0:00 Ligue 1, or Uber Eats, or the McDonald's league, or the farmers league. Whatever you want to call it, it is not a league that is admired for its competitiveness. The same team wins there over and over again. In fact, winning Ligue 1 with PSG is like losing your virginity to a prostitute. Now, I'm not here to convince you that Ligue 1 is competitive in this video, but a lot of people seem to forget that the league as a whole is a talent factory. So, while PSG farm wins for fun, the league also farms talent for fun because some of the greatest players to have ever played the sport are all products of Ligue 1. Let's start with the 2025 Ballon d'Or winner Ousmane Dembélé. It wasn't that long ago that the best player in the world was a French player from Ligue 1.
0:45 In fact, Dembélé is a product of Ligue 1, having been developed through the Rennes academy before joining Borussia Dortmund. Then you have Bradley Barcola, who was a backup left winger at PSG, but Liverpool felt he was so talented that they spent over 100 mil on him. You have multiple players on that PSG team that are worth over 100 mil. Doué, Vitinha, João Neves. PSG even got Aston Villa to pay 55 million pounds for a talented winger they were barely using in E N' Diaye. As we will see later in the video, the Premier League, in particular, loves splashing the cash on players from the French league. Look at Cherki at Man City or Mamadou Sangaré on Brentford. Then you have PSG as a club. They treat their league like the Carabao Cup, but they have also destroyed everyone in their path in the Champions League, whether it was the champions of England, or the champions of Spain, or the champions of Germany. PSG have
1:32 solidified themselves as the best team in the world. Now, I had made a video talking about the fact that I felt PSG had a bit of an unfair advantage compared to other top European clubs because their domestic league is so much weaker that they're able to rest more, and the French Football Federation helps them out a ton as well by rescheduling their games. A lot of people thought that by me mentioning that, it means I don't think PSG are a good team. That couldn't be further from the truth. I think they are unbelievable at what they do. They play the best football out there and have been dominant for multiple seasons now. I guess it's my fault for assuming that people watch the video fully before commenting. I keep forgetting that people on YouTube have the attention span of a goldfish, so they just react emotionally to whatever the packaging is instead of watching the video fully and seeing what I talk about because in that video in particular, I talk about the fact that even if you
2:18 gave 99% of other European clubs the same rest and the same rescheduling, they would not be able to replicate the football that PSG is playing. Now, while there are legitimate criticisms that you can make around PSG, the reality is that these guys play a level of football that 99% of other teams can't replicate. You could give Arteta's Arsenal a one-year rest, they're not playing like this PSG team. The only reason I mentioned it is because it has to be mentioned as a factor when you compare Luis Enrique's PSG to other great teams that we have seen in the history of football because those are the conversations that the PSG team now belongs in. The reason France keeps producing players like this is because the system behind it is ridiculously deep. France has had a decades ago that if they wanted to catch countries like Germany and Italy, you know, back when Italy were good at
3:04 football, they needed to completely rethink how they developed players. And one of the biggest turning points came in 1973. French professional football clubs were told, "You need an academy." And no, it's not optional. So, suddenly youth development became a part of the structure of French football. And then came Clairefontaine, the famous national academy just outside of Paris. It opened in 1988. And this place became a farm because they just kept farming out talents. See what I did there because Ligue 1 is called the farmers league, but I did a play on words with it saying they farm talent. I'll show myself out. Clairefontaine focuses on some of the best young players from the Paris region, usually around 13 to 15 years old. They coach the players so they really understand the game. The players train there during the week, then go back and play for their local clubs on the weekend. So, you get elite coaching
3:49 without completely taking away from normal competitive football. And Clairefontaine works so well that France copied the model around the country. So, more regional centers, more scouts. Then you combine that with what was happening in the Paris suburbs. The Paris region has become probably the greatest football talent producing area on the planet. The banlieues are full of these small concrete pitches. Tight spaces, small-sided games. You got older kids playing against younger kids, and of course no refs. So, you either learn quickly or you get embarrassed. There's no flopping here. That environment develops a completely different type of player. Your first touch has to be excellent because the ball is bouncing off concrete. So, I don't know how well Jude Bellingham would do in this environment. You have almost no space and someone is immediately trying to take the ball from you. So, you learn to make decisions quickly. And if you complain about getting kicked, nobody cares. That street football personality
