AZ Youth Academy in top of Europe

Published on 13 mei 20, 12:28

ALKMAAR- Last season 43.4% of all Eredivisie minutes of AZ were made by youth exponents. This makes the club fifteenth in Europe and number one in the Netherlands, according to figures from CIES Football Observatory.

CIES, based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, analyzes football statistics. The data collected by the independent research agency for example concerns the amount of playing minutes of European clubs' own youth in their first teams. CIES applies the rule that a player must have been at the club for at least three years between the ages of 15 and 21.

#15
Looking at this statistic, AZ is the national number one, followed by Ajax (37.4%), PSV (33.6%) and Feyenoord (32.2%). In a European context, the Alkmaar outfit are fifteenth. Sigma Olomouc (66.7%) tops this list. Compared to the major leagues, AZ is only trumped by Primera División clubs Athletic Bilbao (48.3%) and Celta de Vigo (44.3%).

Stable factor
AZ is now the domestic number one for the fifth consecutive season when it comes to the share of Eredivisie minutes made by its own youth. In these years the percentage in this statistic has always been above forty percent. In doing so, AZ, together with Bilbao, shows itself to be one of the stable factors in the CIES overview.

Koopmeiners
In the prematurely ended 2019-2020 Eredivisie season, ten players came into action for the first team who played in the AZ Youth Academy. Captain Teun Koopmeiners, Calvin Stengs, Owen Wijndal and Myron Boadu made the most minutes, followed by Ron Vlaar, Pantelis Hatzidiakos, Thomas Ouwejan, Ferdy Druijf, Joris Kramer and Kenzo Goudmijn.

Til & Taabouni
In total, twelve youth exponents made their appearance in AZ 1. However, Guus Til and Mohamed Taabouni did so only in the qualifying rounds of the Europa League and the Dutch cup tournament, while the statistics of CIES only cover all national competitions in Europe.

Minutes per youth exponent:
Teun Koopmeiners: 2,217
Calvin Stengs: 2,158
Owen Wijndal: 2,107
Myron Boadu: 2,019
Ron Vlaar: 780
Pantelis Hatzidiakos: 739
Thomas Ouwejan: 438
Ferdy Druijf: 222
Joris Kramer: 27
Kenzo Goudmijn: 4