Quote Originally Posted by Don Corleone View Post
If you take all the kids who pass through clubs football academies it’s a lot less than 1% who make it, more like 0.1%
According to this report from 2017

https://www.businessinsider.com/mich...rt-2017-6?IR=T

it's 0.5% of all youngsters who get taken on by Academies from the age of 9 that go on to make a living from the game. Also, only 180 of the 1.5m lads playing organised youth football at any one time will make it as a Premier League pro - 0.012%.

The meteorite comparison doesn't work (the odds there are around 1 in 1.6 million) but they are still interesting stats. Surely the answer for Academies is to employ Wales-Bales as a talent spotter, the success rating would then go to 100% immediately.