Homegrown Ways
Friday, 05 October 07, 05:24 PM
Statistics from the European Football Players' Labour Market have shed some interesting light on the trends in the major European league. With all the discussions in England about the lack
of English players making the national team unsuccessful, and Blatter's looming attempts at imposing homegrown rules, statistics from other leagues throw the whole issue in doubt.
The 2006-07 review was based on 2,744 players employed by the 98 clubs in the 5 top European leagues (England, France, Spain, Italy and Germany), and 24.3% of these were "homegrown". This was a 2.5% decrease on 2005-06 results, and France was the worst affected with a 6.8% DECREASE in home-grown players, although they still had the highest percentage of homegrown players with 33.3%.
The lowest percentage was in Italy, where only 14.6% of the players were homegrown. Take note of this all those people who complain about foreigners ruining the English national team - who won the last World Cup?
Overall, the amount of foreigners in these leagues has increased by 0.5% to 38.9% overall, with the Premier League being the most international, with 55.5% foreigners.
Regarding the foreigners with the most numbers, Brazil is the most represented country with 140 players. The USA has had the highest increase in exported players of any nation, and foreigners from Eastern Europe, North America, Asia & Oceania have increased overall, with the number of Western Europeans and Latin Americans decreasing. There are 92 nationalities represented in these top 5 leagues.
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I think that this is proof of what Arsene Wenger said- if the English players are good enough I will play them but their not.
How can Italy have the lowest percentage of home grown and not the highest percentage of foreigners? By home grown do they mean academy grown? Also how do they count those foreigners who adapt
citizenship in the new league country? I think these stats are skewed like Mike. Italy definitely has it right with a great feeder system in B, C1 and C2 who play very consistent with the style in A
and the Nats.
tucker is right, italia has the most homegrown players, those stats are wrong. every player on the winning cup team in 2006 played in italia. Italians are proud people and they take football serious
unlike many top european countries were it is like going to the theatre. its just entertinment. Italia does produce the most home grown players. the netherlands is right behind them. Netherlands is a
small country, yet their youth systems are what keeps them producing talented players, at the teen years the players are getting extra attention. Brasil, like you stated produces the most, why?
futebol is life. thats all youngsters do, play for hours. their youth system only take the talented aspiring players, so just being able to dribble and pass the bola doesnt just cut it, like in so
many other countries forzas basicas.
5 Comments
Fab post, wonder why Sepp didn't include these facts, hmmm?
Those statistics hardly seem to ring true - especially for Serie A. I was under the impression that around 70% of the players in Serie A were Italian? (And Inter probably take up the other 30%). Take
a look at the list of the top goalscorers from last season. Francesco Totti, Cristiano Lucarelli, Christian Rigano, Rolando Bianchi, Nicola Amoruso, Gionata Spinesi etcetera. I think one of the big
differences is at youth level. Where young Italian players often crack first team squads, young English players sometimes find their paths blocked because English clubs now scout youngsters from all
over the world.