A total of as many as 395 under-23 players – born in 1998 or later – have made at least one appearance in one of Europe’s top five leagues at the start of the new season.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the French Ligue 1 is responsible for nearly 34% of the number, ahead of the Italian Serie A (18.7%), the German Bundesliga (18%), the Spanish La Liga (15.7%) and the English Premier League (13.7%).
I have also researched not only where all those under-23s come from, but more specifically – where they received their footballing education, i.e. whether they can be classified as homegrown players.
However, I have taken into consideration where they were schooled during the foundation phase of their development.
(This means that if you left your home country at the age of nine – as, for example, Nantes and France U21 goalkeeper Alban Lafont reportedly did when moving from Burkina Faso to France at that particular age – or later, you were still classified as a foreign youth product.)
Ligue 1 boasts the highest percentage of homegrown under-23s, just ahead of the Premier League and La Liga.
In the Bundesliga and in the Serie A most under-23 players are currently foreign.
Visit this blog next week for ‘Young Teams to Watch in 2020/21’.
In the picture (credit goes to Africatopsports): Alban Lafont was born in the Burkinabe capital of Ouagadougou before moving to France at the age of nine
BREAKTHROUGH 