Ajax once again the most successful club in training players

The Swiss research agency CIES released a list on Tuesday afternoon showing the clubs that have trained the most youth products in the top sixty leagues in the world. A report is released every year and, just like last year, Ajax is at the top.

This specific report only includes clubs that play outside the five best leagues in Europe. The youth players trained by clubs from the English Premier League, the Spanish LaLiga, the German Bundesliga, the Italian Serie A and the French Ligue 1 do not count.

The statistics office considers a player to have been trained at a club if that player played at a certain club for at least three years between the ages of 15 and 21. Ajax has 91 of these. For example, a player like Steven Bergwijn does not count, but Frenkie de Jong does.

Second on the list is Benfica. The Portuguese record champion, like Ajax, is known for her great training and sees this rewarded with a second place. They delivered four fewer players to the top sixty divisions in the world. The top three is then completed by Benfica's arch rival, Sporting Portugal.

85 players from Alcochetethe name of Sporting's youth academy, are now competing in one of the sixty best leagues in the world, including five-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo.

The list contains no other Dutch teams. The top five is completed by the Croatian Dinamo Zagreb (82), with Luka Modric as a prominent name, and the Ukrainian Dinamo Kyiv (79).

The Serbian superpowers Red Star Belgrade (73) and Partizan Belgrade (67) take sixth and seventh place respectively.

Eighth place has again been reserved for a club from Ukraine, namely Shakhtar Donetsk. Just like Partizan, they produced 67 youth players. At number nine a spot has been reserved for the Austrian RB Salzburg.

In addition to the Netherlands, Belgium also produces a club. RSC Anderlecht, like the Austrians, has produced 54 players.

More news





More sports news