Youth system

In sporting terminology, a youth system is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team if they show enough promise and potential, and to fill up squad numbers in some teams with small budgets. In contrast to most sports in the United States where the high school and collegiate system is responsible for developing young sports people, most football clubs, especially in Europe and Latin America, take responsibility for developing their own players of the future.

Most youth systems attached exclusively to one club are often called youth academies. In a youth academy, a club will sign multiple players at a very young age and teach them football skills required to play at that club's standard. Clubs are often restricted to recruiting locally based youngsters, but some larger clubs such as Arsenal, Real Madrid and Chelsea have recruited foreign talent. Leading to the formation of specialist recruiters such as the La Liga Youth Brokerage, which started in 2016.

Many of the larger clubs in Europe such as Ajax and Feyenoord in the Netherlands, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain, Benfica, Sporting CP (which has developed two Ballon d'Or recipients, Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo) and Porto in Portugal, and Manchester United, Liverpool and West Ham in England, Schalke 04 in Germany, among many others, are regarded as having some of the finest youth academies and have produced many players regarded as some of the best in world football. Other clubs such as Brazilian club Grêmio and São Paulo, Espanyol in Spain, Atalanta of Italy and English clubs Leeds United, Middlesbrough, Watford, Aston Villa and West Ham United, while not as financially successful as others, have a world class academy. West Ham's youth academy is known as The Academy of Football and has produced many English talents that have gone on to play with larger clubs in the Premier League.

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