Data from a study carried out by the Football Observatory of 61 world leagues
A report from CIES – Observatório do Futebol states that Benfica is the club in the Primeira Liga that gives the most minutes to players aged 21 or under.
According to the study, which analyzed games in domestic leagues over the last 365 days, 16.1% of the minutes played by Eagles players are by under-21 youngsters. Estoril is the next club, with 12.1% and Sporting ‘closes the podium’, with 8.2%.
This study, which addresses various age groups, also puts Benfica at an advantage in the minutes given to under-19 and under-20 youngsters. When looking at under-22 athletes, the lead is now taken by Estorilistas and, in the under-23 group, it is Famalicão that gives these players the most minutes.
If, in Portugal, this value is the highest, this cannot be said when comparing Benfica with other European leagues. The Reds are, in Europe, only the 70th club with the most use of under-21 athletes. When placed alongside the ‘top-5’ leagues on the European continent, only Strasbourg and Lyon, from France, Barcelona, from Spain, and Brighton, from England, are ahead of the Portuguese club in this chapter.
Rukh Lviv, from Ukraine, is the club that plays the most minutes for young people aged 21 and under among the 61 leagues analyzed. Of particular note is the position of RB Salzburg, a known ‘talent booster’ in third place, Ajax in fifth place and Strasbourg in 11th place, which is the only member of the five most powerful leagues in the ‘top-30’ .
