The most profitable club academies in world football - ranked

One of the most joyous moments as a football fan is seeing a young player come through the academy of your club and start bossing it for the team they support.

It creates a special feeling of pride for fanbases when 'one of their own' emerges from nowhere and enjoys great success. While those stars are often treated like royalty by supporters while they are still performing well, a lot of clubs worldwide often jump at the chance to sell them on for huge profits to elite sides around the globe.

Great footballing institutions like Manchester United and Barcelona are synonymous with successful academy set-ups, but those clubs often keep their best talents to instead promote them into the first team over time.

With that in mind, here are the ten most profitable football academies in terms of revenue generated over the last ten years by the transfers of players who spent at least three seasons there between the ages of 15 and 21, as generated by the CIES Football Observatory.

Leading the way by a country mile, Benfica's academy has been producing top talent for years. The club is perfectly placed as the Primeira Liga is respected as a tough league to play in and there often isn't a huge amount of transition needed to move from Benfica to one of Europe's elite teams.

The biggest fee for a player who meets the criteria was Joao Felix's £113m move to Atletico Madrid in 2019. Ruben Dias (£61m to Man City) and Goncalo Ramos (£68m to Paris Saint-Germain) also contributed large chunks of that final tally, while many lesser-known players have left Benfica in the last decade for healthy fees.

Benfica's academy is based in the Seixal area of Lisbon and is regarded as one of the most fertile areas in the world for footballing talent, be