Exploring Correlations Between the Monetary Size of a Soccer Club and the Success of its Youth Program at Player Development

Abstract

Soccer is an extremely popular and lucrative sport played worldwide. Players from all around the world are scouted at young ages for soccer talent. The most talented young prospects may earn a chance to train at the academy of a professional soccer club. This thesis explores the correlations between the monetary size of European soccer clubs and the relative success or failure of their academy, based on analyzing a pool of several thousand individuals using self-made determinants of success and classifications. The unfortunate result is that there is effectively no correlation between the two variables. Although there are many factors that contribute to the success or failure of an academy, this paper concludes that individual club academy failures or successes to develop these players depends largely on the risks that clubs are willing to take on young academy players. Academies at clubs that are unsuccessful must be more risk-averse than their competitors.