Ahead of the curve

Football club FC Minsk topped the world rankings. Is their success an example to others?

An impressive dose of witchcraft has just been thrown into the abyss of debate about what is happening with Belarusian football and which road it should take in order to develop in the right direction. The International Centre for Sports Research, known as CIES, analysed the rosters of major league teams in 53 countries and concluded that FC Minsk and Energetik-BGU have the youngest squads this season. The average age of FC Minsk players is 20.97 years, and that of the other capital team is 21.46!

The recent match between FC Minsk and Energetik-BGU ended in a draw — 1:1. The goals were scored by 18-year-old Timofey Martynov and 21-year-old German Barkovskiy. vk.com

The International Centre for Sports Research regularly studies world football and collects data on various topics. In its new publication, the centre studied 851 clubs (major teams only) and calculated the average age of each player. A huge amount of data has been compiled into a single table, which ranks clubs according to several factors: the percentage of minutes played by players under 21, aged 22-25, 26-29, over 30 and the average age of the squad. The calculations included all players who appeared on the field during the current or last completed season.
And here’s literally stunning news.
For the first time in history, two Belarusian clubs topped the world football rankings at once. 
But that’s not all. The top 30 youngest on the planet also includes three more Belarusian clubs. This is FC Isloch (23.33), which is in 12th place, 22nd on the list is FC BATE Borisov (23.79) and 27th is FC Naftan (24.04).
Across the five biggest European leagues, the average age on the pitch ranges from 24.16 for France’s Toulouse FC to 30.19 for Spain’s Rayo Vallecano. It should also be noted that in only eight teams in the world, players under the age of 21 spent the majority of minutes on the field. These include, in particular, the Austrian FC RB Salzburg (60.7 percent), the Danish FC Nordsjælland (56.1 percent) and the Amsterdam AFC Ajax (53.3 percent), famous for their constant reliance on youth. Nevertheless, even compared to these clubs, FC Minsk has a simply cosmic indicator — players under 21 years old spend 83 percent of the playing time in Belarusian championship matches.

According to football-observatory.com

“An excellent result of the club’s strategy. I’ll tell you more: if we didn’t use experienced goalkeepers in the main lineup — 33-year-old Vladimir Pyatigorets and 29-year-old Alyaksandr Nyachayew — the club’s indicator for using youth would be even better. Despite the fact that last year many of our players did not even play for the reserve team, today they constantly play in the first team of the major league club and receive calls from the youth and junior national teams,” says FC Minsk head coach Sergei Yaromko, commenting on the championship in the CIES ranking.
Among those who are now in Portugal preparing for the qualifying match of youth national teams are FC Minsk defenders Maksim Kasarab, Gleb Yakushevich, midfielders YuliKuznetsov, Daniil Dushevsky, Rodion Pechura and forward Timofey Martynov.

“The progress is obvious. It is clear that the boys have matured and become bolder. And although questions still remain in terms of skill, I cannot help but address them with respect,” Yaromko, who managed to lead the Belarusian youth team, knows what he is talking about.
FC Minsk is doing amazing this season. Due to the lack of the required number of natural grass fields in Minsk, home matches are played in Gorodeya. Yaromko also called his team the poorest in the major league several times during the year. It’s time to ask how they manage to keep the football players from running away?
— The club’s recipe, and mine in particular, is working with people, the ability to find contact and interest. We don't talk about money as a team. If you constantly return to them, then from the outside it will seem that you are crying. And we are moving forward, everything is fine.
— After one of the recent matches, you talked about how you take advantage of the fact that your players are students at universities in the capital and don’t want to leave while they’re studying.
— And we have not only students, but also schoolchildren. Because of this, it is not always possible to conduct training twice a day. However, we don’t complain. We are working. The goal set for the season to maintain a place in the major league has already been almost completed, now we will work for the future, give playing time to younger guys.
Interesting, though. Sergei Yaromko responded to an attempt to project the experience of FC Minsk onto the entire Belarusian football with a categorical refusal (‘I work in a club, and the federation is responsible for football in the country’), but how can one not note that the salary limits introduced in our clubs have led to the fact that young football players are getting more and more chances to express themselves?! FC Minsk, Energetik-BGU (whose last year’s tournament march, although it ended fatally, definitely went down in the history of our football), FC Isloch (which has been in the top lines of the CIES ratings for the last five years) are definitely examples that in football the gods are not pots burn. At the same time, it must be admitted that without experience it is still impossible to achieve a serious result. FC Dinamo Minsk, whose average player age is 26.94 years, and even more so FC Neman Grodno (29.31), seem to be leading the championship in part because of these indicators.

By Sergei Gordienko