If your aim is to build a club based on academy graduates, the following
clubs make excellent starting places. The best youth academies in
FM22.
In this series, we want to take a closer look at some of the most important
elements involved in choosing a club that you can develop. In this article, we
want to look at the best youth academies in FM22.
If you are looking for a club to manage outside of the elite, then Belgian outfit Genk makes a wonderful choice. They are a big club in Belgium, and have some of the best youth facilities in the game. The club also has a great emphasis on youth and academy development, meaning that you can see a lot of players coming through as regens.
The actual players in the academy to start a new save also have some great high potential players to build around. The main challenge with Genk is making sure you can actually keep the players.
Of course, if you want to go down the route of managing a more well-known club in Belgium then why not choose RSC Anderlecht?
They are the biggest club in the country, and have a world-class youth system. While the club has a relatively low rating for Youth Importance, they have tremendous Youth Facilities, Junior Coaching, and Youth Recruitment. Add on a fine list of real-life players to go with the typically excellent regen crops, and you could easily build a team based on your youth system.
The only challenge? Meeting expectations whilst you bring-through the next crop.
A fine club to manage for many reasons, Basel are Switzerland’s most powerful club and have a tremendous youth system. They have a high level for Youth Recruitment and for Youth Facilities, and as such should make a fine choice for just about any manager.
While the actual real-life crop of talent is not exceptional, you have enough to get by with until your excellent youth academy starts producing some S-tier regens. Definitely, a club that you could build a winning system with, powered by a high-class range of excellent young players ready to be developed.
The Czech football scene looks set to enjoy a bit of a boom again, and Sparta Prague are at the heart of this. They have a tremendous level for facilities, recruitment of youth, and of junior coaching. The end result is a truly exceptional experience that is competitive thanks to the presence of long-term rivals Slavia.
This is a good club to manage; a team that has fallen on some hard times in the last few years and thus could do with a reboot. Enough talent already present, and your regens will be very impressive in the future.
Regarded as arguably the club with the best academy in Brazil (which is saying something), Sao Paulo makes a great club to manage. These giants have not enjoyed the success on the field they would have expected in recent years, so there will be much planning to do.
The benefit is that you have some truly exceptional young players coming through, and thus you could build a team that has a genuine shot at success. Definitely a team we would recommend managing if, like River Plate, you want to build an academy-led team that wins trophies in South America.
Seen as one of the original big clubs of Austrian football before RB Salzburg came along, Austria Wien make a very interesting club to manage. They have some great youth academy set-ups, and should provide you with some great young players to build around pretty shortly.
They also have some young stars who are dying for a shot in the first team, and with RB Salzburg so far ahead you should have ample time to build, plan, and prepare accordingly for the future. A club with a huge fanbase that, if looked after, could compete in Europe once again.
While some would have issues managing part of the Red Bull group, if you can look beyond the commercialisation aspect you could have a tremendous time managing this club. They are set up for success, and have a horde of quality young players both in the RB Salzburg academy and your feeder club, FC Liefering.
This should make it easy for you to not only use the quality academy kids coming through, but make use of the tremendous regens that tend to pop-up as part of your yearly youth intake.
The biggest club in Argentina in the eyes of many, River Plate offer a tremendous managerial experience. They are a genuinely massive club, and are backed with a simply incredible youth system. They might not put as much faith into youth as they used to, but the facilities, junior coaching, and youth recruitment ratings are all very high.
You also have a fine list of real players who have broken through into the first-team, not least wonderkid Julian Alvarez. Definitely a good club to manage if you want to build a South American winning machine powered by its academy.
Of course, we have left out many of the ‘obvious’ names – the likes of Manchester United, FC Barcelona, Sporting CP, SL Benfica, Ajax, Feyenoord etc.
These are clubs that you could definitely enjoy building a winning project with, and have some of the best youth academies in the world. Other teams worth considering, though, includes the likes of Maccabi Tel Aviv, Atalanta, and, if you fancy managing in Asia, the Suwon Bluewings in South Korea.
Which of the above clubs, then, could you see yourself building a quality academy-led team with in the future?
