The development of young talent is often at the forefront of football discussions, with debate constantly raging over which clubs run the best football academies in the world and which ones opt to ignore the quality of homegrown talent.
We know that there’s no such thing as a top-10 rundown without controversy, but we at Football Whispers have decided to rank those special clubs known to place a heavy emphasis on developing young players, helping them to progress into the first team.
Which are the best football academies in the world?
10. Partizan Belgrade
Serbia has always been a footballing hotbed, and it has often been thanks to the efforts of Partizan Belgrade. Lazar Markovic and Andrija Zivkovic are perhaps the two most prominent names to develop there recently, as are Nikola Ninkovic, Milos Jojic and Danilo Pantic.
In the past, the club has brought through players such as Stevan Jovetic, Matija Nastasic and Adem Ljajic, while Miralem Sulejmani and Aleksandar Mitrovic are fellow graduates.
9. AS Roma
Francesco Totti has never been alone, though the long-serving captain is the shining emblem not only of the club he represented, but also the club’s youth development programme of the Giallorossi. Daniele De Rossi, Alessandro Florenzi, Alessio Romagnoli and Andrea Bertolacci also stand as testament to its depth.
8. Dinamo Zagreb
Flying somewhat under the radar as a club compared to others in this list, the academy at Dinamo Zagreb deserves attention, with the club consistently developing hundreds of youngsters every year at a cost exceeding €1m per year. While that hasn’t translated to European trophies, the likes of Luka Modric and Marko Pjaca prove just how much bigger clubs will always benefit from the fruits of Dinamo’s labour, keeping the club itself afloat in a league it is expected to dominate.
7. Athletic Bilbao
While many sides approach youth development as either a way to make or save money, for Athletic Club it is a matter of heritage, tradition and fierce local pride. Shunning the world-view of their peers, the Basques have come to rely almost exclusively on their academy as they only allow players native to the region to pull on their famous red-and-white striped shirts. This way of life clearly does them no harm, as the club has never suffered relegation from La Liga, and today boasts the Williams brothers Inaki and Nico – the latter now a Euro winner – amongst its more recent triumphs.
6. Ajax
Ajax may not be the sheer talent machine it was in the latter half of the 20th century, but the fact that we have an entire page dedicated to the greatest graduates and Jong Ajax players ever to exist should say enough. Johan Cruyff is just the spearhead of a huge list to have worn the famous red and white practically from birth, with Wesley Sneijder and Dennis Bergkamp also amongst those forged in the great Dutchman’s image.
5. Benfica
Shining star Joao Felix is a true Benfica product, with his ability to play across the final third in any contemporary formation being self-evident. While he is yet to get anywhere near the likes of capital rivals Sporting Lisbon’s greatest-ever product (Cristiano Ronaldo), there is no doubting his status as a key contributor to the Eagles’ reputation for producing bright young talent. The same goes for serial winners like Ruben Dias, Goncalo Ramos and Bernardo Silva, making it unsurprising that the Benfica academy was named as the world’s most profitable in January 2024.
4. Manchester United
“Class of ’92” anybody? Under Sir Alex Ferguson, Old Trafford became synonymous with blooding youngsters, the wily old Scot proving you could indeed win things with kids. The club may never again produce a generation of players able to live up to the ability of Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham et al, but Tom Cleverley, Adnan Januzaj and Jesse Lingard have continued a proud tradition that goes back to Sir Bobby Charlton and George Best.
3. Sporting CP
After its inauguration in June 2002 after a near three-year construction process, the Sporting academy became the very first in Europe to become part of the ‘ISO 9000 family’, receiving a quality certification awarded by the EIC. From there, Sporting lived up to its recognition, and has always had a rich presence in national team squads at every age level. Able to point to names such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Joao Moutinho and Luis Figo, their talent-pool is remarkable and shows no signs of slowing down.
2. Bayern Munich
Bayern might be one of Europe’s elite clubs, but they are also very evidently willing to pay whatever it takes to bring through their own homegrown stars as regularly as possible. With a mandate to implement a philosophy of “integrating mental and physical strength in players” and teaching local youngsters to understand the club's identity, it appears Bayern’s approach is working remarkably well.
Notable graduates include Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm, Toni Kroos, Thomas Muller, David Alaba and Owen Hargreaves.
1. Barcelona
Do you really need an explanation? The incredible collection of talent that has graduated from La Masia training centre have achieved almost everything possible from one academy, with the club managing to get XI of their own homegrown stars on the field at once in November 2012, just 12 months after a trio of such players – Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi, the tiki-taka masters – formed the three-man shortlist for the Ballon d’Or.
The latter of those has gone on to win the award eight times, and is the current holder. But that most certainly wouldn’t be the case without other great La Masia products, such as Sergio Busquets, Pedro, Victor Valdes, Carles Puyol, Cesc Fabregas and Gerard Pique. Simply put, the list is seemingly endless, and Barcelona’s academy looks set to reign for as long as the club stays afloat in uncertain times.
