Youth development: Rennes, Lyon lead way in the 21st century

In partnership with

Ligue 1 Uber Eats

·29 July 2023

Youth development: Rennes, Lyon lead way in the 21st century

Find out which clubs have the best track records for producing the players that have made Ligue 1 Uber Eats the League of Talents... and which clubs have benefitted most from home-grown talent in the 21st century in Ligue 1 Uber Eats.

In the 21st century, Stade Rennais FC is the club that has fielded the most players from its own ranks in Ligue 1 Uber Eats. From the benchmark Romain Danzé to Adrien Truffert, not forgetting Yoann Gourcuff, Jimmy Briand, Yann M'Vila, Eduardo Camavinga, Julien Féret and Ousmane Dembélé, Les Rouge et Noir have a total of 82 'in-house' players who have played in the French league for SRFC.

In this ranking of the trainers making the most use of their young stars, Rennes are ahead of four clubs with 70 or more players over the period, with FC Nantes, Bordeaux, Olympique Lyonnais and PSG in that order.

OneFootball Videos

Most academy products who played for the senior team in Ligue 1 Uber Eats (21st century):

Stade Rennais FC: 82 players

FC Nantes: 73 players

Girondins de Bordeaux: 72 players

Olympique Lyonnais: 72 players

Paris Saint-Germain: 70 players

Toulouse FC: 69 players

FC Metz: 66 players

AS Saint-Etienne: 65 players

AS Monaco: 64 players

Montpellier HSC: 63 players

OGC Nice: 62 players

RC Lens: 52 players

FC Sochaux-Montbéliard: 49 players

Olympique de Marseille: 48 players

SM Caen: 42 players

AJ Auxerre: 42 players

ASNL 37 players

LOSC: 37 players

RC Strasbourg Alsace: 33 players

Havre AC: 26 players

ESTAC: 26 players

FC Lorient: 25 players

EA Guingamp 24 players

AC Ajaccio: 21 players

Le Mans FC: 21 players

Stade de Reims: 20 players

Angers SCO: 13 players

Stade Brestois 29: 11 players

Clermont Foot: 8 players

Stade Rennais FC: Brilliant youth programme bears fruit

As a centre of talent, La Piverdière has produced the largest number of players to have gone on to play in the French top flight. In total, these players have played 3,500 matches. Twelve of them have played at least 100 matches for SRFC, including Yoann Gourcuff, the revelation of the 2005-06 season.

"Lads like that, we don't need to train them, we just support them," said Landry Chauvin, one of his coaches. "Yoann is the perfect player to coach: a talented player who wins you games and puts his talent to good use for the team."

Currently with Les Bleus, Eduardo Camavinga (71 games for SRFC) and Ousmane Dembélé (12 goals in 26 games) also made their top-flight debuts with the Breton club when they left La Piverdière. Having arrived at the age of 13, current Blaugrana player Dembélé was promoted to the U19s before being thrown into the deep end by Philippe Montanier in 2015-16.

Only Lyon, another of this century's great youth development clubs, have managed to keep up with Rennes. Les Gones have 12 players who have played more than 100 games for their boyhood club, led by Anthony Lopes and Maxence Caqueret.

Teams whose home-grown players have played the most games for them in Ligue 1 Uber Eats (21st century):

Olympique Lyonnais: 3495 matches

Stade Rennais FC: 3494 matches

FC Nantes: 3117 matches

Montpellier HSC: 3055 matches

Toulouse FC: 3037 matches

Girondins de Bordeaux: 2995 matches

AS Saint-Etienne: 2277 matches

FC Sochaux-Montbéliard: 2162 matches

LOSC: 2050 matches

AJ Auxerre: 2018 matches

FC Metz: 1918 matches

AS Monaco: 1619 matches

OGC Nice: 1559 matches

Paris Saint-Germain: 1517 matches

ASNL: 1448 matches

SM Caen: 1166 matches

SC Bastia: 1089 matches

RC Lens: 1081 matches

Le Mans FC: 1010 matches

FC Lorient: 761 matches

EA Guingamp: 714 matches

Angers SCO: 397 matches

Havre AC: 397 matches

AC Ajaccio: 304 matches

Clermont Foot: 161 matches

OL buoyed by "General Lacazette

When it comes to the number of Ligue 1 Uber Eats goals scored by its young stars, Lyon are top of the pile, thanks in no small part to Alexandre Lacazette! Not to mention Nabil Fekir and two former French champions, Sidney Govou and Karim Benzema.

Behind Les Gones, Stade Rennais are once again in a strong position, with the likes of Jimmy Briand, Adrien Hunou, Julien Féret, Sylvain Marveaux and Jirès Kembo-Ekoko. The podium is completed by MHSC. Players from the Montpellier youth academy (Téji Savanier, Younes Belhanda, Elye Wahi, Rémy Cabella, Habib Bamogo, etc.) have scored 225 goals for La Paillade.

Teams with the most goals scored by home-grown players in Ligue 1 Uber Eats (21st century):

Olympique Lyonnais: 418 goals

Stade Rennais FC: 237 goals

Montpellier HSC: 225 goals

Girondins de Bordeaux: 217 goals

FC Sochaux-Montbéliard: 205 goals

LOSC: 202 goals

FC Nantes: 176 goals

AJ Auxerre: 130 goals

AS Saint-Etienne: 129 goals

FC Metz: 117 goals

AS Monaco: 112 goals