Barcelona are the best team in Europe for producing footballers, Sporting Intelligence have revealed today.
The Bluagrana are responsible for 38 players in Europe’s top five Leagues, seven more than second-placed Olympique Lyonnais.
The website has defined ‘produced’ as: “a player who has spent three or more years within the development programme of the club in question specifically between the ages of 15 and 21, which are considered a footballer’s most important ‘formative’ years.”
14 of Barca’s products currently ply their trade elsewhere, these include Valencia’s Oriel Romeu, Napoli goalkeeper Pepe Reina and Ajax forward Bojan Krkic.
Three other Spanish clubs made it into the top 10, with Real Madrid coming in third, Real Sociedad eighth and Atletico Madrid 10th.
