Ranking the top 7 best EFL League One academies | OneFootball

Football League World has taken a look at the seven strongest academies in League One ahead of the 2026/27 campaign

The EFL never fails to blood through exceptional homegrown talent, and that successful production rate trickles down from the Championship to Leagues One and Two.

It is, of course, at second-tier level where you are likely to find the strongest academy systems - some of which still hold prestigious Category One status alongside leading Premier League clubs - but that's not to say that clubs further down the footballing pyramid fall short of producing and platforming a wide range of youth prospects either.

Indeed, regular first-team football is naturally easier to come by in League One as opposed to the top-end of the Championship, for example, and it's the third-tier that Football League World is focusing on here.

We regularly see young talent lighting up League One before earning big moves to the Championship and beyond and, with that in mind, FLW has run the rule over the seven best teams in the division for producing academy prospects ahead of the 2026/27 campaign...

7 ? ? Huddersfield Town

The success of Huddersfield Town's academy has been inconsistent, with its infrastructure undergoing real changes over the years.

The Terriers eliminated all youth squads from under-16 level and down in 2017, downgrading to Category Four, although Kevin Nagle reversed this upon his purchase of the club and reopened the full academy at Category Three status.

Now, Huddersfield operate at Category Two status, with 21-year-old midfielder Tom Iorpenda representing the next great hope in this corner of West Yorkshire following an eye-catching loan spell with Notts County last season.

Huddersfield have produced no shortage of talent across the years. Lewis O'Brien emerged from Town's youth ranks to establish himself as one of the Championship's leading midfielders before joining Nottingham Forest back in 2022, while the likes of Duane Holmes and Jordan Williams also came through with the Terriers.

The flow of youngsters into the first-team frame hasn't always been consistent, but Huddersfield have enjoyed their fair share of successes on this front.

6 ? ? Peterborough United

Renowned for a constant conveyor belt of talent, Peterborough United's overarching recruitment policy is progressive and youth-centred and that naturally fosters a clear pathway to the first-team picture at London Road.

Peterborough have been able to make a litany of significant sales over the years by recruiting talent within the EFL sphere and carefully developing their own in-house prospects, equipping them with the tools to enjoy successful careers after moving on from the club.

Perhaps the most notable academy graduate is Harrison Burrows, who rose through the Posh ranks and made close to 200 appearances across all competitions while registering 58 goal contributions from left-back before joining Sheffield United for up to £6 million two years ago.

Ricky-Jade Jones is another notable production from the Peterborough academy, while Gent midfielder Leonardo Lopes also made his way up their youth system.

Posh's hit-rate with signings and divisional success have both taken a hit in recent seasons, although the club's academy system continues to bear fruit and it looks as though either James Dornelly or Harley Mills could represent the next big-money departure from the League One outfit, with the pair having already made more than 100 appearances combined aged 21 and 20 respectively.

5 ? ? Wigan Athletic

Wigan Athletic, meanwhile, have leaned heavier on their production line in rockier recent seasons, which has enabled the Latics to save costs before receiving some much-needed injections of cash in the market.

It's not always an easy sell considering the volume of clubs located in the Greater Manchester area, but Wigan have still been able to attract and develop a glut of young talent - paving the way for some impressive careers carved out in the EFL.

Unfortunately for Wigan, not all of that talent has necessarily gone on to blossom at the Brick Community Stadium - at least for as long as the Latics would have liked. Impressively, Joe Gelhardt, Charlie Hughes and Kyle Joseph - three lynchpins of Hull City's shock promotion to the Premier League in May - all came through at Wigan, while Preston North End playmaker Alfie Devine was also on the books before joining Tottenham Hotspur at the age of 16.

One of the more naturally talented operators to come through the ranks at a League One academy, meanwhile, simply has to be Thelo Aasgaard, who went on to score 30 goals from 163 senior appearances for Wigan and now stars for both Rangers and the Norway national side.

