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LaLiga has highlighted its firm commitment to talent at the official launch event of the 21st edition of the European Golden Boy Award in Italy, organized by Tuttosport, and to which the organisation was invited to share its vision on the work of developing promising young players. The event highlighted the figures of LaLiga, recognized for its leadership in talent development: it is the competition that accumulates the most awards (2005, 2012, 2021 and 2022), and the one with the most players in the Top20, and with the highest market value, totaling 342.5 million euros.
Thus, LaLiga continues to consolidate its commitment to the development of talent and promising young players who will make the football of the future grow, both through the work of the technical secretariats of the clubs and the work of grassroots football. In this sense, the organisation shared its ideas and progress in relation to the National Plan for the Improvement and Optimisation of Youth Teams, which is planned for 10 years and is part of the LaLiga Impulso framework.
One of the pillars of this Plan is the Development and transfer to professional football, an area with indicators to boost the initiative of clubs to bet and promote soccer talent in Spain, thus promoting a more sustainable growth of soccer and a higher level of competitiveness and spectacularity in the competition. In just one year, the objectives set in terms of youth players in national teams and in the first team have grown by around 20%.
Moreover, in recent years this commitment has been reflected in the official CIES data: during this 22-23 season, youth players have played 17.2% of the minutes in the competition, compared to 12.4% in Ligue 1, 11.4% in the Premier League, and much further back, 7.9% in the Bundesliga or 5.6% in Serie A, making LaLiga the great reference in grassroots soccer in Europe and the one that gives more opportunities to its youth players. In addition, LaLiga is the competition with the most youth players in the 5 major European leagues this season, with a total of 289 players from 16 different clubs in the Top 100 clubs with the most productive youth academies. This commitment to talent is also reflected when it comes to signing young players from other countries, which together explains LaLiga’s good figures in the Golden Boy.
“The hyper-specialization of the professionals associated with grassroots and academy football and the individualized development of the training process make it more efficient and common for LaLiga clubs to make the leap to professional football from the youth academy. This optimization and investment plan lays the foundations for a future return in sporting performance and value of professional clubs” said Carlos Casal, LaLiga’s Sports Projects Coordinator.
In addition to the European Golden Boy 2023, LaLiga’s young players are also candidates for the Golden Boy Web, a popular award created in 2018, which has rewarded young LaLiga talents such as Ansu Fati (2020,) and boasts exponential growth thanks to fans around the world: in the last edition it accumulated more than 1.3 million votes.
