Map of birthplaces for players currently in La Liga (excluding Spain)

This is our second post in our series on the origins of players — previously we looked at the Premier League.  La Liga is little different from the Premier League, both in terms of infrastructure (“B” squads can compete in lower divisions) and culturally (Athletic Bilbao has a policy to only sign players from the Basque region).  The methodology for obtaining this data is discussed in our previous post. And now, the highlights:

• Despite the reputation of La Masia, Barcelona are only third in La Liga in terms of the number of youth players currently signed to their squad. Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao have the most players from their youth academies in their squad.
• Granada and Getafe have no players from their youth academies in their squads, and only 1 player from each team signed for the club before they were 21.
• Real Madrid is the largest exporter of youth talent, but are middle of the pack in terms of the number of youth players in their squad.  They excel at producing good players, but not great players.
• The agreement between Udinese and Granada is apparent in the high number of Udinese youth products currently playing for Granada. If Udinese were to be excluded, the top foreign producers of talent would be Arsenal and Boca Juniors.  River Plate is only one player behind Boca.

There are a lot more nuggets in there, so have fun with the data and play around with it.  Next up is a post comparing the origins of talent in the Premier League and La Liga.  Stay tuned…