Youth development: The best clubs in the 21st century - ranked

In partnership with

Ligue 1 Uber Eats

·23 November 2023

Youth development: The best clubs in the 21st century - ranked

Check out which Ligue 1 Uber Eats clubs have benefited most from the players they brought through their academies in the 21st century.

In the 21st century, Stade Rennais FC is the club that has fielded the most players from its academy in Ligue 1 Uber Eats. From the benchmark Romain Danzé to Adrien Truffert, Yoann Gourcuff, Jimmy Briand, Yann M'Vila, Eduardo Camavinga, Julien Féret, Ousmane Dembélé - and the latest addition Mathis Lambourde - Les Rouge et Noir have a total of 83 'in-house' players who have played for SRFC in the French league.

In this ranking of the trainers making the most use of their younguns, Rennes are ahead of five clubs, who have all blooded at least 70 players over the period: FC Nantes, Bordeaux, Olympique Lyonnais, Toulouse FC, the latest to arrive, and PSG - in that order.

OneFootball Videos

Academy to first team:

Stade Rennais FC: 83 players

FC Nantes: 75 players

Olympique Lyonnais and Girondins de Bordeaux: 72 players

Toulouse FC: 71 players

Paris Saint-Germain: 70 players

FC Metz: 68 players

AS Saint-Etienne: 65 players

AS Monaco, Montpellier HSC and OGC Nice: 64 players

RC Lens: 53 players

Olympique de Marseille: 51 players

FC Sochaux-Montbéliard: 49 players

AJ Auxerre and SM Caen: 42 players

LOSC: 39 players

ASNL: 37 players

RC Strasbourg Alsace: 34 players

Havre AC: 32 players

FC Lorient and ESTAC: 26 players

EA Guingamp: 24 players

AC Ajaccio and 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 riding high on academy brilliance

As a centre of talent, La Piverdière has produced the greatest number of players to have gone on to play in Ligue 1 Uber Eats. In total, these players have played 3,500 top-flight matches. Twelve of them have played at least 100 matches for SRFC (this will soon be 13, as Adrien Tuffert is currently on 97 matches), including Yoann Gourcuff, the revelation of the 2005-06 season.

"Lads like that, we don't need to train them, we just support them, highlighted Landry Chauvin, one of Gourcuff's 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 got their start in professional football with the Breton club when they left La Piverdière. Having arrived at the age of 13, current Parisian Dembélé was upgraded to U19 level, before being thrown into the deep end by Philippe Montanier in 2015-16.

Only OL, another of this century's great youth development clubs, have managed to keep up with Rennes. Les Gones have 13 players who have played more than 100 games for their parent club, led by Portugal goalkeeper Anthony Lopes. And in terms of the total number of games played, Olympique Lyonnais were a whisker ahead of the Bretons at the November international break.

Academy to first team - most matches by club:

Olympique Lyonnais: 3558 matches

Stade Rennais FC: 3,555 matches

FC Nantes: 3132 matches

Montpellier HSC: 3097 matches

Toulouse FC: 3070 matches

Girondins de Bordeaux: 2995 matches

AS Saint-Etienne: 2277 matches

FC Sochaux-Montbéliard: 2162 matches

LOSC: 2077 matches

AJ Auxerre: 2018 matches

FC Metz: 1945 matches

AS Monaco: 1654 matches

OGC Nice: 1579 matches

Paris Saint-Germain: 1528 matches

ASNL: 1448 matches

SM Caen: 1166 matches

SC Bastia: 1089 matches

RC Lens: 1087 matches

Le Mans FC: 1010 matches

Olympique de Marseille: 839 matches

FC Lorient: 796 matches

RC Strasbourg Alsace: 714 matches

EA Guingamp: 714 matches

Stade de Reims: 529 matches

Havre AC: 446 matches

Angers SCO: 397 matches

Stade Brestois 29: 363 matches

AC Ajaccio: 304 matches

Clermont Foot: 194 matches

OL buoyed by 'General' Lacazette

When it comes to the number of Ligue 1 Uber Eats goals scored by its younguns, Lyon are top of the pile, with Alexandre Lacazette making a decisive contribution! 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 Hérault club's youth academy (Téji Savanier, Younès Belhanda, Elye Wahi, Rémy Cabella, Habib Bamogo, etc.) have scored 22 goals for La Paillade.

Most goals scored by academy graduates:

Olympique Lyonnais: 422 goals

Stade Rennais FC: 240 goals

Montpellier HSC: 227 goals

Girondins de Bordeaux: 217 goals

FC Sochaux-Montbéliard: 205 goals

LOSC: 204 goals

FC Nantes: 176 goals

AJ Auxerre: 130 goals

AS Saint-Etienne: 129 goals

FC Metz: 120 goals

AS Monaco: 115 goals