There’s nothing more heartbreaking than inheriting a poor crop of youth players. So working with state of the art youth facilities is crucial to developing the next Football Manager wonderkid.
Here are a list of clubs with state of the art youth facilities:
- Ajax
There’s no surprise to see Ajax on this list. The Dutch super team is probably the club that produces the most talent in Europe. With youth facilities at 18 and youth recruitment at 19, you can be sure to have at least one or two good regens each year. Ajax can count on Ryan Gravenberch, Sergino Dest and Naci Unuvar for their future.
On the top of the list of world clubs where players have departed to reach the five major European leagues ranked by Football Observatory, we find AFC Ajax ahead of Benfica and RB Salzburg. Their record of 22 players departing to one of the major European leagues tells us they were the best stepping stone club in Europe by March 2020.
- Anderlecht
One of the most glorious team in Belgium, Anderlecht can say thanks to their youth academy for their success. Anderlecht has a 19 rating youth facilities and a 19 rating youth recruitment. With young prospect Yari Verschaeran you can start a dynasty with this Belgium giant.
In their long and successful history, players like Vincent Kompany, Romelu Lukaku, Dries Mertens, Youri Tielemens and Dennis Praet have emerged from the Belgium powerhouse. While the club served 35% of the Belgium national team for the World Cup 2018, the future looks promising with the latest player to emerge from the Anderlecht academy; Yari Verschaeren, who’s labelled as the new Eden Hazard. 
- Barcelona
La Masia is a renowned academy all around the globe and it’s no surprise to find Barcelona on the list. The youth academy has produced amazing talent in the last 20 years: Lionel Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets to name a few.
With a 20 rating youth facilities and 19 rating youth recruitment, Barcelona has the best youth recruitment in the game. If you decide to start a save with Barca, you can expect Alex Collado, Ilaix Moriba, Riqui Puig and Ansu Fati to be big time players for you. Don’t worry you’ll get a lot of good regens. 
- Man Utd
Since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has taken over Manchester United, the team has put more emphasis on youth players coming from the academy. Players like Mason Greenwood and Brandon Williams are now part of the first team even though they’re only 18 and 19 years old.
Other young players like Ethan Laird, Angel Gomes, Tahith Chong, Hannibal Mejbri are soon to be on the first team. In FM20, Man United can say a huge thanks to the developers who gave them a 20 rating youth facilities and an 18 youth recruitment rating. So, if you want to remake a 92 class just like Fergie did, Manchester United is the perfect save for that.
- SL Benfica
The best youth facilities in the game goes to SL Benfica. The Portuguese monster has a 20 rating youth facilities and youth recruitment. The only club to have these ratings. With players like Mile Svilar, Florentino Luis, Ronaldo Camara, Diego Nascimento and Tomas Tavares, Benfica future looks bright and you can conquer Europe in no time.
With an exceptional youth recruitment and excellent junior coaching it has the best foundation for receiving a lot of promising talents at the annual youth intake, while also being able to develop them into future world class players with state of the art youth facilities and a large number of 5 star coaches and backroom staff in the likes of head of youth development Pedro Mil Homens, manager Bruno Lage and the coach Minervino Pietra.
