Cotia rising: São Paulo named world’s top Brazilian youth academy | OneFootball

São Paulo was named as one of the clubs with the best youth academies in the world in 2025, and the top among Brazilian clubs, according to a study released by the renowned Football Observatory (CIES) this Wednesday (22).

The Tricolor holds the 12th position in the global ranking, which is led by Benfica from Portugal, followed by Spain’s Barcelona and River Plate from neighboring Argentina.

Three other Brazilian clubs appear in the Top 20, behind São Paulo: Corinthians (14th), Flamengo (15th), and Palmeiras (18th). Seven more Brazilian teams feature in the full list of the top 100: Santos, Grêmio, Cruzeiro, Inter, Fluminense, Athletico-PR, and Atlético-MG.

The CIES study takes into account the number of players developed, the level of the clubs they played for in the last season, and the total minutes played during the evaluated period.

As in 2024, Benfica tops the list, with 93 homegrown players active in the 49 leagues analyzed by the Observatory, an average club employability level of 0.81, and an average of 2,582 minutes played in official matches over the past year.

See the list of the 20 best youth academies on the planet

1- Benfica (Portugal) 2- Barcelona (Spain) 3- River Plate (Argentina) 4- Ajax (Netherlands) 5- Boca Juniors (Argentina) 6- Sporting (Portugal) 7- Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) 8- Defensor Sporting (Uruguay) 9- Real Madrid (Spain) 10- Vélez Sarsfield (Argentina) 11- Red Star (Serbia) 12- São Paulo (Brazil) 13- Dynamo Kyiv (Ukraine) 14- Corinthians (Brazil) 15- Flamengo (Brazil) 16- San Lorenzo (Argentina) 17- Nacional (Uruguay) 18- Palmeiras (Brazil) 19- PSG (France) 20- Partizan (Serbia)

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.