The Pioneering Youth Academies of the EFL
It is not just the Premier Clubs and their academies that produce great talents and talents for the future. Some of the top stars in the Premier League have come through the academies of Championship, League One, and Two clubs.
Championship and EFL leagues have been responsible for developing some of the brightest stars in English Football today. Almost all the players who represented England in the Qatar World Cup had played for a Championship team in their career.
Let’s look at some famous Youth academies from the leagues below the Premier League.
1. Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough produces the most number of Championship players. Only Manchester United have produced more Championship players than Middlesbrough and United are a Premier League team. Kudos to Boro for that incredible stat.
It is also remarkable that Middlesbrough prioritises giving opportunities to the local talent from in and around the area rather than poaching talents from other academies. Boro brings these players through their system as they are played through the age groups and with the same players.
The likes of Cameron Jerome, Adam Reach, David Wheater, etc have made a decent career after graduating from the Boro academy. Then there are a bit more famous guys like Stewart Downing and Djed Spence who made it to the Premier League.
Downing especially is the most successful academy product considering he went on to represent one of the biggest clubs in the world, Liverpool.
Hayden Hackney and Dael Fry are two of the most promising academy graduates currently in the Middlesborough set-up and are most likely to play at the top-most level of English Football.
2. Reading
When one of your academy graduates goes on to represent Bayern Munich then that’s a huge achievement for that said academy. Omar Richards, now at Nottingham Forest, once joined Bayern Munich on a free transfer from Reading. Now plying his trade in the Premier League with another historic club, it is a win for the Reading Academy.
Reading’s current squad is filled with academy graduates. The opportunity is there for those young players to break through like Omar Richards or Michael Olise. Olise is another famous academy graduate who now plays for Crystal Palace in the Premier League.
Reading is also going through a financially messy situation and such a situation has heaped more pressure on the management to look inside rather than outside, but then again Diamonds are carved out of pressure.
With Reading’s recent success regarding academy graduates expect a few more promising players out of that club in the near future.
3. Crewe Alexandra
The OGs of producing young talented footballers with good consistency. Crewe has produced the most numbers of players in the English Football League overall recently than any other club.
The likes of Danny Murphy and Rob Jones who went on to play for Liverpool are Crewe certified. They both came from their academy. Murphy in fact went on to win the treble (FA Cup, League Cup, and Europa League) with Liverpool, and Jones is regarded as one of the finest right-backs to play for Liverpool.
There are also the likes of David Vaughan and Dean Ashton, the latter was on his way to becoming one of the finest Premier League strikers but for his injuries. Anyway, Crewe produces an incredible amount of talents that can be seen all over the English Leagues – from top to bottom.
4. Charlton Athletic
Liverpool sure like to poach quite a lot of talent from the lower-league academies. Jonjo Shelvey and Joe Gomez are two of the former Charlton Athletic academy graduates that have played for Liverpool.
Gomez has won every available trophy in Club Football with Liverpool and he is still at the club.
In the other current crop of players, Ezri Konsa and Ademola Lookman have also come through Charlton’s set-up. The likes of Kevin Lisbie also spring into mind when we talk about Charlton and their very decent side in the early-mid 2000s side.
Charlton has been successful in producing more Premier League talent than any other lower-division club and that is very remarkable.
Newly Promoted Premier League Club Honourable Mention
Sheffield United (Kyle Walker, Harry Maguire, Aaron Ramsdale)
