The two Basque teams dominate an increasingly important record
In hard times for the economy of the clubs, Athletic Y Real society they are an example that the quarry can be an inexhaustible source of resources. In fact, both fight to be at the top in the use of footballers trained in the house if we compare with the 20 teams in the Santander League.
One can think that the Athletic, by philosophy, is the club that pulls the most from its youth academy. And really, if we stick to the importance of a footballer in terms of minutes and relevance in the squad, the Athletic it is the first one. However, if we only count the number of footballers trained in the academy, the Real society takes the cake
Athletic the team that gives more minutes to its quarry
It should be explained that we are referring to a statistic whose criterion is to have played a minimum of 3 seasons at the club between the ages of 15 and 21. Based on that, Real Sociedad has used 17 players from its youth academy this season, while Athletic has used 15.
However, if we look at the percentage of minutes played by youth players, Athletic is far superior to Real Sociedad. Because if Athletic removes a player from the quarry, it immediately gives him minutes in the first team. In fact, players trained at home have played 55.8 percent of the minutes, compared to just 43.9 at Real Sociedad.
FC Barcelona and RCD Espanyol other examples of quarry
Despite the fact that Athletic and Real Sociedad are clear dominators in the use of footballers from their academy, there are two other teams that also make use of youth football. We are talking about FC Barcelona and RCD Espanyol, two clubs that always go very far in lower category tournaments.
Thus, while Espanyol has used 13 players from the academy, FC Barcelona has employed 12. It must be said, yes, that the azulgranas have given a higher percentage of minutes than their academy players. And it is that with the economic crisis, players like Nico or Gavi have become almost headlines.