Barcelona top the list of most home grown players across Europe; Liverpool don't make the cut
Barcelona’s youth policy sees them top the list of home grown European footballers while Manchester City are joint-last. According to the CIES Football Observatory, the Catalan club have developed a total of 43 players, of whom 13 are currently at the club.
Second in the list is Manchester United with 36. Louis van Gaal has already given debuts to seven youngsters this season and against West Brom last Monday, named the second-youngest line-up across the top five European Leagues this season.
Manchester City at the bottom, Liverpool don’t feature at all
In terms of the most number of players currently at the club, three clubs are joint-top. They are - Lyon, Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad, all of who have 15 home grown players. On the other end of the 51-club list are Manchester City, who stand joint-last. City currently only have one homegrown player in the squad and 12 in total while Liverpool, who once boasted of a great youth academy, are not part of the list.
For a player to be considered as home grown, he has to have played at the respective club for at least three years between the age of 15 and 21. The stats encompass home grown players that are currently at their club or have been sold or loaned to one of the Europe’s top five Leagues (Barclays Premier League, La Liga, German Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1).