By Nick Harris
SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year
23 January 2012
A new demographic study of European football, published today by the CIES Football Observatory in Switzerland, contains detailed analysis of 12,410 footballers at 500 clubs in the top divisions of 33 European countries, reporting among other things how the Russian Premier League is making waves (story here), and how different countries are having varied success in rearing players (story here).
The study (extract available here) also lists which players aged 21 or younger on 31 December 2011 had played the most minutes for their teams in league matches in the first months of the current season.
The reason for identifying 10 the most-used ’21 and unders’ in the top divisions of Europe’s main 33 leagues was to highlight young and emerging talent.
The rationale is that if a manager has the faith to field a young player in a lot of games despite their tender years, the chances are that that player has been impressive.
Here, Sportingintelligence looks at the 50 players cited collectively from Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues: England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France.
We list them alphabetically, but as well as each player’s name we list their club, age and the percentage of minutes they played of their club’s league games in the first four months of the current season.
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The best 50 young footballers in Europe?
(Born on or after 1 January 1990, playing regularly in ‘Big Five’ leagues in 2011-12)
Minutes = % of clubs’ league minutes played in first four months of this season
[Contains top 10 from England, Spain, Italy, France, Germany by minutes played]
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Name / Club / Age Nationality / Position / % of minutes
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Afriyie Acquah Palermo, age 19, Ghanain, mf, 50.4% mins
Ali Ahamada Toulouse, age 20, French, gk, 100% mins
Thiago Alcântara Barcelona, age 20, Spanish, mf, 71.9% mins
Joe Allen Swansea, age 21, Welsh, mf, 76.6% mins
Álvaro R Santander, age 20, Spanish, d, 100% mins
Jon Aurtenetxe Bilbao, age 20, Spanish, d, 59.1% mins
Emmanuel Badu Udinese, 21, Ghanaian, mf, 58% mins
Alhassane Bangoura Rayo Vallecano, 19, Guinean, f, 58.7% mins
Oliver Baumann Freiburg, 21, German, gk, 100% mins
Ryad Boudebouz Sochaux, age 21, Algerian, mf, 92.6% mins
Frédéric Bulot Caen, age 21, French, mf, 89.4% mins
Timothy Chandler Nuremberg, age 21, American, df, 100% mins
Thibaut Courtois Atletico Madrid (on loan from Chelsea), age 19, Belgian, gk, 100% mins
David de Gea Manchester United, age 21, Spanish, gk, 81.8% mins
Mattia Destro AC Siena (on loan from Genoa), age 20, f, Italian, 38.8% mins
Brice Dja Djedje Evian, age 21, Ivorian, df, 100% mins
Antoine Griezmann Real Sociedad, age 20, French, mf, 68% mins
Josuha Guilavogui St-Etienne, age 21, French, mf, 81.4% mins
Roberto Firmino Hoffenheim, age 20, Brazilian, mf, 78% mins
Eden Hazard Lille, age 21, Belgian, mf, 95.3% mins
Abel Hernández Palermo, age 21, Uruguayan, f, 69.1% mins
Junior Hoilett Blackburn, age 21, Canadian, mf, 99% mins
Lewis Holtby Schalke, age 21, German, mf, 87.5% mins
Nicolas Isimat-Mirin Valenciennes, age 20, French, df, 94.1% mins
Tony Jantschke B Monchengladbach, age 21, German, d / mf, 100% mins
Phil Jones Manchester United, age 19, English, d, 84.4% mins
Bojan Krkić Roma, age 21, Spanish, f / mf, 43.7% mins
Bernd Leno B Leverkusen, age 19, German, gk, 91.7% mins
Jason Lowe Blackburn, age 20, English, mf / rb, 65.8% mins
Iñigo Martínez Real Sociedad, age 20, Spanish, d, 100% mins
Joël Matip Schalke, age 20, Cameroonian, d / mf, 79.2% mins
Alexander Merkel Milan, age 19, German, mf, 44.4% mins (on loan at Genoa)
Victor Moses Wigan, age 21, English, f, 97.8% mins
Iker Muniain Bilbao, age 19, Spanish, f, 90% mins
Mateo Musacchio Villarreal, 21, Argentineas, f, 81.8% min
Yann M’Vila Stade Rennais, age 21, French, mf, 98.1% mins
Joel Obi Internazionale, age 20, Nigerian, mf, 40.5% mins
Kyriakos Papadopoulos Schalke, age 19, Greek, df, 94.5% mins
Mathieu Peybernes Sochaux, age 21, French, df, 89.8% mins
Miralem Pjanić Roma, age 21, Bosnia & H, mf, 78.1% mins
Gastón Ramírez Bologna, age 21, Uruguayan, mf, 66.7% mins
Aaron Ramsey Arsenal, age 21, Welsh, mf, 88.8% mins
Baptiste Reynet Dijon, age 21, French, gk, 92.3% mins
Jack Rodwell Everton, age 20, English, mf, 78.4% mins
Marc-André ter Stegen B Monchengladbach, age 19, German, gk, 100% mins
Rodney Strasser Milan (on loan at Lecce), age 21, Sierra Leone, mf, 47.3% mins
Wojciech Szczęsny Arsenal, age 21, Polish, gk, 100% mins
Kevin Trapp Kaiserslautern, age 21, German, gk, 100% mins
Álvaro Vázquez Espanyol, age 20, Spanish, f, 64.6% mins
Kyle Walker Tottenham, age 21, English, rb, 85% mins
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