In this summer’s transfer market, four footballers make uncommon decisions. While many players are competing to find and play opportunities for English Premier League clubs, the four young players are heading towards Europe.
Reo Griffiths (18) made his name in the history book Olympique Lyonnais as the first British player to join the French club. Jonathan Panzo (17), who has joined Chelsea since the age of 9, moved to AS Monaco on July 6. Keanan Bennetts (19) joined Borussia Monchengladbach while Noni Madueke (16) with PSV from Tottenham Hotspur on the first day of the 2018 summer transfer market.
The move of the four players above further confirmed the strengthening trend last season. The move of English players to mainland Europe is certainly not new, but last season the number of English players joining Bundesliga clubs was quite striking.
Jadon Sancho (18) exchanged Manchester City’s blue-sky uniform for Yellow-Black Borussia Dortmund, while Kaylen Hinds (20) left Arsenal for VfL Wolfsburg. Ademola Lookman (20), Reece Oxford (19), and Ryan Kent (21) are on loan at the RB Leipzig, Borussia Monchengladbach and SC Freiburg. Lookman performed satisfactorily so die Roten Bullen, as proclaimed by the BBC, was willing to bring the player back to Leipzig from Everton — this time permanently.
The move of the five players was triggered by the success of the British National Team winning the U-17 World Cup and U-20 World Cup, both in 2017.
“We will see more because our players are as good as other players,” said Aidy Boothroyd last year, quoted by The Guardian. “If players reach the upper limit of development and feel they can get more opportunities to play elsewhere, then it’s good for them and this should be part of their development.”
That Sancho was accepted and well developed in Dortmund prompted more players – including four young men who moved in the transfer market this time – to grow abroad.
Griffiths and Panzo are unlikely to be able to penetrate the first team Lyon and Monaco, as Sancho needs half a season to be believed to appear on the Dortmund first team. The two will also begin their new adventure in Championnat National 2, but it is definitely better than playing in England’s reserve team competition.
Reserve teams in France and Germany, unlike in England, have their own leagues. In Germany and France, the reserve team competed in the lower division league and competed with other clubs that played senior players. Regularly competing in actual competitions makes young players can grow more rapidly. This makes French and German clubs tend to have greater confidence in young players.
“In the UK, the prevailing system makes it difficult for players to enter the first team directly from the reserve team,” said Badou Sambague, a figure who facilitated Panzo’s move. “English clubs don’t have time to wait for players to grow, and have enough money to buy mature players.”
If Sancho and the 2017 class cannot yet be proof that leaving England is a good decision, new players who have not left England can see Kevin Danso, a graduate of the Milton Keynes Dons academy. Danso is not an English player, but he spent ten years in Milton Keynes. In 2014 Danso moved to FC Augsburg. He is only 19 years old, but Danso has played for the Austrian National Team six times at senior level.
“In France, clubs need to give young players the opportunity to sell them in the future and use their money to fund the academy,” continued Sambague. “Fighting adults in the lower division while still in their teens is a good way to prepare themselves for a higher division. I myself play against players like Olivier Giroud and Laurent Koscielny, proof that there are good players at that level. ”
ASL
Adrian Limanto
