Top 10 Youth Academies in Scandinavia
You might have heard of Martin Ödegaard? Dejan Kulusevski? Alexander Isak? Erling Braut Haaland? Of course you have! But what do they have in common? They’re young? Yes, but you’re stating the obvious though. They’re all Scandinavian, that’s what I was after! They’re Scandinavian and come from Academies at Scandinavian clubs.
On my YouTube channel I’m doing a Youth Academy challenge with Swedish team Brommapojkarna, where I’m only allowed to use Academy products. This save combines my Scandinavian heritage and knowledge of Scandinavian football with my love of youth development.
I have written a post about the Top 10 Youth Academies in Scandinavia in FM21 to either help you find a club to start your own Youth Academy challenge or to simply guide you to the clubs that you can steal the next Haaland from!
Top 10 Youth Academies in Scandinavia
I’ve judged the Scandinavian clubs on three categories:
- Facilities
- Academy graduates
- Current talent
Facilities
Three club facilities play a part in determining a club’s level of youth intakes. Youth recruitment, junior coaching and youth facilities. They are described in terms like “Adequate”, “Excellent”, “State of the Art” etc in-game, but they all actually range from 1-20. I’ve used the pre-game editor to retrieve the facility ratings for this list. The top five Scandinavian clubs when it comes to facilities are:
- FK Bodö/Glimt (Norway) – Youth Recruitment (YR) 20, Youth Coaching (YC) 16, Youth Facitilies (YF) 16, Reputation (Rep) 5900
- Vålerenga Fotboll (Norway) – YR 20, YC 16, YF 16, Rep 5650
- Stabaek Fotboll (Norway) – YR 20, YC 16, YF 16, Rep 5300
- FC Midtjylland (Denmark) – YR 20, YC 16, YC 15, Rep 6250
- FC Nordsjaelland (Denmark) – YR 18, YC 17, YF 16, Rep 5600
There are seven Scandinavian clubs with the maximum Youth Recruitment rating of 20. When it comes to Youth Coaching and Youth Facilities the best clubs have ratings of 17 and 16 respectively. To separate clubs with similar facilities I’ve used club reputation, which is an important factor when it comes to recruiting pre-intake players.
I haven’t taken the national Youth Ratings into consideration here, but I’m doing that for the final Top 10. If you are not familiar with the concept of national Youth Rating it can be described as a nation’s quality of newgens. Brazil has the highest rating in the world with 163, while the Scandinavian clubs are ranked like this:
- Denmark – 91
- Sweden – 88
- Norway – 82
- Finland – 75
- Iceland – 67
- Faroe Islands – 42
This means that Denmark has the biggest chance to produce a world class newgen and will also produce newgens with the highest average quality out of the Scandinavian nations.
Academy Graduates
What players have come through the club’s Academy? If two clubs have fairly equal facilities they can be separated by looking at the players they produce. If one Academy feeds players into local lower league clubs while the other sells player to Italy, one of the clubs is doing a better job than the other!
In this category I have judged the clubs based on their three best or most well known Academy Graduates that are still active. The top five Scandinavian clubs when it comes to Academy graduates are:
1. FC Köbenhavn (Denmark) – Höjberg, Delaney, Vestergaard
Ok, so this is what quality looks like! FC Köbenhavn have produced some top notch players, at least by Scandinavian standards. Spurs players Pierre-Emile Höjbjerg, Southampton defender Jannik Vestergaard and Borussia Dortmund midfielder Thomas Delaney are all graduates of the FC Köbenhavn Academy.
2. Malmö FF (Sweden) – Jansson, Svanberg, Ibrahimovic
If you have produced The Zlatan (AC Milan), one of Scandinavia’s best players ever, you deserve a high rank on this list. The other two on this list, Swedish internationals Pontus Jansson (Brentford) and Mattias Svanberg (Bologna), are not too bad either!
3. FC Midtjylland (Denmark) – Kjaer, Duelund and Braithwaite
If Ibrahimovic is the token goalscorer for AC Milan, Simon Kjaer is the one to prevent opponents from scoring! Together with Braithwaite (Barcelona) and Reid (Brentford) he makes up the most prolific trio of Midtjylland Academy graduates!
4. IF Brommapojkarna (Sweden) – Kulusevski, Ekdal, Augustinsson
Three Swedish national team players. What more can you ask for? Albin Ekdal (Sampdoria) is approaching the end of his career. Ludwig Augustinsson (Werder Bremen) is in the middle of his. And the brightest shining star of them all, Dejan Kulusevski (Juventus), is on the rise!
5. Rosenborg BK (Norway) – Selnaes, Sörloth, Midtsjö
The former (?) Norwegian club giants have produced a substantial amount of players in European leagues. The currently best of them are Selnaes (Shenzhen), Sörloth (RB Leipzig) and Midtsjö (AZ Alkmaar)
Current Talent
The third and final category is determined by the actual quality of the young players at the club. Are there any upcoming potential starlets? A new Ibrahimovic, Laudrup or Haaland?
In this category I both look at the overall quality and the individual player with the highest potential. The top five Scandinavian clubs when it comes to current talent are:
1. FC Nordsjaelland (Denmark)
Being affiliated to the “Right to Dream” Academy in Ghana sure puts Nordsjaelland on another level than the rest of them when it comes to current talent in the team. The Academy is filled with talent, both Ghanaian and Danish. The most exciting young player however, is from the Ivory Coast!
