Barcelona's La Masia Tops CIES Study into Europe's Best Football Academies

Barcelona's famed La Masia has topped a research study into Europe's best football academies, boasting more graduates plying their trade in the continent's top five leagues than any other academy.

The research was undertaken by CIES (h/t Dermot Corrigan on ESPN FC) and showed there are currently 43 former La Masia trainees playing in Europe's big five divisions—La Liga, the Premier League, the Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1.

ESPN FC provided the full rankings, which see Manchester United in second and Barca's La Liga rivals Real Madrid in third:

Few will be surprised to see Barcelona's academy come out on top considering its worldwide acclaim for producing the likes of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Sergio Busquets—all of whom have stayed at the Camp Nou.

Elsewhere, La Masia graduates have reached the top of Europe's other big leagues with the likes of Cesc Fabregas now playing at Chelsea and Thiago Alcantara at Bayern Munich.

It is clearly still continuing to thrive, as Barcelona claimed the inaugural UEFA Youth League back in April, per UEFA's Sam Adams, a tournament set up to increase European competition at the academy level:

While Barcelona's academy has produced some of the greatest players in the world at the moment, it has recently caused the club some major problems.

The La Liga giants have been banned from making any transfers until January 2016 largely because they breached FIFA rules concerning youth transfers as they attempted to recruit the best players for La Masia, per BBC Sport.

Despite Sir Alex Ferguson's departure from Manchester United in 2013, his legacy of youth development clearly still lives on as the Red Devils sit just behind Barca in the list with 36 academy graduates playing in the top-five leagues in Europe.

Three clubs sit tied atop the table in regards to retaining the most homegrown players, with Lyon, Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao all currently with 15 academy-trained players still at the club.

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Among the top 52 ranked sides, there were seven academies from clubs not involved in Europe's top-five leagues, including Ajax, Sporting Lisbon and Argentine duo River Plate and Boca Juniors.

While these clubs have strong academies, they struggle to keep hold of their best players due to the lower profile of the leagues they play in. Sporting are a prime example in producing, among others, a certain Cristiano Ronaldo.

Barcelona continue to set the standard for youth academies in Europe and they may have to rely more than ever on La Masia in the coming months until their transfer ban is lifted.