The youth are our future. You and I aren’t the only ones that know this. Football clubs are well aware of it and are doing everything they can to ensure the future is bright. From a football perspective at least.
I’m sure we’ve all heard about famous youth football academies around the world and how they’re responsible for producing the greatest talents. With that being said, one question comes to mind; how do youth football academies work?
In summary, youth academies serve as education centers for future football stars. It is here where young players are taught the skills and techniques necessary to succeed as professionals. Primarily, youth academies are beneficial to teams as they allow them to produce their own talents. The alternative would be to pay massive fees for every team member. For this reason, and more, youth academies are an integral part of the footballing industry.
Table of Contents
What is a youth football academy?
A youth academy is an organization where players below the age of 21 are given a football education.
Football clubs will take players in from a young age and give them the fundamental skill and training necessary to compete on a professional level.
It is also the responsibility of football clubs to provide youth players with adequate freedom to receive an academic education.
Why do youth football academies exist?
Those familiar with North American culture will know that their athlete education system involves putting athletes through the college system.
After which, professional franchises will attempt to outbid one another to obtain the best of the bunch. However, youth academies serve as the primary source of football education in other areas of the world.
Many European and South American football teams have incorporated youth academies into their organisation.
The main reason for this being that clubs aim to nurture world class talents in-house to prevent having to pay a large sum for the best players in the future.
Once a football player is already established as a professional, the price to obtain their services skyrockets. The price to obtain the services of a player is also known as a transfer fee. To read more about how transfers work in football, check out this article.
In addition, if a player is developed in a youth system and eventually becomes a professional, they are more likely to be loyal towards the club that developed them. This loyalty is likely going to be evident in their performances.
Another benefit of having a youth academy is that it results in good public relations for football clubs. By operating and maintaining a youth system, clubs show that they are committed to raising and nurturing the youth to be future leaders.
It may just be football, but like most things, it is important that continuity is maintained.
Who can join a youth football academy?
For the most part, players are usually scouted to join youth academies from the age of 9. However, some big clubs with vast resources have development groups targeted towards younger players.
There are limited spaces available at most clubs, so players usually have to undergo trials to be accepted into a club.
Although, for most big clubs, players need to be scouted to be given a chance to trial. It is very rare that big clubs will hold open trials that allow for anyone to participate.
Most clubs have a deep, often global, scouting network that they use to find talented players. These scouts usually look for talented players at junior tournaments and schools.
How do youth football contracts work?
Contracts for youth level players understandably have the potential to be legal nightmares.
To prevent this from being the case, player contracts are split into three separate phases to reflect the level of each player. The three levels are as follows:
- Foundation phase, ages 9 – 11
- Youth development phase, ages 12 –16
- Professional development phase, ages 17 – 21
For each of the above phases, different contracts are available. For players in the foundation phase, contracts are renewed on a year by year basis, if the club is happy with a player’s progress.
In the youth development phase, players ages 12 and 14 can still only sign one-year contracts. However, players ages 13 can be given the chance to sign a two-year contract (from 13-15).
This gives them a bit of breathing room to purely focus on improving rather than worrying about their future at the club.
In the professional development phase, players that have impressed the club enough to continue their development can be offered a scholarship.
A scholarship is essentially a full-time internship in which the player develops further with the club. These internship contracts typically run for 2 years at a time.
What age do players sign professional contracts?
If a player proves to be a true talent, they can be signed onto professional contracts from the age of 17 in most top leagues.
However, these players are the exception and not the rule. There are several players to have signed professional contracts at 17. Notable players include Wayne Rooney, Jack Wilshire and Reece Oxford.
In the Eliteserien (the top Norwegian football league), players as young as 15 are eligible to sign professional contracts. A notable example of this is Martin Ødegaard, who signed for Strømsgodset at the age of 15.
Do youth players get paid?
Players are only legally eligible to earn a salary once they sign a professional contract. However, it is not uncommon that the families of players receive some financial support while they develop.
This is especially the case for players that live far from the club training grounds.
Much like professional players, youth players can employ external agents to ensure that clubs do not take advantage of them. There has been much controversy over the ethics of agents in football.
When considering youth players, the controversy grows even further. Players are legally allowed to receive agent representation only once they turn 16.
To read more about how players are paid, once they become professionals, check out this article.
What is the youth transfer market?
Strictly speaking, transferring of football players below the age of 18 is prohibited. This is stated in the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players issued by FIFA. However, there are exemptions to this rule. Specifically, a youth footballer below 18 years of age can transfer clubs if one of the following three conditions is met:
- The players parents move to another country for reasons that do not have anything to do with football.
- For European footballers, the transfer takes places within a country in the EU and the player is between the ages of 16 and 18. In this case, the club must prove to FIFA that the player shall be given a good football and academic education, as well as optimum living conditions.
- The player lives no further than 100km from the club’s headquarters and training grounds.
For the abovementioned reasons, transfers of minors within Europe have become commonplace.
Notable youth transfers
Nowadays, youth transfers are extremely prevalent in Europe with players as young as 16 being transferred for millions. In 2018, Pietro Pellegri (aged 16) transferred from Genoa to Monaco for a fee of £17.1 million.
In addition, Hannibal Mejbri (aged 16) transferred from AS Monaco to Manchester United for £4.55 million, in 2020.
With every major club in Europe looking to sign “the next” Messi or Ronaldo, it wouldn’t surprise me to see fees for under 18 players skyrocket in the near future.
How do youth football academies make money?
Youth academies should be looked at as more of an investment than a money-making scheme. Players are groomed to be the best players they possibly can be in their given club environment.
If a player becomes good enough to play for the first team, the club will have saved a considerable amount of money, by developing them internally.
In addition, if other clubs deem the player to be exceptional, they may be willing to pay large sums of money for the player.
It’s reported that between 2012 and 2015, Southampton FC made £82 million from the sales of academy developed players.
If a player is not considered to be good enough to play for the first team, the club may choose to sell them at this point and are still able to make a profit.
Why don’t all clubs have youth football academies?
To put it bluntly, having a youth academy does not always yield a good return on investment. It’s been reported that only 0.5% of the of the footballers in English Football Academies go on to become professionals.
With that in mind, it comes as no surprise that not all clubs are able to profit from investing in a youth system.
Unless you are a big club, you are unlikely to attract the most naturally talented players to your club in the first place. This means that when these players mature, many are not ready to be introduced into the first team and are subsequently released. Clubs such as Brentford realised this earlier on.
Prior to the 2016/17 season, Brentford FC announced that they would be shutting down their youth academy. This is due to the large overhead costs involved with running the academy with little return on investment. Instead, they have since adopted a policy which sees them recruiting players aged 17 and onwards.
Notable youth football academies
It goes without saying that some youth academies are more successful than others when it comes to producing talent. In no particular order, I’ve listed 6 highly successful youth academies in world football as well as noteworthy players that they have produced.
| Club | Country | Notable players produced |
|---|---|---|
| Ajax | Netherlands | Johan Cruijff, Marco van Basten, Frenkie de Jong, Matthijs de Ligt, Wesley Sneijder |
| Barcelona | Spain | Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Ansu Fati, Xavi Hernandez, Josep Guardiola |
| Santos | Brazil | Neymar, Rodrygo, Emerson, Robinho, Pele |
| Sporting Lisbon | Portugal | Cristiano Ronaldo, Ricardo Pereira, Eric Dier, Rui Patricio, Willian Carvallho |
| Southampton | England | Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana, Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott, Alan Shearer |
| Lille | France | Eden Hazard, Franck Ribery, Kevin Mirallas, Lucas Digne, Benjamin Pavard |