's Academy between the ages of 15 and 20, a definition also used by UEFA. To be included in the statistics, a footballer must have played at least one game in the top 5 leagues of the European League.
CIES has determined that "Madrid" has trained the most footballers for the top leagues for almost 20 years. During the period studied, 166 graduates of the "royal club" have shown themselves in the leading European leagues, which means 1,078,118 minutes of playing time!
La Masia comes next, having trained 156 people who play in the top 5 leagues in Europe. PSG is in third place in terms of the number of graduates (111 people). "Lyon" is third in terms of the playing time that its graduates have spent in the leading leagues - 103 players and 812,385 minutes.
The 15 best academies whose graduates have played in the top 5 leagues in Europe
