I didn't know where to post this, but comments in another thread made me think more about career progression of players in Europe, MLS' influence in this regard, how this may/may not have changed since Bosman, JK's repeated comments about players challenging themselves in Europe and not getting too comfortable...basically it got me thinking about reasonable destinations for players to carve strong careers in Europe. I think we all know the general paths players can take. Numbers can reveal a lot of good information though. I looked at current rosters of Premier League teams and identified the players who grew up outside of the UK/Ireland. UK/Ireland players can be loosely defined as domestically developed. Instead of looking at the entire league, I excluded the 7 at the top with the largest budgets (Man U, Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Everton, and Liverpool). I also excluded teams who were promoted last year figuring they were more likely to have additional holdovers they would dump after this season if they avoid the drop. You're left with the meat and potatoes of the Premier League, which is a more realistic goal for more of our players than locking down a permanent spot on Chelsea. So the question is: for foreign players making these rosters, which club was their first in Europe after either moving abroad or graduating from youth teams somewhere else in Europe? The first step is arguably more important than the step before landing a Premier League gig because it helps to establish the initial trajectory. Percentages below: Premier League 12.3% 4 other major first divisions (Spain, Germany, Italy, France) 30.8% Eredivisie 12.3% Ligue 2/ENG Championship 15.4% Portugal/Belgium 6.2% Sweden/Denmark/Norway 1st 7.7% Swiss/Scotland/Turkey/Greece 1st 6.2% Anywhere else: <10% Takeaways: assuming the ultimate goal is getting on a quasi-stable club in the Premier League, a player's best bet is one of the five biggest leagues or a level down from the PL in England. This is intuitively obvious. What may not be is that if the options are between relegation prone teams in different first divisions outside of England, France is the best option. They tend to be viewed much more favorably across multiple first divisions and their track record for putting guys into PL, La Liga, BL, Serie A is really good. I was personally surprised the Belgian and Scandinavian pipelines weren't stronger either. The numbers aren't bad, but when you dig into them, you realize that they are made up more of players who happen to be from those countries rather than from elsewhere using these leagues as a stepping stone to bigger things. This is less true in Eredivisie and the second tier of England and France. If you look at the 8 leagues in the first four categories above, they represent 70% of the first steps taken to the Premier League, but if you look at players who are using another country outside of their own as that initial springboard, that number is more like 80-85%. Curious to know if this raises any questions in peoples minds about the idea of moving up the ranks in Europe.
Quantity vs. quality (or, both) Belgian footballers are the most valued in the world, earning higher salaries on average than those of any other nationality within Europe’s ‘Big Five’ leagues, a report will reveal this week. The average wage of Belgians across the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 has been calculated at £2.2million per player per year, or £41,700 per week. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...est-paid-world-Think-again.html#ixzz45ut4yNWZ And more on wages - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...City-players-10-best-paid-Premier-League.html
I get that. I guess where I'm coming from is that I knew about the quality of the Belgians and knew they would show up in the data. What I was surprised to see was that there weren't many non-Belgians. In other words, the Belgian league gets quality to the Premier League because a) there are a lot of Belgians in their own league and b) those Belgians have been in that system since they were on youth teams. The more pertinent question is, why so few non-Belgians? If it is a good stepping stone, why aren't they there in numbers? You can ask the same question of the Scandinavian leagues. The best domestic players in those leagues are going to move for more money, and you'd think the most likely places for them to move would be Germany and England. Is that useful for an American working toward moving up? At some point I might try to figure out how many non-Belgians in the PL ever played in Belgium on their way to their current PL club.
