As youth-centric as it gets: Chelsea's 'satellite club' makes history in France

Trends in football come and go, but it seems that clubs have never relied more on young and talented players than they do nowadays.

In the last few years, Barcelona have made a revolution in European football, presenting to the world several La Masia prospects like Pau Cubarsi, Gavi, Pedri, and Lamine Yamal, while Paris Saint-Germain managed to win their maiden UEFA Champions League trophy with a relatively young squad.

However, no club seems to be as youth-centric as Chelsea at the moment.

Thanks to their highly developed scouting system and Todd Boehly's recently adopted policy, the Blues have managed to attract prospects from all over the world and tie them with long-term contracts, securing a bright future.

Some of them, like Malo Gusto, Romeo Lavia, Josh Acheampong, and Tyrique George, had important roles in Chelsea's UEFA Conference League-winning campaign, while the recent additions from Ipswich Town and Brighton, Liam Delap and Joao Pedro, made a crucial impact on the club's triumph at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.

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At the same time, the London side's web of affiliate clubs is vast, though their main partners are the Ligue 1 team, Strasbourg, as the two clubs share the owners, the BlueCo group. Consequently, the Blues regularly send players on loans to Stade de la Meinau and monitor the development of Le Racing's entire squad.

The French club narrowly lost a place in Europe last season, but its future is - just like Chelsea's - as bright as it gets. Namely, its squad's average age is 21.8, and it has only two players born in the last century - the 35-year-old custodian Karl-Johan Johnsson and the Ukrainian left-back Eduard Sobol, who is 30.

Hence, the inevitable happened in the Ligue 1 opening round, as Strasbourg became the first team in the European top five leagues with a starting lineup consisting entirely of players born in 2000 or after! Moreover, even the three subs the manager Liam Rosenior sent in were born in the 21st century!

Out of 14 Le Racing's players who participated in the match, the oldest one was the 23-year-old sub Sebastian Nanasi, while the oldest starter was the only scorer, Joaquin Panichelli, born in October 2002.

In the end - and most importantly - Strasbourg managed to record a 1-0 win on the road against the newly promoted Metz and prove that reliance on youth doesn't have to mean a lack of results.