Best football academy in the world 2024, Best football academy in Europe 2024, Top 10 best football academy in England
The Top 5 Greatest Football Academies In The World Revealed – Ajax Only 9th
Football academies are a starting point for every professional football player. These centers of development enable upcoming soccer players to learn what they need to know about the game.
There are many football academies across the continent and the world at large - however, we'll be dealing with the top 5 greatest football academies. These soccer institutes have managed plenty of Europe's big guns including the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Christiano Ronaldo, and Kevin De Bryune.
How The Ranking Is Done
There are many football academies in the world and this makes it more difficult for one to navigate to know which ones are the best.
However, we are going to use a method that involves the number of footballers that are playing in Europe's top five leagues. The five leagues are the English Premier League, Spanish, Italian Seria A, German Bundesliga, and French League 1.
Football academies produce professional footballers and some of them play in any of the above-mentioned leagues which are regarded as a standard. Hence, the more the number of soccer professionals playing in any of Europe's top five leagues produced, the better the football academy.
Brief Analysis on Some Teams That Made the List
Many would think that the football academy of Ajax is the clear winner but that is not so. Though the Ajax youth academy is notable for producing many world-class footballers, they are ranked in 9th place with 20 youth graduates playing in the top-five leagues.
Even so, Barcelona has the greatest football Academy as they have produced an outstanding 38 professional players playing across the top 5 leagues in Europe. The
"La Masia" youth academy is ranked the best by BettingOdds.com - an award that was earned after a series of rigorous research.
Completing the top three is Paris-Saint German (PSG) and Real Madrid - both have produced 33 and 31 academy graduates who are playing in Europe's top five leagues.
Rounding off the bottom three are AS Monaco, Celta Vigo, and Benfica with 15,16, and 16 graduates respectively.
Surprisingly, Bayern Munich has not made the list despite being one of the best teams in Europe.
The 5 Greatest Football Academies In Europe (With Players In Top-five Leagues)
- Chelsea
- Barcelona
- PSG
- Ajax
- Benfica
The most profitable club academies in world football - ranked
Club |
Revenue (€ / £) |
Players Sold |
Benfica |
€516m / £444m |
30 |
Ajax |
€376m / £323m |
36 |
Lyon |
€370m / £318m |
32 |
Real Madrid |
€364m / £313m |
28 |
Chelsea |
€347m / £299m |
28 |
AS Monaco |
€325m / £280m |
18 |
Sporting CP |
€306m / £263m |
31 |
Tottenham |
€256m / £220m |
23 |
Man City |
€254m / £219m |
27 |
Atalanta |
€250m / £215m |
34 |
RB Salzburg |
€249m / £214m |
18 |
PSV Eindhoven |
€248m / £213.5m |
22 |
Flamengo |
€228m / £196m |
27 |
River Plate |
€223m / £192m |
30 |
Porto |
€221m / £190m |
19 |
Real Sociedad |
€218m / £187.8m |
34 |
Bayer Leverkusen |
€214m/£184m |
11 |
PSG |
€212m/£182.6m |
27 |
Aston Villa |
€203m/£175m |
11 |
Liverpool |
€199m/£171.4m |
19 |
Dinamo Zagreb |
€193m/£166.2m |
25 |
Barcelona |
€189m/£162.8m |
28 |
Arsenal |
€181m/£156m |
26 |
Atletico Madrid |
€180m/£155m |
12 |
Anderlecht |
€179m/£154.2m |
25 |
Man Utd |
€174m/£149.9m |
27 |
Borussia Dortmund |
€172m/£148.1m |
18 |
Palmeiras |
€171m/£147.3m |
17 |
Santos |
€168m/£144.7m |
19 |
West Ham |
€165m/£142.1m |
8 |
Sao Paulo |
€159m/£137m |
26 |
Southampton |
€158m/£136.1m |
10 |
Schalke 04 |
€151m/£130m |
17 |
Stade Rennais |
€151m/£130m |
22 |
Athletic Club |
€149m/£128.3m |
4 |
Fluminense |
€143m/£123.1m |
19 |
Feyenoord |
€143m/£123.1m |
18 |
Valencia |
€142m/£122.2m |
15 |
Saint-Etienne |
€141m/£121.4m |
9 |
Gremio |
€135m/£116.2m |
16 |
Inter |
€134m/£115.4m |
35 |
AS Roma |
€131m/£112.7m |
24 |
Fiorentina |
€123m/£105.9m |
14 |
Nottingham Forest |
€122m/£105m |
10 |
Leicester City |
€119m/£102.4m |
6 |
Bayern Munich |
€118m/£101.5m |
24 |
Everton |
€118m/£101.5m |
15 |
Bordeaux |
€117m/£100.7m |
15 |
Conclusion
That was all about the top 25 greatest football academies in the world revealed – Ajax only 9th. Let's have your input via the comments section.