Data reveals: Young footballers most likely to get playing time in the Danish Superliga
In Europe, footballers who are 21 or younger have the biggest chance of making minutes in the Danish Superliga, according to data from the research group CIES Football Observatory. Last season, football clubs in the highest Danish football competition gave 25,4% of the total minutes played to players who are 21 or younger.
Young footballers have the most chance of playing minutes for the first team in Denmark. Photo: Lauritsasmindandersen (CC BY-SA 4.0)
CIES Football Observatory collected data from 60 professional leagues worldwide and highlighted how many total minutes each club gives to players from different age categories throughout the 2021/22 season. The numbers in the graph are made up of the average percentage of playing time each club in the respective league gives to players under 22.
Denmark is a perfect example
The Danish Superliga puts the emphasis on developing its own talents. Every football club in the league must register at least eight homegrown players in their squad for the league. A minimum of four of those players must have been trained within the youth academy of the club and the other four must have been trained at another Danish club. If clubs fail to reach this target, the number of players the club can register will be reduced by the number of missing homegrown players. In 2021, FIFA stated that Denmark is a perfect example of maximising talent development.
Danish football club FC Nordsjaelland exceeds these expectations, as they gave more minutes to players under the age of 22 than any other football club in the world. FC Nordsjaelland gave 73,7% of their first team's minutes to their youngest players. Spanish second-tier side CD Mirandés (56,3%) and Austria club RB Salzburg (48,2%) complete the top 3 in Europe.
Impatience
Greece’s highest football division, the Super League, gives the least minutes to players 21 or younger. Panos Kostopoulos, a Greek football journalist, is not surprised. ‘Greek football is old-fashioned. Many clubs are only focused on results and there is a huge pressure to win every game fans, owners and agents. Only a few teams are smart enough to give opportunities to young players. But overall there is a lack of investment in youth development. Greek teams prefer a ‘’safe bet’’ from abroad rather than an 18-year-old Greek prospect from their academy.’
France tops the big 5
Out of the five biggest leagues in Europe, the French Ligue 1 gives the most opportunities to young players. France continuously seems to develop one golden generation after another and French football clubs invest a lot in their youth academies. The covid pandemic, a devastating collapse of the broadcast deal in 2020/21 and the strict eye of DNCG, France’s football financial watchdog, are reasons why clubs are now even more strongly dependent on their youth.
The Ligue 1 is becoming a great place for young talent to nurture, but in the long run, there is the risk of the French Ligue becoming feeders to other big leagues such as The Premier League or La Liga.
Youth to survive
Serbia is one of the surprising names in the top 5. Serbian football clubs have limited facilities, but continue to produce talent. An article by The Athletic revealed how for one of Serbia’s biggest clubs, Red Star Belgrade, producing quality players is a matter of survival. The academy players need to be good enough to play for the first team at a young age, but they also need to do well so that they can be sold to survive financially.
Red Star, for example, tends to push the most talented players up an age group to challenge them, meaning players tend to debut at a young age too. Because football clubs like Red Star or Partizan rely on the sales of their most talented youngsters, they often get sold at a young age too. Strikers Dušan Vlahović (Juventus) and Luka Jovic (Fiorentina) both got sold after shortly turning eighteen.
Text: Rik Tuinstra
