AS had an interesting article yesterday about Madrid’s youth system, or La Fábrica.  They say that at present, there are 107 products of Madrid’s youth system playing in Europe: 51 in La Liga BBVA, 43 in La Liga Adelante, and 13 outside of Spain in nine different European countries.

Real Madrid has five (Raúl, Guti, Iker, Granero and Arbeloa) or seven (if you include Adán and De La Red), while Getafe has not only a coach (Míchel) but also seven players (Belenguer, Casquero, Adrián, Soldado, Torres, Parejo and Codina).  Rayo Vallecano also has a bunch.

The nine countries where former canteranos are playing are: England, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Russia, Greece, Armenia and Cyprus.

See graphic here (the numbers don’t match the article, which is my source for what’s been written above).

All this begs the question: why does Madrid have so little faith in their youth players then?  It has been incredibly difficult for a product of the cantera to make the first team in recent years, and we’ve given/sold away a lot of quality players, and some of those moves have come back to haunt Madrid and bite them on the ass.