The key facts
- Benfica topped the CIES ranking for developing academy players with 101.3 points, as in 2025
- The methodology covers 49 championships and counts players who spent at least three seasons at the club aged 15–21
- The top 10 also included River Plate, Boca Juniors, Velez, Ajax, Barcelona, Sporting, Defensor, Real Madrid and Crvena Zvezda
Benfica first again
The International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) has published its annual ranking of the world's best clubs at developing young footballers. First place, as a year earlier, went to the Lisbon club Benfica, which scored 101.3 points. According to Kun.uz, the club has 93 academy graduates, but only four of them currently play in the Lisbon side's main team. Another 14 academy graduates play for clubs of the 'big five' — the championships of England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France, while the rest play for less prestigious teams.
How the ranking is calculated
According to the CIES methodology, a club's position is determined by the number of its academy players currently playing in the first teams of professional clubs — with 49 national championships taken into account. A player is considered a club's academy graduate if he spent at least three seasons in its main team between the ages of 15 and 21. Additional points are awarded depending on the level of the club where the graduate plays, the level of matches played, time spent on the pitch and the player's age — the older, the more points.
Argentine clubs behind
Second and third places went to Argentina's River Plate (97.6 points) and Boca Juniors (96.7 points). By the number of academy players meeting the methodology's criteria, they are not inferior to Benfica or even surpass it: River Plate have 94 academy players, Boca Juniors 93. However, as the publication notes, the graduates of the Argentine giants less often end up at top clubs — each of them has only 10 players in 'big five' teams, so they were awarded fewer points.
Who else made the top 10
The top ten also included Velez (Argentina), Ajax (Netherlands), Barcelona (Spain), Sporting (Portugal), Defensor (Uruguay), Real Madrid (Spain) and Crvena Zvezda (Serbia).
