Methodology & Limitations of Published Information
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BASIS OF PREPARATION: Youth Football Platform
The foundation of the Youth Football Platform section of the footballbenchmark.com portal 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 football industry stakeholders in the identification of the best young talents and the best-performing clubs in youth development. The data visualization tool covers on-pitch performance data, as well as information around player debuts, first team transitions and other topics. The methodologies applied for each main section of the Youth Football Platform are described below.Under-21 Player Performance Analysis & Player Comparison
The purpose of these two sections of the Youth Football Platform is to provide an objective analysis and ranking of Under-21 men’s football players along a variety of metrics. The dataset is organized according to the following principles.Player selection criteria - age: currently only players born on or after 1st January 2004 were considered. This means that no one who reaches the age of 21 during 2024 is included. The threshold will be changed to 2005 in 2025 and so on. Player selection criteria - leagues: players 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. Player selection criteria – playing time: the sporting and playing time statistics displayed in the platform consider only competitive, senior club matches since the start of the 2020/21 (or 2021, in the case of leagues with a spring-autumn schedule) season. Only players with at least 180 minutes on record in competitive, senior club matches over the analysed period are eligible for inclusion in the platform. Handling of national team statistics: in case of national team football, all career youth and senior appearances of a player are considered, even if they were recorded before the 2020/21 (or 2021) season. Update frequency: the data behind these two sections is updated up to four times a year. The date of the last update is shown in the top-right corner of the relevant platform pages. Data sources: playing time and national team appearance statistics are sourced from Wyscout, while other accompanying information, such as player market values, are sourced from other Football Benchmark data platforms.
Golden Boy Football Benchmark Index - 2024
TThe 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. The methodology was developed by Football Benchmark; we have been the data & analytics partner of Tuttosport's European Golden Boy Award since 2023. To find out more about the award, visithttps://www.europeangoldenboy.com.
Player selection criteria
Age: in the 2024 rankings, only players born on or after 1st January 2004 are considered. This means that no one who reaches the age of 21 during 2024 is included. The threshold will be changed to 2005 in 2025 and so on. Leagues & clubs: players from the top 25 first division leagues of Europe were considered based on UEFA coefficient as of May 2024. If a player’s club gets relegated during the Golden Boy 2024 period, then the player is disqualified from selection. Competition type: senior, competitive club matches, and all national team matches (both senior and youth) are considered in the analysis. Analytical period: the ranking by GBFB Index is updated on a monthly basis. Matches played between 3rd October 2023 and the date of the last update are considered in the calculations.
Calculation of the GBFB Index
Exchange rates
The GBFB Index methodology by Football Benchmark consists of three main pillars and an additional composite “bonus” metric, that rewards players for their national team and UEFA club competitions performance. The three pillars all use the same, standardized scale (1-100); we take the weighted average of their individual values and then adjust the result with the bonus metric.Pillar 1: Sporting performance
Measures the on-pitch performance of the player over the course of the analytical period in the competitions that are considered in the methodology. Several performance metrics are included, covering different aspects of the game (passing, tackling, scoring efficiency, creativity, etc.). Players in different positions are judged by a different set of metrics and different weights are applied (e.g., scoring goals is much more important for strikers than for defenders in this framework). It is important to note that the rating does not differentiate between different competitions; all on-pitch actions are assessed the same way, regardless of what competition they were performed in. As a result, the sporting performance rating must always be explained in conjunction with the club strength index (third pillar), because that one evaluates the quality level of the player’s team. When taking the combination of the two pillars, good players in good teams will always be at the top.
Pillar 2: Playing Time
In addition to ability, availability is also very important when measuring the importance of a player to their team. In the second pillar we calculate the percentage of minutes the player was on the pitch for out of all possible minutes when playing for their club during the analytic period. This implies that players who are injured for a long period or are not regularly picked by their club for the starting line-up are likely to have a low GBFB Index.
Pillar 3: Club Strength
The relative strength of the player’s team is another crucial factor. If two footballers played a similar percentage of available minutes with roughly the same performance level, then the one who did it for a stronger club will receive a higher GBFB Index. To support this calculation, based on a Club Strength Index, we measure the quality level of clubs across a wide range of leagues. If someone played for multiple clubs during the analytical period, then they receive the weighted average of the Club Strength Indexes (weighted by minutes played).
Bonus metric
After taking the weighted average (blend) of the three main pillars, top players are rewarded with a further modification, made up of two aspects. The final applied bonus is a sum of two aspects:
National team performance: those who have played senior, or youth national team matches over the course of their career so far receive a minor bonus in the form of a multiplier. The relative strength of the national teams is also considered in this calculation. Youth national team appearances are “discounted”, with different discounts if they have played for Under-15 and/or Under-23. UCC performance: similarly, those who have played in UEFA club competitions (UCC) in the analysed period are also rewarded due to the prestige and high quality level of the competitions. As the level of the three main tournaments differs, we “discounted” the minutes played in the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League compared to UEFA Champions League playing time.
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 Youth Football 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 leagues and clubs.The methodology applied was developed by Football Benchmark for the preparation of a study about this topic.
Analytical scope
The scope includes clubs from almost every men’s first division league in UEFA member association countries, as well as the second divisions of England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Leagues with limited data availability (Andorra, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Kosovo, Luxembourg, San Marino, Wales) are excluded, while Liechtenstein is outside of the scope of the analysis as they currently do not have a domestic professional league. 52 leagues from 47 countries are considered in total. Five full football seasons are currently included, specifically the period between 2018/19 and 2022/23 (or 2018-2022, in the case of spring-autumn schedule leagues). To facilitate the time-series analysis, different season types were grouped together: for example, the 2022 and 2022/23 seasons are both referred to as 2022/23 when analysing the data of autumn-spring and spring-autumn schedule leagues together. The underlying database comprises only players who made at least one competitive appearance in the first team of the clubs within the analysed leagues at any point during the five seasons. The analysis considers playing time only in competitive club matches in the senior (first) team of a club. Consequently, reserve, “B”, Under-23 or similar teams are not considered.
Transition milestones and key definitions
Importantly, only those players who have spent a minimum of three seasons (or 36 months) at the same club’s academy between the ages of 15 and 21 are considered in the analysis. If someone did not spend at least 36 months at any of the academies, then their statistics are not included.To apply a consistent framework, we defined the following milestones of the transition process. The statistical analysis shows how many players made their debut or reached 'first-team player' status (complete transition) in a given season.
Debut: a player making their first career appearance in a competitive club match. Successful transition to first team football: a player reaching 450 cumulative minutes played in competitive club matches. This threshold is based on the views provided by coaches and industry experts. The transition must have happened before the player turned 23, otherwise they are not included in the analysis.
If a player makes their debut or complete transition to first team football at the club they belonged to as an academy player, then that is termed as a direct debut/transition. If it happens while playing for another club (possibly on loan), then it is an indirect debut/transition.
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