Which countries excel at the younger age groups?

Discussion in 'The Beautiful Game' started by Sportlad, Nov 7, 2016.

  1. Sportlad

    Sportlad Member

    Jul 12, 2016
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Found some interesting stats on which European nations are performing best at U17, U19 and U21 level. It's particularly interesting to see what percentage of these players actually progress through each level and end up with the senior team.

    http://www.thestatszone.com/articles/young-players-international--senior-caps-europe

    Obviously some of the smaller nations have higher percentages purely because of having a smaller pool of player to choose from.

    What particularly interested me is the stark contrast between the England and Germany U21 teams from the 2009 European Championships final - the vast majority of that German unit are still together now, whereas I couldn't tell you who some of those England players are!
     
    PuckVanHeel repped this.
  2. PuckVanHeel

    PuckVanHeel BigSoccer Yellow Card

    Oct 4, 2011
    Club:
    Feyenoord
  3. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Honduras's U-23s (with 3 older players allowed) were fourth in the Olympics, but they're only 86th in the FIFA Rankings and 11th in CONCACAF.
     

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