Cardiff City's academy contributed a higher proportion of first-team minutes than any other club in the English Football League last season, according to EFL data. Academy-developed players accounted for 33.5 per cent of all Cardiff City's minutes during the 2025/26 campaign, the highest proportion in the English professional game.
That came in a season when Cardiff won promotion back to the Championship, with Dylan Lawlor, Ronan Kpakio, Cian Ashford and Joel Colwill all playing significant roles. Rob Tankiewicz, Axel Donczew, Paul Moreno and Noah Anyadike have all broken youngest-player records for the club over the past 14 months or so.
Rankings put Cardiff ahead of Premier League clubs
The latest research from Training Ground Guru (TGG) provides an indication of just how productive the academy has become. For the first time, TGG's Academy Productivity Rankings included Welsh academies alongside their English counterparts, with Cardiff finishing 16th overall, the highest-ranked Welsh academy and the highest-ranked Category Two academy in England and Wales.
Chelsea topped the rankings for the fourth successive edition, with Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham completing the top five. Cardiff, meanwhile, were the highest new entrant at No.16. That puts the Bluebirds ahead of a host of Category One academies belonging to some of the biggest clubs in the country, including Newcastle United (20th), Crystal Palace (19th) and Nottingham Forest (18th).
What the rankings measure
The TGG rankings are not a judgement on the quality of Cardiff's current crop of academy teams. Instead, they assess an academy's contribution to developing players who went on to appear in senior professional football during 2025/26. The latest edition is broader than previous versions, with Welsh players and clubs included for the first time and the research extended across 23 competitions. Every player was individually researched, with academy credit awarded where evidence showed they had been part of the formal youth system before turning 18.
Cardiff are doing this without Category One status, operating from a Category Two academy which, according to TGG's research, is producing players at a rate that compares favourably with many of the game's biggest clubs.
A sustainable supply of players
Cardiff's immediate priority is the first team, with the Championship a different proposition to League One. But underneath that, the academy is providing something potentially very valuable: a sustainable supply of players who understand the club, can be integrated into the first team and, if they fulfil their potential, can either become senior Cardiff players or command significant transfer fees.
Colwill and Kpakio have established themselves. Lawlor has broken through and is one of the standout stars now. Ashford has played an important part. Tankiewicz made history and now looks a genuine part of the first-team setup, while Moreno and Anyadike represent the next wave.
Only Watford have named a younger average starting XI than the Bluebirds in the Championship this season, serving as a reminder of the extent to which youth remains central to Brian Barry-Murphy's team. While the temptation will understandably be to judge Cardiff solely on what happens in the Championship this season, these numbers provide an intriguing glimpse of what the club could look like in the years ahead. There are no guarantees, of course, but Cardiff have created something that many clubs would love to possess: a pathway which young players can see, believe in and increasingly walk themselves. For a club operating with the financial constraints Cardiff have faced, that could prove to be one of their greatest assets.
