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News

Wed. 03 April 2024

Youth employment: world rankings

The 458th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post highlights the teams in 61 leagues around the world having fielded U21 footballers* for the highest percentage of minutes in the domestic league matches played over the last 365 days. Two excellent training clubs from Eastern Europe top the list: Ukraine’s Rukh Lviv (52.2%) and Slovakia’s MŠK Žilina (44.5%).

The Post also presents the rankings for the age limits ranging from U19 to U23 players. The top-ranked clubs for each of these age thresholds in the five major European leagues are Toulouse for the U19s, Barcelona for the U20s (ahead of Brighton & Hove), Strasbourg for the U21s and U22s, as well as Frosinone for the U23s (ahead of Chelsea).

Among the clubs from the 24 non-European leagues analysed, the highest values were recorded for Australia’s Adelaide United at U19 and U20 levels, Colombia’s Envigado for U21 players, as well as Fortaleza CEIF for U22s and U23s. Developed exclusively by the CIES Football Observatory, this Demographic Atlas provides access to many indicators on the composition of the squads of clubs in 31 top divisions of UEFA associations.

* Players who had not yet celebrated their 21st birthday at the time of the match.

>>> All the data

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