4:35 you see in so many French players. Though Mbappé has become a bit of a diving expert ever since he joined Madrid. Then the academy takes those raw players and add structure to them. Now you're learning how to play inside an actual tactical system. And I think that combination explains a lot about modern French footballers. They are technically gifted, tactically smart enough to survive at the highest level, and are usually physically ready, too. You see it in players like Paul Pogba and N'Golo Kanté. Both came through small clubs around the Paris area before eventually reaching the absolute top. France has created the perfect pipeline. The streets produce the raw footballers, the local clubs find them, the regional system develops them, the professional academies polish them, then Ligue 1 gives them first team minutes. And eventually, the Premier League comes along with a 100 million pounds. France has been doing this for decades, by the way. Some of the greatest players that football history has ever seen are
5:22 products of Ligue 1. Start with Michel Platini. Before Juventus, before the three Ballons d'Or, before he became one of the biggest names in European football, Platini came through Nancy. That's where he developed into this ridiculous playmaker who could see passes before everyone else. He even scored the winning goal in the 1978 Coupe de France final. Then he goes to Saint-Étienne before eventually leaving France and dominating Italy. So, even back then, the pattern already existed. French clubs develop the superstar, then the superstar eventually leaves for one of Europe's richest teams. Then you have Laurent Blanc. And Blanc is a really interesting example, because people remember him as this elegant center-back. World Cup winner, Euro winner, one of the smartest defenders of his generation. But this guy actually started as an attacking midfielder. At Montpellier, Blanc scored
6:09 76 league goals as a guy who eventually became a center-back. Because Blanc had grown up playing further forward, once he eventually moved into defense, he had everything you wanted from a modern center-back. French football was developing ball-playing center-backs long before people thought Pep Guardiola came in and invented that type of role. Then obviously, you have Zinedine Zidane. Probably the best example of what the French system can do when it finds raw talent early. Zidane grew up in Marseille. At 14 years old, he gets spotted and brought to Cannes. He was quiet, pretty skinny, still developing. But Cannes gave him time. They gave him somewhere to live, and they let his ridiculous technical ability develop. He makes his professional debut at 16, then eventually moves to Bordeaux. Takes them all the way to a UEFA Cup final. And only after all of that does Juventus come along. Before the World Cup, before the Ballon d'Or, before the volley against Leverkusen, Zidane spent years being developed in France. Then you have
6:55 Thierry Henry, who's another clear example of the modern system. Clairefontaine, then Monaco. And at Monaco, he was not even the central striker everyone remembers from Arsenal. He was playing wider. Then he goes to Juventus, and they're using this poor guy as a wing-back. Then Wenger gets him in England and turns him into one of the greatest strikers ever. I mean, think about it. Arguably the greatest Premier League player ever is a product of the gun. Yes, he got better in England, but the basic football education was already there. That came through the French system. And the important thing is, this did not stop with one generation. France just kept producing more. Cuz then you have Kylian Mbappé. Perfect example of everything we have talked about. Yeah, it's fun to make the dictator jokes about him and the fact that Real Madrid have gone trophyless ever since he joined them. But on this channel, I have never denied the fact that he's one of the greatest players this generation has ever seen. He came through the Paris suburbs and Clairefontaine, then joined
7:42 Monaco. Street football background mixed with elite academy coaching. Monaco gave him senior minutes while he was still a teenager, and within no time he was destroying Manchester City in the Champions League, winning Ligue 1, scoring for fun. Then PSG paid a ridiculous amount of money for him, and a year later he's winning the World Cup at 19. That is the French pipeline working perfectly. Find them early, develop them, give them real minutes, then suddenly he's one of the best players in the world. Then of course you have Ousmane Dembélé who I mentioned before. Rennes developed him, and Rennes might be one of the best academies in Europe. They produce Dembélé, Camavinga, Désiré Doué, Mathys Tel. They keep doing it. And these are not all the same type of player either. Camavinga is a midfielder, at least he used to be. I don't know what happened to him, but he forgot how to play football at Real Madrid, but he was a very highly sought-after talent. That's why Madrid bought him. Doué can play anywhere in the attack. Dembélé was a winger, now