I think what happens is that the Belgian League is a lot flatter in terms of revenues and performances than other smaller/second/third tier leagues - let's say, compared to the dominance of Benfica and Porto in Portugal or Ajax and PSV in the Netherands. This means that their top clubs have less revenues and less financial muscle to acquire top prospects from the outside. IIRC, Anderlecht was topping out at ~ $50M, whereas Benfica and Porto were over $100M and getting additional income from their UEFA CL/EL trips. So, what you get is a reasonable share of Belgian players coming from the Belgian clubs but not many African or South Americans. Aside of sheer finances, of course, there's a cultural preference of the South Americans for Spain, Portugal and Italy, while the Africans tend to gravitate toward France and Spain and the East Europeans toward Germany.
There is definitely something to be said for cultural preferences. I guess where I'm trying to go with this is what the best option is for an American. We know that the Portuguese league is fairly good, but they are more of a Latin America to La Liga conduit. Low exports to the Premier League can't be held against them. Norway, Denmark, Sweden are more mixed. So are Belgium and Holland. More are going to Germany and England, which historically are where our players prefer to end up. Is Ligue 2 a better option? Or is this a case where All roads from Africa to England go through France? At the very least, Ligue 2 seems to be a better place for guys to keep their options open. Many players from there end up in the Premier League, but many end up in the Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga, up a notch in France too. If I were trying to build a career abroad, I might be inclined to go this route outside of the largest 6 first divisions.
Well it goes back to the whole "bridge the gap" argument. The higher the level you prove yourself, the more confidence EPL clubs will have you'll succeed. Same concept here with the NFL/NBA and why you rarely see D2/D3 NCAA players drafted compared to players coming from top D1 programs. MLS is a sub top 20 league which struggles tactically/technically. Any league with a similar rank/situation is going to see players who attempt to jump to the EPL where there's massive money, outside a few exceptions, struggle greatly. Especially when considering the EPL environment due to their massive money cuts down the patience for player development compared to the other leagues mentioned. Unless you're a legit standout your best bet is to climb the pyramid and find a club which can bridge the gap between a sub 20 league and the EPL. And given the way MLS does business and prefers selling for EPL money, if you want to climb the pyramid you're more than likely going to need to bypass MLS young. MLS player sales, particularly Americans lean heavily towards the EPL compared to the other top 4 leagues. Who's the last American sold to La Liga, Serie A or Bund clubs? It was Jozy back in 08 and no other American sold since to any of those leagues. EU limits come into play in Spain/Italy but not in the Bund. BTW, Africans gravitate to France as they count as domestics there. For Americans given EU restrictions, the best bet is probably going to Germany young. Hence why so many youth are heading over there.
With some variances - a target forward or a tall central defender are more suited for a league that is good in crossing the ball while a diminutive midfielder is better off in the league where they pass the ball on the ground - the answer is the "best team that wants you". If you can get to Borussia (Dortmund or Mönchengladbach), then wunderbar. If it's Villarreal, then it's bueno as well. Historically, England's players have had less finesse than those from Italy and Spain but the current generation of the English starlets such as Rashford, Sterling, Alli, Ibe, Wilson, Kane, Shaw, Stones, et al, is definitely not too shabby. BTW, here's my perspective on "education". Let's look at national teams. The top five Euro squads + Brazil and Argentina obviously have its members with the best/richest clubs in top leagues. My sleeper pick here is Croatia, a country with ~ 4.2 million inhabitants that has more than 15 players with these top clubs, including Luca Modric and Mateo Kovacic at Real Madrid, Mario Mandzukic at Juventus, Dejan Lovren at Liverpool, Danijel Subasic at Monaco, Ivan Perisic and Marcelo Brozovic at Inter Milan, Tin Jedvaj at Bayer Leverkusen, Vedran Corluka at Lokomotiv Moscow, Darijo Srna at Shakhtyar Donetsk, Ivan Rakitic at Barcelona, Nicola Kalinic at Fiorentina, etc. By comparison, a highly successful Uruguay may have its top stars at Barcelona (Suarez) and PSG (Cavani) but, once you get past Godin and Hernandez at Atletico Madrid, it's mostly a bunch of the international journeymen.