Other notable graduates include current first-teamers in James Carragher and Jensen Weir alongside recently-departed duo Harrison Bettoni and Sam Tickle, who left Gary Caldwell's side in the summer to join Chelsea and Bristol City respectively.

Surrounded by bigger South Yorkshire rivals, notably in the Steel City with Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United, it's always going to be hard for Barnsley's academy to produce as much as they do when they're all battling for players in the same catchment area.

The Tykes do run a Category Three youth system though, which means they're perhaps limited to what they can bring through, but it did not stop them producing a world class centre-back in John Stones, who has gone on to be a Premier League and UEFA Champions League winner.

The likes of James Bree, Mason Holgate, Jacob Brown and Jordan Clark have all come through the ranks at Oakwell too, which shows that they've been doing something right since the 2010s onwards, and even in 2026, the likes of Fabio Jalo, Vimal Yoganathan and Jonathan Bland are all products of the youth system and have appeared in the first-team somewhat regularly.

3 ? ? Sheffield Wednesday

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Despite their recent struggles prior to David Storch's takeover, Sheffield Wednesday have always boasted a decent-sized academy system, although you'd have perhaps expected more of their players to go on to bigger things.

Current Ipswich Town striker George Hirst is one player that perhaps could've been an Owls star if he opted to remain at the club in 2018 instead of signing for OH Leuven, but more recently, Pierce Charles has been the star graduate at Hillsborough, having secured himself a transfer to Man City.

Bailey Cadamarteri is another that was sold on to Wrexham before he could produce his best stuff for the Owls, and Doncaster-born teenager Yisa Alao was sold earlier in 2026 to Chelsea to help ease the club's financial issues, but it does show that the youth system right now is churning out some good talents.

With the Owls returning to League One for 2026-27, academy graduates like Will Grainger, Ernie Weaver, Gabriel Otegbayo and Sean Fusire look likely to form part of Henrik Pedersen's squad, and they'll be looking to uphold the good reputation of the youth setup in S6.

2 ? ? Reading

A rare Category One setup in League One, Reading's academy system over the years has produced some absolute gems, with the obvious headliner being Michael Olise - despite arriving at the Royals late on in his youth progression.

Current Auxerre forward Danny Namaso also came through the Reading youth setup when his surname was known as 'Loader', and a plethora of current EFL defenders were produced by the system too - Jake Cooper, Jack Stacey, Dom Hyam and Rob Dickie to name a few.

More recently, the emergence of teenager Andre Garcia into the first-team saw him earn a move to Club Brugge, whilst Caylan Vickers earned himself a move to Brighton recently too after breaking into the senior setup at a young age.

The current crop of Royals academy graduates at the SCL Stadium are headlined by striker Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan, with both Kelvin Abrefa and Jeriel Dorsett part of Leam Richardson's defensive options too - perhaps they aren't quite the level of what the Berkshire outfit have produced over the years, especially in the 2010s, but there's the potential still for more starlets to come through at Reading.

1 ? ? Leicester City

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You only have to take one look at Leicester City's Seagrave training ground to see that the Foxes have some incredible facilities to nurture some special talents.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Harvey Barnes have been two of the more recent graduates that have become fully-fledged Premier League stars, having dedicated a fair chunk of time to the Foxes' first-team as well, and you can add Calvin Bassey to that as well, despite never appearing for Leicester's first-team.

Ben Chilwell, Kasey McAteer, Luke Thomas, Jeffrey Schlupp and Hamza Choudhury have all appeared plenty of times in the Premier League and Championship for the club over the years, and if the previous lot of youngsters coming through were exciting, then the more recent starlets could be even better.

Leicester have only just lost Jeremy Monga - who could potentially be a world class talent in the future - to Man City, whilst the likes of Louis Page and Jake Evans will be pushing for regular game-time in League One this coming season, so the future continues to look bright for the club's bustling youth setup.