Can this prove that Sporting's academy is the best in the World?

Cheers

ahahahahahaahahahahahahaha can't argument with this ahahahahaahahaahahahahah is just to stupid ahahahahahahaah

The salt is real with this Portuguese lad. I understand where Croatian's coming from, but he's not having it. Just let him have his glory. Sporting do produce great talents, but it's just a matter of context. The reality is, Portugal are in a good area of nurturing young talents, and so are Spain, Germany and Brazil, etc. But in time, things will change, I think England are showing good signs of producing a line of youth talent, arguably better than Portugal atm, but let's look at the bigger picture, these young talents need to deliver the prestige of these academies through high-leveled club titles and international performances, and Portugal and Spain are looking good.

England, on the other hand, need to pick up the slack because no matter what, the PL's prestige is going to haunt them as a nation, although it is good to see Southgate putting fuel on younger talents rather than relying on the likes of Hart and Wilshere, whom already had their chance.

Meh, thought I could show that you can't claim your academy is best. Maybe you have best generation, best young player, but claiming you have best academy of all?

Bunch of smaller clubs are better at making good players than bigger ones, however that doesn't automatically mean that academy is actually better than the other, bigger one.

Look at Sancho, dude would probably get 5 games a season maximum at City, at Dortmund he was starter for a while or atleast impact sub at some parts of season. Of all the great academies, Chelsea and Barcelona were in UEFA Youth League final, and we most likely and sadly won't see most of their prospects reach their potential. Because it's kinda easier to grow in smaller club's youth system and get chances by age 17 or 18, become starter at 20 and leave at 22, than to come through La Masia, join first and get 150 minutes a season OR go to loan, most likely flopping. Don't you think so?

Yeah, Sporting does have great academy. So do Chelsea, Tottenham, even Arsenal, Barcelona, Betis, PSG, Lyon, Bayern, Juventus... but you will barely see some homegrown player making it so far to be considered first team starter... unless he maybe leaves. Or if he is talent above others at the club.

@iHEART Wouldn't talk down England academy player, after all, England did won both the U-17 and U-20 Fifa World Cup, their youth team are really impressive personally.

@iHEART Wouldn't talk down England academy player, after all, England did won both the U-17 and U-20 Fifa World Cup, their youth team are really impressive personally.

I worded it out poorly (long night today), but yes you're right and I broadly credited them for it

I think England are showing good signs of producing a line of youth talent, arguably better than Portugal atm

But I later added this

these young talents need to deliver the prestige of these academies through high-leveled club titles and international performances, and Portugal and Spain are looking good.

We can credit England's youth all we want, but the end games are the biggest proof of their respective academies's prestige, winning the European trophies, winning prestigious international titles. That's what I'm assuming this Marcos lad is talking about when it comes to top academies today.

But I emphasize again, we're talking about top academies TODAY, not tomorrow. England are showing good signs of their academies being the best through, as you said Emo, international titles like U-17 and U-20 FIFA World cups, but I'd like to judge how good these academies truly are based on their products's performance at the highest level, and it looks to me that Portugal are doing better atm.

lol, ajax academy has produced lots of players from the times of kluivert and seedorf. the standard today may have been lowered but that doesn't mean the institution is shit. the goal is still the same to promote whatever youth product is there. not to say sporting cp has a bad academy but you are talking about ajax here. you can't expect new cr7 and nani to pop up everyday sunshine.

This is a real poor stat to draw conclusions from. Sure Sporting had 12 players sign professional contracts there, but let's be honest would half of those have also signed a contract at Barca, Real, PSG or City? I think not.

The fact that Portugal isn't as demanding as Spain or England really promotes the upbringing of youth players into the first team. The same goes for Ajax, but how differently would this graphic look if Netherlands had qualified? And even more so had Portugal failed to qualify.

Some nation's have the right environment to allow youth development, me awhile other have no choice but to compete at an extremely tough environment and you need already developed stars for that.

And to think that a Sporting CP fan can't be more childish after reading this thread...I find an article about some of your players leaving for a very good reason:

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11402060/william-carvalho-gelson-martins-and-bruno-fernandes-ask-to-end-sporting-lisbon-contracts

You dare brag about your academy being great and all, yet I find out that you lot would literally attack your players for pity reasons like poor performance. Pathetic really.

@iHEART Actually made a thread about that just now but seriously, lets not be crazy, the fans who did that were cleary a minority, lets not put them all in the same boat.

Top 3 in Europe.

I pick:

Ajax

Barcelona

Southampton ( Bale, Walcot, Shaw, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Adam Lallana, etc.)

Dont know what happened with the font there but that escalated quickly.

@Marcos:

Sorry bro but I don't understand your point, because what you said doesn't make any sense.

Obviously Barcelona is my hot favorite club.

th bro for information

Same, Barcelona is my favorite club.

Totally agree on UEFA Youth League