Studio Cies, Udinese first for use by foreigners: 88%

Football for footballers is globalization more than roots, it is observers abroad rather than nurseries. This is confirmed once again by the Cies study – the International Center for Sports Studies – which, for each team of 31 European championships, calculated the percentage of minutes played by players who grew up abroad. The spectrum of results is as always extremely broad and varies from two totally home grown formations, to the Greeks of Aris Thessaloniki made up of 98% of “expatriates”. In Italy, the club that looks beyond the borders is Udinese.

Italian stories

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The Friulian club is in fact the one with the highest percentage of Serie A and also of the top 5 leagues (Premier League, LaLiga, Bundesliga and Ligue 1): as many as 88% of the minutes played by the bianconeri in the league so far has in fact been signed by players who grew up in football abroad. This is certainly not a novelty, given that Udinese’s multiculturalism has been a recognizable peculiarity for years and has experienced moments of great splendor (Alexis Sanchez, for example) and less brilliant seasons. Still remaining in the top leagues, two other Italian clubs are placed in third and fourth place after Chelsea of ​​crazy spending, famous for its international DNA inspired by Roman Abramovich: Atalanta (86.3%) and Turin (83.7%) ” . The Goddess, in particular, has gradually abandoned the formations of clear Italian mold, the result of a still excellent nursery and over time has increasingly focused on abroad: distant are the times of Roberto Gagliardini, Gianluca Mancini, Andrea Conti, Mattia Caldara and so on. In an inverted ranking, Genoa and Empoli are the only Italians able to remain below the 40% threshold: in third place there is Salernitana with 51%, in any case over half.

Broadened horizons

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At the European level, Udinese is seventh, anticipated precisely by Aris, by the Cypriots of Pafos, Ael Limassol and Aris Limassol, by the Greeks of Volos and by the Scots of the Glasgow Rangers. Other major leagues include Lille in France (81%), land of talents discovered almost everywhere, Leipzig in Germany (79%) which benefits from Red Bull’s network of clubs and Atlético Madrid in Spain ( 77%). It is significant that the other club of the Pozzo family, Watford, is also in the top 10 of clubs with the most “expatriates” in the major leagues and it is no surprise to see the very Portuguese Wolverhampton with a whopping 81%. And the teams that draw the most from national nurseries? One is predictable, namely that Athletic Bilbao that chooses only Basque players, let alone if it starts fishing from abroad. The other is Desna, a club that sails in the middle of the Ukrainian league table. Finally, a nod to the French of Saint-Etienne: only 4% seems to be the exception that confirms the rule.