Brazil 2014: France trained the most World Cup players of any country, according to CIES

56 players trained in France are participating in the 20^th World Cup (in Brazil, from 12/06 to 13/07/2014), making it the country with the greatest "contribution to the development of selected players," according to a study by the CIES Football Observatory (International Centre for Sports Studies) published on 16/06/2014.

The CIES ranking takes into account two statistics: the number of players trained by the country's clubs and the number of matches played before the age of 23 in these clubs. With 56 players trained in its clubs and a total of 6,255 games played before the age of 23 in clubs, France is ahead of England (42 players, 6,374 games) and Germany (44 players, 4,836 games).

"This is mainly due to the high number of footballers trained in France playing for other national A-teams, notably Africans. This finding also reflects the high employment rate of U23 players in French clubs," CIES said in the report.

At the club level, Feyenoord Rotterdam (HOL, nine players, 882 games) top the rankings, ahead of FC Barcelona (ESP, nine players, 783 games) and Dinamo Zagreb (CRO, eight…