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As football has become more and more money-driven with every passing year, top clubs have tended to deploy less youth players than they did in the past. It has become 'risky for football teams to give chances to unproven teen players when high stakes are involved. So it's no surprise to see ageing world-class teams like FC Barcelona.
However, it isn't unusual for football teams in smaller leagues to use more young players. They invest most of their funds into the development of their top youth players and then sell them to bigger and wealthier clubs.
That has sparked a question - which are the youngest football teams in Europe, and how well are they doing in their domestic leagues? For this study, we have used transfermarkt.com data and looked at every European country's top tier. The full study is available at the bottom of this article.
Top five youngest European football teams in 2020:
#5: FC Nordsjaelland (21.6 years)
The Danish club Nordsjaelland has had a successful season, considering their young team.
Although they were the second-youngest team in the Danish Superliga since transfermarkt.com started collecting data, Norsjaelland managed to finish sixth in a 14-team division. That's the same position they finished in last season when they were, in fact, the youngest team in Danish Superliga since 2004 (21.0 years old).
71% of all Nordsjaelland's goals this season were scored by players under the age of 21. Their top two goalscorers - Mikkel Damsgaard (20) and Mohammed Kudus (19) - are leaving Nordsjaelland for a cumulative transfer fee of €15.5 million next season. Both will rank in the top-three most expensive departures for Nordsjaelland.
In 2012, Norsjaelland won the Superliga and qualified for the Champions League group stages. They played against the then champions Chelsea, Juventus and Shakhtar. While they didn't see much success, they did earn a creditable 1-1 draw against Juventus.
#4: FC Luftëtari (21.5 years)
Albanian top-flight football team Luftëtari had a miserable season. The Gjirokaster club finished last with only two wins and 14 points in 36 games. Safety from relegation was a staggering 31 points away.
Four years ago, Luftëtari returned to the Albanian top league. A year later, they achieved a top-3 finish and, for the first time in their history, they participated in the Europa League qualifiers.
After losing the first match comfortably to Latvian side Ventspils (0-5), they played out a controversial 3-3 draw in the second leg. They were accused of match fixing because of the unusual shift in betting odds and suspicious defensive work before the final goal in that game.
After the football club's owner Grigor Tavo suffered financial problems, Luftëtari were forced to change almost their entire squad before the 2019-20 season. That was very visible in the difference in the team's average age in the last two years - from 25.9 in 2019 to 21.5 in 2020.
Just a day before their first game of the season, the football club's manager Klevis Dalipi resigned as he wasn't able to work together with the club's board. Klodian Duro immediately took over the job but left after only two weeks. During the season, the football club changed managers two more times.
#3: Codru Lozova (20.8 years)
Moldavan football club Codru Lozova is currently at the very bottom of their league, with no wins and 29 goals conceded in their first seven games.
Due to reconstruction work at their stadium, they did not get a license to play their first few games there, and their home matches were recheduled to a later part of the season. As a result, they started the season with seven away games."
So it is quite an unusual look as Codru Lozova are yet to have a home game after seven matchdays.
In 2018, for the first time in their modest history (they were founded in 2008), Codru Lozova got promoted to the Moldovan top division. They didn't get a single win in 2019 and finished last with only five points.
Although Codru Lozova recorded their worst league record since 2004, they weren't relegated. That was because the Moldovan football league expanded to ten teams in 2020, and the last positioned team in 2019 had to play a relegation play-off match.
Codru Lozova managed to win that game by scoring at the fag end of the match. It was their first win in over four months, and bizarrely they managed to keep their position in the Moldovan top division.
#2: FC Zimbru Chisinau (20.7 years)
Zimbru Chisinau is another young Moldovan football club. Just like Codru Lozova, Zimbru Chisinau aren't setting the light out in Moldova this season.
They are currently second to last in the country's top league and haven't finished higher than fifth place since 2016. Codru Lozova won their last two trophies in 2014 - domestic Cup and Supercup.
However, they have had a rich history in Moldovan football. Zimbru Chisinau haven't been relegated from the top division since it was established after Moldova became an independent country.
They were a dominant force at the start, winning the Moldovan league title eight times in the first nine years of the competition. Only one other club has won the league title multiple times, making Zimbru Chisinau the second most successful club in Moldova since independence.
In the last three years, Zimbru Chisinau have gradually become younger, currently regularly playing at least five different players under the age of 18.
At the start of July, Zimbru Chisinau lined up with a starting lineup that had an average age of 19.2 years, which is the lowest in Moldova since 2017 (the first year when transfermarkt.com started collecting this data).
#1: FK Metta (19.9 years)
By a comfortable margin, the Latvian football club Metta is the youngest in European football leagues. They have been the only club in the last three years who have had a team averaging below 20 years.
The club is renowned for promoting young players. Metta's football academy has been recognised by the Latvian Football Federation as the country's best for four years in a row.
What sets Metta apart from other football clubs is how much they care about the future of their youngsters. They have had a partnership with Latvia's University since the club's early days, a reason why fans often call Metta students.
Since the football club was formed in 2006, Metta haven't seen major success in Latvia. In 2011, they won the Latvian first league (second tier) and haven't looked back. Since 2014, Metta have been the youngest football side in Virsliga (top tier) every year.
It is a very exciting time to follow Metta. It has been 13 years since the Riga football club introduced 'Football classes', a new way of teaching football to kids. Boys who arrived under this programme in the first few years are now starting to get introduced in Metta's first team.
