Investing in youth

Few soccer clubs in 2010 will be able to splash out as much as in previous years. With top players, such as Liverpool striker Fernando Torres valued at a whopping 158 million euros ($227 million) costing so much to sign and to sustain, most clubs are increasingly reluctant or unable to shell out the money for the world's best.

This means that if the player price hike continues as predicted, fewer and fewer world class stars will be on the move. Eventually, the transfer market will grind to a halt, with the top players all huddled together in London, Madrid or Manchester - or forced to accept their lot at their current clubs.

As the value of players continues to rise, many teams have adopted the philosophy of 'speculate to accumulate'; they're developing their youth systems, nurturing young local talent and buying the potential stars of the future on the cheap.

Placing your faith in youngsters is of course not a new trend. In the English Premiership, Manchester United's era of modern dominance was built on a team of FA Youth Cup winners which featured the likes of David Beckham, Paul Scholes and the Neville brothers. The 1995 title-winning team had an average age of 24 with six first team regulars under 21. It laid waste to a pundit's claim at the time that "you can't win anything with kids."

Since then, Arsenal's Arsene Wenger has taken on the mantle of paternal developer by building successful teams around exciting raw talent. But there's one main difference: unlike Alex Ferguson's teams of the mid-90s, many of the young guns have come in from other clubs. More recently, Rafael Benitez at Liverpool circumnavigated his club's financial malaise by spending pennies on teenagers from South America to eastern Europe in the hope of having cut-price world class players in a few years.

German clubs under orders to nurture youth

In Germany, the emphasis on youth development has been the cornerstone of the national team's continued success and the slow but steady rise of the Bundesliga through the ranks of the European leagues.

While English, Italian and Spanish teams were spending millions on snapping up youngsters from Africa to Asia in the 2006/07 season, Bundesliga clubs were inwardly investing a total of 44 million euros in youth academies.

Bundesliga clubs are obliged under the German Soccer Federation's (DFB) regulations to manage and maintain youth academies in order to be eligible for the licenses they need to operate in the league. The DFB regularly does spot-checks on Bundesliga clubs to assess their youth programs and make sure they meet its criteria. This includes fielding a sufficient number of youth teams in a variety of age groups, maintaining adequate training pitches and providing good-quality standards in terms of sporting, medical and educational care for the youngsters.

International success ingrained at an early age

National coach Joachim Loew is particularly happy with this approach, especially after Germany's youngsters won the UEFA Under-17 and UEFA Under-21 European titles in 2009. "The youth academies of the Bundesliga are a kind of elite school for the best, and an excellent institution which is bearing fruits," he said recently. "Numerous excellent players from these academies have managed to go professional already."

Turning to youth out of necessity

The Bundesliga clubs are well aware of the value of the German youth system - for example, current league leaders Bayer Leverkusen have an average age of just 23. While the youth system undoubtedly provides teams with capable players, most German clubs are relying on youth out of necessity because most world-class stars ignore the advances of Bundesliga.

Despite being able to attract the likes of Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben and Luca Toni in recent years, even Bayern Munich are talking about looking closer to home for the stars of the future.

Bayern could turn to homegrown talent

Bayern did invest heavily in new, established talent during the summer transfer window. But following a disappointing start to the season under new coach Louis van Gaal, Sporting Director Christian Nerlinger announced that a new emphasis on youth will be at the center of Bayern's transfer policy.

"We're keeping a close eye on a few of our youngsters who we believe may have the quality to play for Bayern Munich," Nerlinger told reporters. "They will soon be invited to train with the senior squad, allowing the coaching staff to gain a first-hand impression for themselves.

"On the one hand you have the Riberys and Tonis, who we need for consistent success," he added. "On the other hand, you have players coming out of our superb development system and the squad has plenty of those."

So, in the event that the world soccer transfer market becomes gridlocked by massive fees, the Bundesliga clubs may find themselves ahead of the pack when it comes to sending out their boys to do a man's job.

Author: Nick Amies
Editor: Nancy Isenson