Best Footballing Academy in the World

I am talking about players who are still in the game. Which club has produced the highest quality of talent. For me,

1) Barcelona - Messi, Xavi, Iniesta

2) West Ham - Ferdinand, Joe Cole, Fat Frank, Carrick

3) Everton- Rooney, Leon F***ing Osman 

Easily Barcelona, when you look at their squad, these are all from their own youth:

Victor Valdes, Gerard Piqué, Carles Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Bojan, Busquets, Pedro.

And there's players like Fabregas, Reina and possibly others? that are originally from their youth.

Actually real Madrid do produce a lot of talented footballers but they are not given a chance ti prove their worth at the club. For example negredo. They seems so keen to buy the best players in the world with galatican value. Absolute joke of a club when compared to barcelona.

Negredo never played in Real's youth, but I have to agree with you, Real doesn't seem very smart about their academy.

Not at the present moment but Ajax have had some of the worlds best come through their academy. Oh and I can say I spent 6 months coaching in their academy as well .

Ones that automatically spring to mind are Barca, Madrid, Ajax and Boca Juniors.

Everton? Nah not for me, other than Rooney I don't think any of the others have the potential to become a top player or have any other player to have played at International.

Barca without doubt for the ones already mentioned above.

Barca. Easy, they sh*t out talent there.

Used to automatically be Ajax but the quality of players Barc have produced the last few years is something else.

Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, Puyol, Valdes, Pedro, Bojan, Busquets, Picque talk about a F***ing golden generation of players nearly there whole team has come through there youth academy

How many that started at Ajax are playing top level now? Still up there I bet

Messi was actually produced by Newell's Old Boys
But i know, Barca made him into what he is

You can also add Pacheco to the Barca list by the way

How many that started at Ajax are playing top level now? Still up there I bet

Nah, not anymore. The only players playing at a decent level now that played in Ajax youth are Babel, Heitinga, Nigel De Jong, Maduro, Seedorf, Sneijder, vd Vaart and Vermaelen. Then there's the players like Chivu, Zlatan, Huntelaar, Kanu, Maxwell, Pienaar, vd Sar who were scouted at a later age.

Ajax's youth academy has been in serious decline for the past decade, it's a mess there, result of bad policy. The dutch league can't compete anymore with the top leagues financially, it's impossible now to keep young talented players and to bring back former Ajax players back at a later age. At some point they left their succesfull formula of relying on their youth, to go buy overpriced 2nd rank players just to add some experience and strength instead of playing their youth. Last season Cruyff  stepped in to fix all this, to fix the youth and scouting and the whole technical side of Ajax, but van Basten was already hired as manager and he didn't want to give Cruyff free reigns, which resulted into Cruyff walking away from it and leaving it to van Basten. Ofcourse van Basten was way too inexperienced and walked away himself later that season. The sad thing for Ajax is, Cruyff could've fixed alot, if anyone can it's him. His influence is visible at Barcelona where he's still involved with the youth and as general advisor. Also, their technical side, the attacking 4-3-3 style of play, even the managers, Rijkaard, Guardiola, clearly show his influence.

That said, Ajax are trying to return to their roots, relying on youth, and they have some really interesting and talented youngsters there now. Mentioned this in another thread, last weekend I watched Ajax their defense had an average age of 21 years old However, I think they have about 7 homegrown potential top players in their current squad. It's the only way to go for a small club like that. Keep your eyes open for Christian Eriksen, he's the next big thing coming from Ajax, a technical playmaker type player, apparently Barcelona and Arsenal are already on his tail.

Thanks Dexter for the info on Christian Eriksen. Never heard of him.

Ajax or Barca.

The best in England is West Ham.

Nah, not anymore. The only players playing at a decent level now that played in Ajax youth are Babel, Heitinga, Nigel De Jong, Maduro, Seedorf, Sneijder, vd Vaart and Vermaelen. Then there's the players like Chivu, Zlatan, Huntelaar, Kanu, Maxwell, Pienaar, vd Sar who were scouted at a later age.

Oh is that all 

Barcalona without doubt. They have something like eight youth teams

Barca is an obvious example, hear great things about Ajax too
Got pictures with the players when I was in Amsterdam years ago - quality names from their academy

Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard, Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf, Patrick Kluivert, Dennis Bergkamp, Van der Vaart, Van der Mayde, Ibrahimovic

Crazy talent

^^

Hard to think that Ibrahimovic used to play for Ajax.

Plus, Juve let him go to Inter for only 16 million euros

Which is like, £14 million

That's because they got put down to Serie B, would have thought he'd have some clause in his contract to leave pretty cheap should they get relegated.

Oh aye yeah, well remembered  

Reminds me of Berbatov a bit, pure quality but unbelievably lazy

^^

Hard to think that Ibrahimovic used to play for Ajax.

I remember this goal very well

Voetbal Worldgoal Zlatan Ibrahimovic Ajax - Nac 2004

Like to see him try that now, would probably fall over the ball or something

He wouldn't even try anymore

Best Academy? I produced some great talent in Football Manager too?   

Xavi, Iniesta, Messi. 3 big enough names to tilt it in Barca's favour.

On the subject surrounding young players, does anyone else find it hilarious that Ferguson chose Jonny Evans over Gerard Pique when they were both at United? 

 

On the subject surrounding young players, does anyone else find it hilarious that Ferguson chose Jonny Evans over Gerard Pique when they were both at United? 

 

Weird isn't it.

The other one is letting Giuseppi Rossi go in favour of Berbashite.

Sporting Lisbon have a pretty decent academy.

Weird isn't it.

The other one is letting Giuseppi Rossi go in favour of Berbashite.

Any money Rafa would get slaughtered in the media if he dropped the ball like that  

Oh well, jokes on Fergie.

La Masía is the heart of Barcelona youth system, which is located next to the Camp Nou Stadium.

It was established in 1979 and now used to develop the young players that have had to leave their families in order to train at Barcelona both in a sporting and intellectual sense.

Barca without a doubt in Spain. Fabregas, Busquets, Messi, Reina, Xavi, Iniesta, Bojan, Pique, Puyol, Valdes and soon to be Pacheco have all come from their academy and are all world class.

In England it has to be W.Ham. Carrick, Johnson, Ferdinand, J.Cole, Lampard, Hines, Collison, Noble and Stanislas have all come from their academy.

I wouldn't include Hines, Collison or Stanislas. What have any of them actually done apart from have about 2 good games? Not Premiership material.

Messi was created through Newell's Old Boys
Not Barca

Well he did sign for Barca at 13 years of age, still had a lot of developing to do from there I would have thought. He would have been playing alongside the likes of Iniesta, Pedro, etc..

Weren't Barca the ones who prescribed steroids or growth hormones for him too.