Real Madrid has a decided commitment to young people. Something that is obvious looking at their incorporations in recent years (Rodrygo, Brahim, Vinicius, Reinier …), in which he has invested significant amounts in very young players. This bet is also supported by a study carried out by the CIES Football Observatory.
This study concludes that Real Madrid is the team of the five major leagues that incorporates the most young talent. To achieve this, all squads have been analyzed taking into account the age at which the teams acquired the players that make them up. The youth players are not taken into account and in the case of players who have been loaned out, the age at which they returned to the club is taken as data.
In total, the study compares clubs from the 31 main divisions of UEFA's member associations. There, Madrid appears fourth with an average age of 22.2 years. They are surpassed by CSKA (Russia, 21.4 years), DAC 1904 (Slovakia, 21.7) and Heerenveen (Netherlands, 22.1).
If only the five major leagues (Spain, Italy, England, Germany and France) are taken into account, Madrid is the leader of the classification. They are closely followed by Leipzig (22.3 years) and Nice (22.5). Continuing with the big leagues, Tottenham is the main recruiter of young talent in England (23.9) and Milan in Italy (24.3).
At the opposite extreme in the five major leagues, the teams that are least 'interested' in young talent are Elche in the Spanish League (27.8 years), Benevento in Serie A (28.1), West Bomwich Albion in the Premier (26.5), Montpellier in Ligue 1 (26.1) and Unión Berlin in the Bundesliga (26.0).
As for the second Spanish team most interested in young people, it appears Barcelona (23.4 years), which is 31st on the global list (counting all leagues) just behind Bayern, This shows that the main European clubs are increasingly trying to capture future promises before their rivals in order not to have to pay exorbitant amounts afterwards.