Benfica’s world class academy has been put at the top of a new ranking by the International Centre for Sports Studies.

CIES have ranked the Primeira Liga side’s academy first on their list based off a study of 49 professional leagues.

The study takes into account the number of players trained, the level of the clubs where they have played in the last year and the minutes played in official competitions.

Barcelona, Ajax and Real Madrid have all produced players that have accumulated a higher number of high-quality minutes, but Benfica still top the lot due to their sheer number of talents.

The Lisbon side have produced 93 players across the globe’s 49 top leagues, 17 more than second-placed Barcelona.

Only River Plate have produced more with 97, and that puts them third in the algorithm.