The future is here, ladies and gentlemen. Four Isuzu UTE A-League teams are among the top 100 teams from 65 leagues across the world for Under-21 match minutes this season.
Young guns have been a shining light in 2024-25 as the Isuzu UTE A-League Finals Series begins this week and now a quartet of clubs have been ranked from 65 global competitions, according to the percentage of domestic league minutes in the current season played by footballers aged 21 or under per the CIES Football Observatory.
Adelaide United lead the way for A-Leagues teams, coming in at number 50 with 36% on a list topped by Belgian second-tier outfit Lommel SK, who are part of the City Football Group.
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Behind 39th-placed LaLiga juggernaut and UEFA Champions League finalists Barcelona (38.3%), the Reds are renowned for their famed production line in South Australia, where teenage sensation Panagiotis Kikianis has flourished along with joint-Golden Boot winner Archie Goodwin and Ethan Alagich.
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Luka Jovanovic, Jonny Yull, Ryan White, Harry Crawford and Max Vartuli have also played important roles ahead of Friday night’s Elimination Final against Western United.
Western United are the next Isuzu UTE A-League side on the list in 66th position with 33.7%.
A host of academy graduates have spearheaded John Aloisi’s Green and Black, who finished third in 2024-25 – narrowly missing out on an AFC Champions League Elite berth. From 17-year-old prodigy Dylan Leonard, to Abel Walatee, Oli Lavale, Rhys Bozinovski, Charbel Shamoon and Matthew Grimaldi.
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Rounding out the top 100 are Melbourne City and Central Coast Mariners for A-Leagues teams.
City (30.4%) are 89th, while the Mariners (30.1%) are 92nd.
City’s young guns have played a starring role this term as the club not only qualified for the Semi-Finals but the ACL Elite after finishing second. Aurelio Vidmar has been able to rely on Medin Memeti, Max Caputo, Patrick Beach, Alessandro Lopane, Zane Schreiber, Lawrence Wong and Emin Durakovic.
While two-time defending champions Central Coast missed out on the top six, they were able to expose numerous youngers to professional football – 17-year-old star Haine Eames and fellow teenagers Dylan Peraic-Cullen and Arthur de Lima.
As well as Bailey Brandtman, Abdelelah Faisal and Nicholas Duarte, while Nathan Paull and Miguel Di Pizio further enhanced their reputations.
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