AC Milan are leading the way in Italy in terms of putting faith in young players, a study has revealed.
The CIES European Football Observatory (via Calcio e Finanza), has drawn up a ranking on the clubs that focus most on young and talented players. They compared all the clubs of the 31 major leagues of the UEFA member associations and take into account the average age of the players in every team’s squad when they were signed.
It must be added that the players who came through the teams’ academies were not included. Milan occupy 97th position in the overall ranking and are the only Serie A club present in the European Top 100, but when considering only the ‘top five’ European league, the Rossoneri are in 21st place.
Milan’s average age of recruitment is 24.3 years, and just missing out on the top 100 are Bologna (24.5) and Cagliari (24.7). CSKA Moscow are in first place with an average age of 21.1 years.
It perhaps shouldn’t be a surprise, given that in the match against Sampdoria Milan’s starting XI had an average age of 22.7 years.
