The most profitable club academies in world football - ranked

One of the most joyous moments as a football fan is seeing a young player come through the academy of your club and start bossing it for the team they support.

It creates a special feeling of pride for fanbases when 'one of their own' emerges from nowhere and enjoys great success. While those stars are often treated like royalty by supporters while they are still performing well, a lot of clubs worldwide often jump at the chance to sell them on for huge profits to elite sides around the globe.

Great footballing institutions like Manchester United and Barcelona are synonymous with successful academy set-ups, but those clubs often keep their best talents to instead promote them into the first team over time.

With that in mind, here are the ten most profitable football academies in terms of revenue generated over the last ten years by the transfers of players who spent at least three seasons there between the ages of 15 and 21, as generated by the CIES Football Observatory.

1. Benfica (Benfica Campus) - €516m/£444m

Leading the way by a country mile, Benfica's academy has been producing top talent for years. The club is perfectly placed as the Primeira Liga is respected as a tough league to play in and there often isn't a huge amount of transition needed to move from Benfica to one of Europe's elite teams.

The biggest fee for a player who meets the criteria was Joao Felix's £113m move to Atletico Madrid in 2019. Ruben Dias (£61m to Man City) and Goncalo Ramos (£68m to Paris Saint-Germain) also contributed large chunks of that final tally, while many lesser-known players have left Benfica in the last decade for healthy fees.

Benfica's academy is based in the Seixal area of Lisbon and is regarded as one of the most fertile areas in the world for footballing talent, be that players or coaches.

2. Ajax (Ajax Youth Academy) - €376m/£323m

Few clubs have such a clear and defined identity as Ajax. Part of that culture famously includes producing wonderful young footballers, many of whom have gone on to enjoy top careers outside of the Netherlands.

They might be second to Benfica for player sales here by around £100m, but their spot near the top was never in doubt.

The biggest fee Ajax received in the past decade for an academy graduate was the £65m Barcelona paid for Frenkie de Jong in 2019. They also sold Matthijs de Ligt for a similar fee in that lucrative summer, while others like Jurrien Timber and Donny van de Beek have added to the overall earnings.

The scale of Ajax's production is also shown by having sold the most academy graduates on this list with 36, six more than Benfica.

The Dutch giants may be struggling for form this season but they will certainly continue selling elite homegrown talent for many years to come.

3. Lyon (Olympique Lyonnais Reserves & Academy) - €370m/£318m

Considering Lyon haven't made much of a splash in European football over the past decade barring a Champions League semi-final appearance in 2020, it may come as a surprise that they are on the podium here.

Alexander Lacazette's £46.5m transfer to Arsenal was the biggest fee received for one of their academy products, while more recently they recouped around £39m when Bradley Barcola moved to PSG and £25.8m for Castello Lukeba's transfer to RB Leipzig.

Other movers in recent years include Malo Gusto to Chelsea, Corentin Tolisso to Bayern Munich and Samuel Umtiti to Barcelona.

4. Real Madrid (La Fabrica) - €364m/£313m

It feels slightly surprising for Real Madrid to be quite so high here, given any footballer who can fetch a massive fee tends to be a player Real Madrid want.

Achraf Hakimi was their most expensive academy export, costing Inter £37m back in 2020. Sergio Reguilon's £28.5m move to Tottenham helped, while players like Marcos Llorente, Jese Rodriguez and Alvaro Morata have all garnered decent fees.

5. Chelsea (Chelsea FC Development Squad & Academy) - €347m/£299m

Chelsea are up next, being narrowly beaten by Real Madrid despite both clubs selling 28 players. Interestingly, the Blues only made £35m from 2014 to 2018 but then raked in £264m from 2019 to 2023. It's clear to see when they started selling off academy talent to raise funds for the first team.

The biggest fee they have received for an academy graduate was the £55m Man Utd paid for Mason Mount in 2023. The sale of Tammy Abraham to Roma for £34m also helped, as well as selling Romelu Lukaku to Everton.

Plenty of other recognisable names have been sold by Chelsea in recent years. Fikayo Tomori, Marc Guehi, Nathan Ake and Ruben Loftus-Cheek have all been moved on for big fees.