8:28 he's a false nine. That tells you this is not one academy accidentally finding one superstar. There is a proper development culture there. Now, outside of Rennes, the list of Ligue 1 talents just keeps going. Karim Benzema came through Lyon, wins the Ballon d'Or, five Champions Leagues, one of the greatest strikers of this generation. Lyon also produced Lacazette, Tolisso, Fekir, and loads more. Then you have Eden Hazard, Belgian obviously, but developed at Lille. So, even players who are not French themselves are benefiting from the French academy system. Hazard arrives there young, develops in Ligue 1, wins the league with Lille, then Chelsea come along and he spends years destroying Premier League defenders. Again, it's the same process. France develops him, someone richer buys him, and he goes and dominates. That is the cycle, and you can repeat the story with so many players that it's clearly not an accident. This is why I think judging
9:14 Ligue 1 as a whole, purely based on who's winning the league, takes away from everything that French football is contributing. Yes, PSG win too often. The league cannot financially compete with England, but if you want to know where a huge amount of the talent playing for those richer leagues comes from, a lot of the time the answer is France. Now, the reason this cycle won't stop anytime soon is because French clubs have to sell their players. French football has been absolutely destroyed by TV rights problem. In 2020, Ligue 1 thought it had hit the jackpot. A huge deal with Mediapro worth more than 800 million euros per season. Amazing, right? Well, not really cuz the whole thing collapsed and Ligue 1 suddenly had this massive hole in its finances. Clubs had built budgets expecting that TV money. Now it was gone. So the league had to scramble. Emergency deals, Amazon, Canal Plus, way less money than
10:00 expected. Then the next rights cycle comes around and Ligue 1 wants roughly 800 million euros again. Does not happen. They end up getting around 400 million euros from DAZN, another 100 million euros from beIN. Still way below what clubs were hoping for. And during COVID, things got so bad that the league had to sell parts of its future. CVC gives Ligue 1 around 1.5 billion euros up front. In return, they get 13% of future TV revenue forever. Imagine being so broke that you have to sell pieces of money that you haven't even earned yet. I mean, Barcelona did the same thing and it was national news, but when Ligue 1 did it, nobody was talking about it. That is where French football was. Then Ligue 1 tries to launch their own streaming platform, Ligue 1 Plus. Cuz you know, if broadcasters don't want to pay them, they'll just sell the league themselves. But obviously that comes with its own problems. Subscribers, costs, marketing, piracy, getting people
10:46 to actually pay. So when people keep asking why Rennes, Lille, Monaco are selling their best players, this is [music] why. Premier League clubs can rely on massive TV money. French clubs cannot. For a lot of teams, transfers are not bonus income. Transfers are the business model. You develop a player for almost nothing, give him first team minutes, he becomes really good, then one of the Premier League big boys shows up with 100 million euros. And that 100 million euros might fund your club for the next year. This is why French teams invest so much in youth development. And some of these profits, I mean, they're ridiculous. Bradley Barcola developed at Lyon, eventually sold for huge money. Nicolas Pepe, Arsenal paid a massive fee for this guy. Tanguy Ndombele, developed in France, Tottenham spent huge money. Jeremy Doku, Rennes developed him, Manchester City comes along. Ferland Mendy, Le Havre developed him before his career eventually takes him to Real
11:32 Madrid. How about Xavi Simons? PSG develop him and eventually sell. The pattern is everywhere and this is why the farmers league joke actually kind of becomes perfect because French clubs are literally farming player. The Ben Leos are the soil. The academies plant the seeds. Ligue 1 gives them sunlight and first team minutes. Then the Premier League arrives with a combine harvester and splashes all the money they have and the process gets repeated over and over again. It's also why Ligue 1 has such a hard time becoming more competitive. It's extremely difficult to build a great team when the second your player becomes good enough to compete richer clubs take over. So yes, Ligue 1 is a farmers league. Maybe more than any other league in the top five, but this is exactly why it still deserves more respect. If you enjoyed this video, I'm sure you will love this one, too. Check it out right here.
