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Players coming through the academy at Manchester City are continuing to enjoy successful careers within the game.
A new report by a respected football think tank has named Manchester City's academy as the best in England, based on the number of players currently active within the game.
The CIES Football Observatory identified the clubs that have trained players currently active in 49 leagues around the world to establish its ranking of clubs with the best academies.
The methodology takes in the number of players trained now playing in those leagues, the level of the club they played for last year and the minutes played to come up with a ranking.
For the second year in a row it lists Benfica as having the best academy in the world, with 93 players trained, playing 2,582 minutes at an average level that the CIES rate at 0.807.
Barcelona are second, and some familiar talent factories are within the top 10, including Ajax, Sporting, and Argentine giants River Plate and Boca Juniors.
The report lists the top 100 clubs and City come in 21st, making them the leading English clubs. They had 50 players active in those leagues who had come through their academy, playing 2,746 minutes and at an average level of 0.857.
The other English clubs to feature in the top 100 are Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool, but City coming top of the tree is another feather in the cap for an academy that is not only producing players forcing their way into Pep Guardiola's plans, but also players who are being sold on for sizeable profits and enjoying promising careers elsewhere.
The report comes just a month after City had eight academy graduates making it onto the pitch in their Carabao Cup third round win at Huddersfield, with another two unused substitutes.
Guardiola was full of praise for the academy after that win but also called for calm around some of the young players and put it into perspective after the success he enjoyed with a largely homegrown group of players at Barcelona.
“Listen, in Barcelona, we played the first Champions League final against Man United with seven players [from the] academy – that is the stamp for the job of the Academy. To play one game in the Carabao Cup [against Huddersfield] is a good sign,” Guardiola insisted.
“But for me, players in the Academy are James Trafford, who has come back after being built here and of course in other clubs, in Burnley. And Phil [Foden] and Rico [Lewis] and Nico [O’Reilly]. That is the other ones.
“OK, Divine [Mukasa] has huge potential, but we will see in the future when [he’s] playing season after season. That is a player from the academy. But imagine the amount of players who unfortunately left. They were top, top class players, above, and could not have the space [in the team].
“It would be, my god, a starting 11 [player] right now in the first team, because if you start to count the incredible players in other clubs that was being educated and played here in Man City, in the academy. But it’s a good sign that still we have loan players playing a lot.
“Look at Max Alleyne in Watford, playing really good. And many of them, some here that have a potential to help us and see what happens. That’s why you have the academy.”
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