Borussia Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham, Barcelona duo Gavi and Pedri, Real Madrid’s Champions League winner Eduardo Camavinga and Bayern Munich sensation Jamal Musiala.
Those are just some of the young stars on the CIES Football Observatory’s list of 100 Under-20 footballers with the most playing experience during the first semester of 2022, and the Isuzu UTE A-League is represented among the starlets.
Central Coast Mariners sensation Jacob Farrell and Sydney FC’s Patrick Yazbek – both in the Australia squad for the U23 Asian Cup – are in the top 100.
Farrell, 19, ranks 52nd on the list after tallying 1,924 minutes for the Mariners during the 2021-22 season as Central Coast reached the FFA Cup decider and A-League Men Elimination Final.
Sydney’s 20-year-old midfielder Yazbek is 67th with 1,502 minutes across the ALM, FFA Cup and AFC Champions League.
Per the CIES, “the rankings were established according to the experience capital method, which takes into consideration minutes played in official games and their sporting level. This method allows us to combine into a single metrics players’ employment and the level of games in which they participated”.
The list continues to highlight the pathway for footballers in the A-Leagues.
Earlier this year, CIES data comparing leagues across the world showed the Isuzu A-League is first in its class in Asia for showcasing its up-and-coming talent – just think of the likes of Adelaide United’s Nestory Irankunda and Central Coast’s Garang Kuol.
And two of its clubs were among the best in the world for promoting their own young talent developed in-house.
The Football Observatory identified Central Coast and Perth Glory as two of the best-performing clubs in 40 of the biggest leagues worldwide in providing opportunities to “club-trained” players.
The A-League Men’s topped the charts in the AFC for blooding players aged 21 or under, and eighth on a list of 60 major leagues around the world.
In data recorded between 01/01/2021 and 21/03/2022, 11.1% of minutes in 257 A-League Men’s matches were recorded by players who had not yet celebrated their 21st birthday.
The ALM is not just a world leader in providing opportunities to players aged U21; the competition also ranked highly in granting minutes to “club-trained” players through the 2021-22 season.
According to the CIES Football Observatory, to be “club-trained” a player must have been at said club for at least three seasons between their 15th and 21st birthday.
Across 40 leagues around the world, the A-League Men’s ranks eighth with 20.7% of minutes in the current campaign granted to club-trained players.
At club level, it’s the Mariners and Glory flying the flag for Australia and the A-League Men’s.
In the 40 leagues in question, the average percentage of minutes accrued by club-trained players was 15.0%. The Mariners notched 47.1% through the 2021-22 ALM season up to April 19, 2022 when the stats were last updated.
That figure put the Mariners 17th out of the clubs in all 40 leagues included in the data set.
Brisbane Roar’s 35.5% was the next-best from an A-League Men’s team, with Perth’s 31.0% putting the West Australian side next in the Australian rankings.
But when ranking teams by the number of club-trained players to have featured for a club throughout the 2021-22 season, only nine clubs from the 40 leagues in question had more than Perth’s 16.