KRC Genk
If you are looking for a club to manage outside of the elite, then Belgian outfit Genk makes a wonderful choice. They are a big club in Belgium, and have some of the best youth facilities in the game. The club also has a great emphasis on youth and academy development, meaning that you can see a lot of players coming through as regens.
The actual players in the academy to start a new save also have some great high potential players to build around. The main challenge with Genk is making sure you can actually keep the players.
Anderlecht
Of course, if you want to go down the route of managing a more well-known club in Belgium then why not choose RSC Anderlecht?
They are the biggest club in the country, and have a world-class youth system. While the club has a relatively low rating for Youth Importance, they have tremendous Youth Facilities, Junior Coaching, and Youth Recruitment. Add on a fine list of real-life players to go with the typically excellent regen crops, and you could easily build a team based on your youth system.
The only challenge? Meeting expectations whilst you bring-through the next crop.
READ ALSO:
5 clubs with best Youth Intake
FC Basel
A fine club to manage for many reasons, Basel are Switzerland’s most powerful club and have a tremendous youth system. They have a high level for Youth Recruitment and for Youth Facilities, and as such should make a fine choice for just about any manager.
While the actual real-life crop of talent is not exceptional, you have enough to get by with until your excellent youth academy starts producing some S-tier regens. Definitely, a club that you could build a winning system with, powered by a high-class range of excellent young players ready to be developed.
Sparta Prague
The Czech football scene looks set to enjoy a bit of a boom again, and Sparta Prague are at the heart of this. They have a tremendous level for facilities, recruitment of youth, and of junior coaching. The end result is a truly exceptional experience that is competitive thanks to the presence of long-term rivals Slavia.
This is a good club to manage; a team that has fallen on some hard times in the last few years and thus could do with a reboot. Enough talent already present, and your regens will be very impressive in the future.
Sao Paulo
Regarded as arguably the club with the best academy in Brazil (which is saying something), Sao Paulo makes a great club to manage. These giants have not enjoyed the success on the field they would have expected in recent years, so there will be much planning to do.
The benefit is that you have some truly exceptional young players coming through, and thus you could build a team that has a genuine shot at success. Definitely a team we would recommend managing if, like River Plate, you want to build an academy-led team that wins trophies in South America.
Austria Wien
Seen as one of the original big clubs of Austrian football before RB Salzburg came along, Austria Wien make a very interesting club to manage. They have some great youth academy set-ups, and should provide you with some great young players to build around pretty shortly.
They also have some young stars who are dying for a shot in the first team, and with RB Salzburg so far ahead you should have ample time to build, plan, and prepare accordingly for the future. A club with a huge fanbase that, if looked after, could compete in Europe once again.
RB Salzburg
While some would have issues managing part of the Red Bull group, if you can look beyond the commercialisation aspect you could have a tremendous time managing this club. They are set up for success, and have a horde of quality young players both in the RB Salzburg academy and your feeder club, FC Liefering.
This should make it easy for you to not only use the quality academy kids coming through, but make use of the tremendous regens that tend to pop-up as part of your yearly youth intake.
River Plate
The biggest club in Argentina in the eyes of many, River Plate offer a tremendous managerial experience. They are a genuinely massive club, and are backed with a simply incredible youth system. They might not put as much faith into youth as they used to, but the facilities, junior coaching, and youth recruitment ratings are all very high.
You also have a fine list of real players who have broken through into the first-team, not least wonderkid Julian Alvarez. Definitely a good club to manage if you want to build a South American winning machine powered by its academy.
Other big clubs you could manage
Of course, we have left out many of the ‘obvious’ names – the likes of Manchester United, FC Barcelona, Sporting CP, SL Benfica, Ajax, Feyenoord etc.
These are clubs that you could definitely enjoy building a winning project with, and have some of the best youth academies in the world. Other teams worth considering, though, includes the likes of Maccabi Tel Aviv, Atalanta, and, if you fancy managing in Asia, the Suwon Bluewings in South Korea.
Which of the above clubs, then, could you see yourself building a quality academy-led team with in the future?