The best leagues in Europe for teenage wonderkids
We rank Europe's top five leagues in terms of how many minutes they have handed to teenage wonderkids in the 2023/24 season.
As a young player striving for first-team minutes, picking the right club and league can be a challenge.
Football clubs are notorious for promising the world to young teenage wonderkids in order to complete a transfer or to encourage the player to sign a new contract.
However, shortly after the contract has been signed, young players can find themselves on the bench, or out of the manager's first-team plans altogether.
Europe has become a hotbed for young talent to develop, and with more clubs striving to build more robust academy structures.
We take a look back at the 2023/24 season to analyse which of Europe's top five leagues (Premier League, Serie A, Ligue 1, Bundesliga and LALIGA) offered the best environment for teenage wonderkids to get first team minutes.
We've created an algorithm which ranks the best five leagues based on first-team minutes, starts, and full 90 minutes completed by teenagers.
Our methodology for the WNDRKD Score: For the algorithm, we have only looked at teenagers in Europe's top five leagues who have registered at least 90 minutes or more in the 2023/24 season.
For example, out of all 349 teenagers who registered at least one minute in their respective league, only 175 had played over 90 minutes across the course of the season.
Seeing as we're looking at the best league for teenagers to thrive, we will ignore teenagers who have only received a handful of nominal minutes (e.g. Kaide Gordon for Liverpool, who played one minute in the 23/24 season).
Here are Europe's best five leagues, ranked by how "wonderkid-friendly" they are:
5. Bundesliga
WNDRKD Score: 1.028
Number of teenagers with at least 1 minute: 50
Number of teenagers with at least 90 minutes: 22
Total minutes for teenagers: 16,512
Avg. minutes per teenager: 330 minutes
Total # of starts for teenagers: 161
Despite its reputation as a development ground for young footballing talent, the German Bundesliga was surprisingly the worst league in the 23/24 season in terms of game time for teenagers.
Bundesliga champions Bayer 04 Leverkusen handed the fewest minutes to teenagers, with just 16 minutes being awarded to Noah Mbamba by Xabi Alonso.
Bayern Munich (2,457) handed the most number of minutes to teenagers, with Eintracht Frankfurt (2,261) and Köln (2,105) just behind the Bavarian giants.
Hugo Larsson of Eintracht Frankfurt gained the most minutes for a teenager in the German Bundesliga in 23/24, racking up 1,886 minutes and 29 appearances.
4. Serie A
WNDRKD Score: 1.468
Total teenagers with at least 1 minute: 61
Total teenagers with at least 90 minutes: 25
Total minutes: 23,507
Avg. minutes per teenager: 385 minutes
Total # of starts for teenagers: 231
Italy's Serie A is becoming a key destination for teenage wonderkids, with 23,507 minutes being awarded to players aged 19 and under.
In the 2023/24 Serie A season, Atalanta (31) handed the most starts to teenagers, but Juventus (2,902) and Monza (2,987) handed the most minutes to young talent.
Empoli, Inter, Udinese and AC Milan all handed zero starts to teenager wonderkids, which is incredible considering AC Milan gave minutes to 8 different teenagers in 23/24, the most in Serie A.
Giorgio Scalvini registered the most amount of minutes for a teenager in Serie A, with the Atalanta defender earning 2,544 minutes for the Italian side at just 19-years-old.
3. LALIGA
WNDRKD Score: 1.716
Total teenagers with at least 1 minute: 61
Total teenagers with at least 90 minutes: 29
Total minutes: 26,960
Avg. minutes per teenager: 442 minutes
Total # of starts for teenagers: 282
LALIGA has always been a hotbed for young footballing talent, and no club more so than Barcelona with its prestigious La Masia youth academy producing players like Lamine Yamal, Alejandro Balde, and Pau Cubarsí.
Due to recent financial constraints, Barcelona have leaned heavily on their academy, with eight teenagers gaining minutes, the most in LALIGA.
Barcelona (72), Valencia (40), and Girona (37) handed the most starts to teenagers in LALIGA 23/24.
Osasuna (0), Rayo Vallecano (0), Cádiz (0), Real Sociedad (1), and Athletic Club (1) handed the fewest starts to teenagers.
Valencia's centre-back Cristhian Mosquera played the most minutes for a teenager in LALIGA, making 36 appearances and 3,075 minutes across the 23/24 season.
2. Premier League
WNDRKD Score: 1.754
Total teenagers with at least 1 minute: 74
Total teenagers with at least 90 minutes: 31
Total minutes: 26,337
Avg. minutes per teenager: 370 minutes
Total # of starts for teenagers: 293
Due to a recent surge in clubs worried about the Premier League's Profit & Sustainability Rules (the EPL's version of Financial Fair Play), the role of academy players in squads has become more important.
Coupled with the increase in injuries, and average minutes per game in the Premier League 23/24 season, teenagers are gifted more opportunities at Premier League clubs.
Brighton led the rankings in terms of the number of starts handed to teenagers (64), followed by Manchester United (58), Burnley (38) and Bournemouth (33).
Arsenal handed just 14 minutes to one teenager (Ethan Nwaneri) throughout the whole of the 23/24 Premier League season.
Manchester United wonderkid Alejandro Garnacho played the most minutes of any other teenager in the Premier League, earning 2,565 minutes across the 23/24 season.
1. Ligue 1
WNDRKD Score: 3
Total teenagers with at least 1 minute: 103
Total teenagers with at least 90 minutes: 60
Total minutes: 45,775
Avg. minutes per teenager: 456 minutes
Total # of starts for teenagers: 497
Ligue 1 significantly outperforms the other big leagues in giving opportunities to young players, as evidenced by leading in all metrics (Minutes, Starts, and 90s completed).
Reims (10), Lyon (9), Strasbourg (8), and Monaco (8) had the most teenagers who gained at least one appearance in the 2023/24 season.
Lyon (5,690) gave the most minutes to teenagers such as Ernest Nuamah, Rayan Cherki, and Sael Kumbedi, with Metz (5,022), Toulouse (4,699) and Strasbourg (4,521) not far behind.
Toulouse goalkeeper Guillaume Restes played the most minutes of any teenager in Ligue 1 during the 23/24 season with 3,060 minutes played.
Ligue 1 is by far the best European league for young players in terms of gaining minutes, starts, and completed 90s.
The French league is now an attractive location for young academy prospects and teenagers across the world looking to gain first-team experience in one of Europe's best and most competitive leagues.
The Bundesliga has surprisingly fallen behind in recent years, despite its reputation with talented youngsters, largely driven by clubs like Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund believing in the teenagers within their ranks.
The 2024/25 season could see the most minutes for teenagers in Europe's top five leagues, which presents an exciting prospect for fans looking for the next generation of talent in the world's game.
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