Play the kids
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If this summer’s transfer window showed one thing it was that the biggest and richest clubs in Europe are obsessed with young players. Of the five biggest transfers of the summer, the oldest was 25-year-old Alexander Isak’s €145 million move from Newcastle to Liverpool, while the other four players were aged 22 or 23. The most expensive move for a player aged 29 or older was Galatasaray’s €27.5m signing of goalkeeper Uğurcan Çakır – which was the 77th biggest move of the summer.
Indeed, football clubs have always looked to scoop up young players with bags of potential but this year’s market has taken things to new levels. Never before has there been a greater premium on players aged 23 or younger. As such, clubs around the world are profiting like never before from selling said players to the highest bidders. So, with that in mind and with one eye on where the stars of tomorrow may come from, let’s take a look at which European leagues offered the most game time to players aged 21 or younger last season.
Which leagues gave the most minutes to U21 players last season?
To no great surprise, many of Europe’s richest leagues are near the bottom of the list when we rank each of the top 20 top-flights according to UEFA’s coefficients by the total league minutes played by U21 players last season. Serie A is third bottom, just below the Bundesliga, Premier League and LaLiga. To no great surprise, the French top-flight does far better than the other big five leagues, with 17.4% of all league minutes last season going to young players. The worst culprits in Europe are none other than the Greek Super League 1 and the Turkish Süper Lig, while Portugal’s Liga Portugal and the Scottish Premiership also rank notably low in this metric.
When we look towards the top of the list there are some familiar names as well as some surprise inclusions. Most football fans appreciate that the Dutch Eredivisie (4th) and the Belgian Jupiler Pro League (2nd) are fantastic breeding grounds for future world class stars, but as we can see they don’t hold the top spot in last season’s list. Somewhat surprisingly, the Nordic nations have taken great strides in their youth development and not only does the Norwegian Eliteserien sit fifth and the Danish SuperLiga sit third, but the Swedish Allsvenskan sits top of all other European top-flights with a remarkable 22.5% of all league minutes last season going to players aged 21 or younger.
Which clubs gave the most minutes to U21 players last season?
If you’re interested in some further reading on the topic and would like to know which clubs offered the most game time to U21 players last season, then you can click on the graphic above to see our deep-dive into those stats. Like the aforementioned figures on Europe’s top 20 leagues, there are some obvious names near the top of the list, such as RB Leipzig and Brighton, but the club that offered more game time to U21 players than any other in Europe last season will likely surprise most football fans.