6. AS Monaco (AS Monaco Reserves and Academy) - €325m/£280m

Monaco are the team with the fewest players sold in this top ten, bagging £280m from just 18 academy graduates. Their figures are helped massively by the £155m PSG paid for Kylian Mbappe back in 2018.

Even without Mbappe, they have sold some great players in recent years, although less of them are from the Monaco academy than you might think. Big fees for players like Anthony Martial, Aurelien Tchouameni and Thomas Lemar do not factor in here.

Benoit Badiashile fetched £32.7m when he moved to Chelsea, while the Ligue 1 side got £21.5m for Layvin Kurzawa when he joined PSG. Many of the biggest names Monaco have sold were actually players they picked up elsewhere at a young age.

They have still picked up handsome fees for their own work along the way, though.

7. Sporting CP (Academia Cristiano Ronaldo) - €306m/£263m

Another Portuguese side, Sporting CP can't quite match the levels of city rivals Benfica but have done a pretty good job of earning cash from the academy.

Joao Mario somewhat surprisingly remains their biggest academy export thanks to his £38.7m move to Inter in 2016, while Nuno Mendes' £33m move to PSG in 2022 was another major deal.

Players like Gelson Martins, Joao Palhinha, Adrien Silva and Rafael Leao have all contributed to their place on this list.

8. Tottenham (Tottenham Hotspur Training Academy) - €256m/£220m

Tottenham squeak into the top ten after Harry Kane's summer transfer to Bayern Munich. The initial £86m they received for the striker accounts for a lot of their overall £220m balance.

Andros Townsend is also a Spurs graduate and fetched almost £13m, but the majority of Tottenham's earnings from the academy have been low-profile deals under £10m. It all adds up, however.

9. Man City (The City Football Academy) - €254m/£219m

Creating a successful academy has been a major project for the Man City ownership over the years, ploughing almost endless cash into developing stars of the future.

The fruits of their labour are now becoming clearer for everyone to see. With players like Phil Foden, Micah Hamilton, Oscar Bobb and Rico Lewis in and around the first team, they have homegrown talents who would fetch a pretty penny on the market.

Cole Palmer decided his time with the Cityzens was up last summer and was sold to Chelsea for at least £40m. They also got £25m for Kelechi Iheanacho in 2017, too.

You know how every time Man Utd concede a goal in a cup competition, it turns out the scorer came from their academy? Well, City may soon be haunted by their former youth stars in the future, having made £176.5m between 2019 and 2023 from the academy.

10. Atalanta (Zingonia Academy) - €250m/£215m

The sole Serie A representatives in the top ten, Atalanta have done much better with their academy from a financial standpoint compared to their domestic rivals. For context, Inter are the next most profitable side from Italy with €134m/£115m.

The biggest sale from the academy was Dejan Kulusevski, who cost Juventus £32m. They also made £27m by selling Alessandro Bastoni to Inter, while they really pulled AC Milan's pants down by getting £21m for Andrea Conti. They also got at least £18m from Man Utd for Amad Diallo, but that could rise due to the many add-ons and bonuses in that deal.

Serie A is littered with former Atalanta players, many of whom are academy graduates who have helped generate this £215m.

Club academies that have generated over £100m from player sales in the past decade

The most profitable academy outside of Europe is Flamengo who are 13th, narrowly beating River Plate, the highest Argentine team. They have raised £192m, almost double what Boca Juniors have managed to raise.

In terms of sheer numbers, AS Roma and Inter have shipped the most players, both selling 35 academy graduates. That helps to show why you get lumbered with so many returning loanees when you coach an Italian club on any Football Manager game.

Considering the size of the club, Juventus are very far down, raising just under £81m in the past decade. That could change in the near future as their Next Gen project is starting to produce talented players who will fetch fees if sold.

A team that is also rapidly rising up the list is Brighton. Between 2014 and 2018, they made barely any money from their academy, but £78.3m was then gained between 2019 to 2023. The academy is bringing results now and that should continue into the near future.

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