Training: Ajax is the top performing club in Europe, 14 French clubs in the top 100 (CIES)

Ajax Amsterdam (Eredivisie) leads the European rankings for clubs that develop players, according to a study by the CIES Football Observatory (International Centre for Sports Studies), published on 23/02/2015.

The Dutch capital city club is the club that has developed the largest number of players that are playing in the 31 top-tier European championships in the 2014-15 season (468 clubs) that are covered by CIES in its study. With 77 players, Ajax comes out on top ahead of Partizan Belgrade (SER, 74 players) and FC Barcelona (ESP, 57 players).

• "The notion of 'training clubs' refers to teams where players have been for at least three seasons between the ages of 15 and 21," stated the CIES.

Only six clubs in the Top 5 championships are among the top 30 "training clubs"

• Six clubs in the Top 5 European championships come in the top 30 in the ranking of the CIES study: FC Barcelona (ESP, 3^rd), Real Madrid CF (ESP, 7^th), Olympique Lyonnais (FRA, 15^th), Manchester United FC (ENG, 18^th), Paris Saint-German (FRA, 23^th) and Arsenal FC (ENG, 28^th).
  • Germany has no clubs in the top…