The Scudetto is not for young people: Inter will win without even a twenty-year-old. Like Napoli a year ago – Sport

There are three teams, in A leaguewho have not offered even a second of play to a player under twenty: one is the one who will win the next championship, theInterthe other is the one that won the last one, the Napoliand the third is the reigning vice-champion, the Lazio. The banal but brutal conclusion is that to get your hands on a title you have to do without young people: the only under 21 to have had a minimum of space in these three teams was the Nigerian midfielder Akinsanmiroon the pitch for 14 minutes in Inter-Lecce 4-0, therefore in a substantially insignificant moment of the Nerazzurri’s season.

Only Monza used very young players more than Juventus

The choice, at least in the immediate future, evidently paid off. After all the Juventus it was the oldest team in Italy when it won one tricolor after another, while now that it no longer wins it is, on the other hand, moving up the youth rankings: it is still far behind (sixth from last) if we consider the under 23s, but as the age limit is lowered it gains positions and becomes sixth for the use of under 21s, fourth for under 20s (in these two statistics Atalanta leads) and even second, behind Monza Of Valentin Carboni (owned by Inter…), for under 19s, thanks in particular to the 23 appearances of Star (but there are those too Huijsen e Nope): it means that the work of rejuvenation is progressive and started from the bottom, that is, from the young people, rather than from those who are now ceasing to be young people.

Frosinone first in Europe for the use of U23s

The data comes from research by Cies, il International Center for the Study of Sport which is based in Neuchâtel and analyzed 61 championships in the world, calculating how much time the teams entrusted to young players as a percentage and compiling rankings by age limit set from 19 to 23 years. In Italy, the two companies that are giving the most space to children are the Frosinone and theAtalantawith different outcomes and strategies: the Ciociari are valorising talents on loan from other teams (Soule, Ibrahimovic, Kaio George, Turati, Barrenechea, Reinier, Okoli, Seck) and floundering in the lower parts of the table, the Bergamo players are showcasing theirs (it is no coincidence that Atalanta is the only club, together with Juve, to have the second team in Serie C) and are in the running for everything thanks also to three young home-made owners, Carnesecchi, Ruggeri e Scalvini. Frosinone is even the team in the five main European leagues to have given the most space to the under 23s, who Di Francesco used for 44.8% of the available time. In second place is the very rich Chelsea (43.4%): it is an explanation for the terrible year of Pochettino’s men (boys).

The case of Barcelona, ​​the only big club that uses kids

Limiting ourselves to the under 21s, the European team that uses them the most is Strasbourg, while in the under 20s the Barcelona thanks to his children who grew up in the Masia: Yamal, Gavi, Cubarsì, Fort, Guiu, Balde, Fermin Lopez. Xavi entrusted 15% of the minutes played by him to kids between 17 and 20 years old. In the under 19s Barça is second behind Toulouse. It must be said that the Catalans are the only high-ranking team, and also in the running for the Champions League, to have such a fresh squad, because even abroad in the end the equation holds true that the higher the ambitions and the less the they rely on the kids. L’Arsenalfor example, didn’t even have anyone under 21 play, but they are low in the rankings as well City, Liverpool e Borussiaas opposed to Psg e Bayern which however do not reach the levels of Barcelona or Brighton of De Zerbi, one of the youngest teams in Europe (second for under 20s).

The progress of Serie A, younger than La Liga and Bundesliga

If until not too many years ago Serie A was not a league for young people, now things have changed a lot: the general average age (26.9 years) is now lower than those of La Liga (27.5) and Bundesliga (27) and slightly higher than the Premier League (26.7). Only the French Ligue1 is decidedly greener (26.2). Continuing to consider only the five most important championships, those who mostly ignore the under 23s are the West Ham, which, coincidentally, is also a winning club (it won the last Conference League). Inter are third from last, Atletico Madrid sixth from last. In the rest of the world, where the youth exploits of two important clubs such as Ajax and especially Strasbourgthe only ones to have used the under 21s more than the older players (52.4% of the total playing time) are the Ukrainians of Rukh Lviv.