If you were looking for a leader in England or Spain, you would be wrong. The current study by the independent research and education organization CIES Football Observatory presents the 100 clubs with the most profitable academies in the world. Incomes for the last ten years from transfers of footballers who spent at least three seasons there between the ages of 15 and 21 are included. Portugal’s Benfica is clearly in the lead with 516 million euros (converted to 12.8 billion crowns!), two thirds of which have been collected over the past five years.
Ajax Amsterdam (376 million euros) and Olympique Lyon (370 million euros) complete the podium. As with Benfica, the majority of Ajax’s academy transfer revenue has been generated over the past five years (66%). Despite transfer fee inflation, this percentage is much lower for Lyon (50%).
Transfer income from academy players (2014-2023)Millions €ClubPlayers1,516Benfica (Port.)302,376Ajax (Netherlands)363,370Olympique Lyon (Fr.)324,364Real Madrid (Spain)285,347Chelsea FC (England)286,325AS Monaco (Fr.)187,306Sporting (Port.)318,256Tottenham Hotspur (Eng.)239,254Manchester City (Eng.)2710,250Atalanta (It.)34
The top ten also includes three English clubs (Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester City), a second Portuguese team (Sporting), as well as Real Madrid (fourth), AS Monaco (sixth, largely thanks to the proceeds of Kylian Mbappé’s transfer to Paris St- Germain) and Italy’s Atalanta (tenth). Outside of Europe, the clubs with the most profitable academies are Brazil’s Flamengo (thirteenth) and Argentina’s River Plate (fourteenth).
Photo: Rodrigo Antunes, Reuters
The Águia Vitória eagle, Benfica’s live mascot, flies over the stadium before every home game.
There is no Czech club in the listed hundred.
The CIES Football Observatory is an International Center for Sports Studies. It is an independent research and educational organization based in Neuchatel, Switzerland. Last year’s study “The Football Investment Report”, which was created by the social investment platform eToro in cooperation with the Transfermarkt portal, also agrees with its conclusions. According to her, Portuguese academies are the most profitable in world football.
The report shows that Portugal has become the center of the football world when it comes to developing and profiting from young talent. The three biggest clubs in the country – Benfica, Sporting and Porto – have earned well over a billion euros in the last ten years from the sale of domestic players.
Benfica made money from the sale of stars such as João Félix, Ruben Dias and Ederson. For second Ajax, the biggest individual sale was its graduate Matthijs de Ligt. Among others, Cristiano Ronaldo made his mark in Sporting.
2024-01-20 09:18:13
#Benfica #trumps #Real #Madrid #Chelsea #Jurásek #leaves #club #recordbreaking #academy
