Elevate your talent scouting and player development strategies with unparalleled data and insights from the Youth Football Platform. The latest data tool from Football Benchmark offers valuable insights to all stakeholders involved in youth football development.
The foundation of the Youth Football Platform is a collection and analysis of data related to young (mostly Under-21) professional footballers from a variety of perspectives. The objective of the platform is to assist industry stakeholders in various youth development related projects.
The brand-new tool delivers detailed and objective rankings of Under-21 players in Europe and South America. Additionally, it also offers statistics and insights into which clubs and leagues excel at transitioning players from academy to first-team football in Europe.
Our new tool is a result of a thorough data collection and platform development process. It is now joining the other, long-established data platforms in our portfolio (Club Finance & Operations, Social Media Analytics, Player Valuation), widening our unique data coverage of business and sporting areas of the world’s most popular sport.
The Youth Football Platform currently consists of four main sections.
1) Under-21 Player Performance Analysis
The purpose of this section is to provide an objective analysis and ranking of Under-21 men’s football players along a variety of metrics: playing time in competitive (senior) matches, on-pitch performance statistics, and national team experience. This allows the identification of players with the most experience at an early stage in their career.
The database is updated up to four times a year. Only footballers playing in one of Europe’s (UEFA) or South America’s (CONMEBOL) first division leagues or in the second divisions of England, France, Germany, Italy, or Spain at the time of each update are considered. Match data since the 2020/21 season is included.
2) Player Comparison
All players of the ‘Under-21 Player Performance Analysis’ section can be selected here for a direct comparison. The ‘Player Comparison’ section offers a different, more focused view of the dataset.
3) Golden Boy Football Benchmark Index
The Golden Boy Football Benchmark Index (GBFB Index) provides an objective method for comparing the recent on-pitch performances and sporting potential of the best Under-21 talents in the best European leagues. The underlying methodology was developed by Football Benchmark; we have been the data & analytics partner of Tuttosport's European Golden Boy Award since 2023.
The corresponding section of the ‘Youth Football Platform’ showcases the latest GBFB Index values of all players that are eligible for selection.
4) Transition from Academy to First Team Football
Becoming part of the first team is one of the most crucial milestones in the development of young players. This section of the platform provides a statistical analysis about the efficiency of the transition from academy to first team football process in European football in recent seasons.
Based on an assessment of playing time and career paths, we calculated how many players made their debut and transitioned fully into first-team player status in European top divisions, allowing us to create a ranking of the best-performing clubs and leagues.
Currently five full seasons (2018/19–2022/23 and 2018–2022) and 52 different leagues are covered by the database.
How to get access to the new platform?
The Youth Football Platform is a subscription-based premium service offered by Football Benchmark. To learn more, reach out to us below to book a demonstration. When contacting us, please provide details such as your full name and professional background (e.g., company name, position, etc.). This allows our team to tailor the demo to your specific needs.
Contact us at info@footballbenchmark.com.