Mohammed Diomandé came through the “Right to Dream” Academy, just like many of the other African talents at Nordsjaelland. At his young age he looks like a really well-rounded midfielder with a -8 potential, which translates into a potential of 130-160.
2. Malmö FF (Sweden)
Even though the Malmö FF Academy doesn’t hold too many amazing talents, the U21 player with the highest potential of them all plays for Malmö, which earns them a 2nd place on this list.
As alredy mentioned, Anel Ahmedhodzic has the highest potential in all of Scandinavia. Already capped for Bosnia and with a potential of 165 he can probably develop into a great player for teams at a very high level!
3. Rosenborg BK (Norway)
With loads of history to their name and a reputation of being a talent factory, Rosenborg have plenty of good players in their Academy.
Emil Ceide is the brightest shining star at the moment. A technically gifted player with a great potential of -8 (130-160).
4. FC Köbenhavn (Denmark)
A solid pool of Danish talent in the Academy is spiced up with some of the best young Icelandic players out there. The Copenhagen club is known to produce prime talent and they seem to be honouring this tradition!
Mohamed Daramy is the latest talent and best of the bunch! A solid attacking player with a potential of -8 (130-160).
5. FC Midtjylland (Denmark)
With an U19 squad blessed with both quality and depth, Midtjylland make it to the 5th place on this list.
The best of all of them is Swedish U21 international Jens Cajuste with a potential of 151, which means that he will most likely outgrow Midtjylland sooner rather than later!
These are the top clubs in each category, but what happens when we weigh all of them together? I give you the:
Top 10 Youth Academies in Scandinavia
Skeid Fotball
Not a household name, Skeid. And that’s not strange since they are currently playing in the Norwegian third tier. Their brilliant facilities earn them a place in this Top 10 though. A Youth Recruitment rating of 20 doesn’t necessarily mean that they will get all the top level talent though, since they need to compete with the other clubs in the region with exceptional Youth Recruitment and in the Oslo region there are plenty of them! Both Stabaek and Vålerenga from the Oslo region also have a Youth Recruitment rating of 20, play in higher divisions and have a significantly higher reputation.
They still have exceptional facilities for their level and have produced some top quality players through the years! At the moment there aren’t too many great talents in the U19s, but with a Youth Recruitment of 20 you have every chance to have golden generation after golden generation come through the intakes!
Breidablik
One Icelandic team makes it into this list and that’s Reykjavik club Breidablik. With facilities that the rest of the Icelandic teams can only dream of they are the number one choice for the talented youngsters that decide to remain on the island.
The best player to come through their Academy in the last few years is Burnley winger Jóhann Berg Gudmundson.
Molde FK
A Youth Recruitment rating of 20 gets you far. A prime talent like Datro Fofana gets you on this list.
The 17 year old attacking mid already looks like a very good player and with a potential of -8 (130-160) you can expect a lot of further development from him!
FK Bodö/Glimt
The reigning Norwegian champions make it onto this list despite only featuring in the top 5 of one of the categories. The truth is that they were close to getting onto the Academy graduate list with former players like Stefan Johansen (QPR) and Mattias Normann (Rostov).
IF Brommapojkarna
Bromma-who? you might be asking and I can’t blame you. The truth is that club is just as well-known for its Academy in Sweden as it is unknown abroad. And the reason for that is simple. The club currently plays in the Swedish 3rd tier and have only managed a couple of occasional and short-lived visits to the Swedish top tier. With well-known Academy graduates and the highest Youth Recruitment rating in Sweden, they make it onto this list!
FC Nordsjaelland
The affiliation with the “Right to Dream” Academy in Ghana make Nordsjaelland into one of the most exciting teams to manage on this list. An almost endless pool of talent gets me itching to load up the game. The lack of top quality Academy graduates only earn them a 5th place on this list though!
Rosenborg BK
Producing former greats. An Academy filled with potential greats. That earns Rosenborg a 4th place on my list, despite their slightly inferior facilities.
FC Köbenhavn
Denmark’s largest and most well-known club has also produced some brilliant players. With a Youth Coaching of 17 and a Youth Facilities of 15 it is no wonder they produce good footballers. My biggest issue now is the “low” Youth Recruitment rating of 17, which will see many of the best young Danish players choose other teams!
Malmö FF
The club that produced Zlatan Ibrahimovic earns one of the best places on this list. When you also have the player with the highest potential in all of Scandinavia you qualify for a top 3 position. The facilities need a couple of upgrades though to really compete for the 1st place on this list!
FC Midtjylland
Making it into the top 5 list in all categories ultimately makes FC Midtjylland into the best FM21 Youth Academy in Scandinavia. With quality graduates, an Academy filled with talent and facilities to make them realise their potential, FC Midtjylland is my number one!
That is all for this guide to the Top 10 Scandinavian Youth Academies. I hope you enjoyed it enough to start a save in Scandinavia or at least poach a player or two!
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2 thoughts on “Top 10 Youth Academies in Scandinavia”
Hi, Nice article. Will you be able to provide information about how international students can get football training
in one of the clubs mentioned in the article (Top 10 Youth Academies in Scandinavia)?
Thanks
David
Im sorry but this article is full of mistakes – to name a few is 2 of 3 talents mentioned from fck academy players from Brøndby’s academy… Pierre-Emile Højbjerg as well as Jannik Vestergaard both came from Brøndby and not fck……..