The impressive numbers behind Academy players

In total, Lech’s Academy players classified as youngsters (born in 1998 or later) spent 3338 minutes on the pitch this season. This number was generated by 9 talented footballers. Robert Gumny is in the lead with 990 minutes on the field, whereas Kamil Jozwiak spent 917 minutes playing in official matches so far this season. When comparing those statistics to other Ekstraklasa clubs, Gornik Zabrze is 2nd with their youngsters spending 2000 minutes on the league pitches, Zaglebie is ranked 3^rd with 1722 minutes, whilst Pogon Szczecin’s youngsters were seen on the football fields 50% less frequently than their peers from Poznan. As a result, Lech’s youth players have the biggest percentile contribution to their team’s league matches – nearly 31%.

Total appearances of Lech’s Academy players in PKO Ekstraklasa in the season 2019/20 (minutes):

Robert Gumny – 990
Kamil Jóźwiak – 917
Tymoteusz Puchacz – 733
Paweł Tomczyk – 232
Jakub Kamiński – 192
Jakub Moder – 186
Tymoteusz Klupś – 46
Filip Marchwiński – 38
Mateusz Skrzypczak – 6

We can reach a similar conclusion when analyzing goals scored by players born in 1998 or younger. So far, 4 of the mentioned youngsters have managed to find the back of the net this season. In total, Lech’s Academy players scored 8 goals. Only Zaglebie Lubin (6 goals scored by youth players) can compete with Lech in this particular category, whereas the remaining clubs have significantly lower numbers than the team from Poznan.

Goals scored by Academy players in PKO Ekstraklasa in the season 2019/20:

Lech Poznań – 8
Zagłębie Lubin – 6
Jagiellonia Białystok – 4
Wisła Płock – 3
Wisła Cracow, Pogoń Szczecin – 2

Lech’s coaching staff not only gave their youth players the most opportunities to prove their worth, but also has the most youngsters to choose from. In the past 11 league games this season, the coaches sent in 9 different homegrown players to compete on the pitch. Wisla Cracow and Arka Gdynia both chose 6 youngsters to represent their teams. However, when we look at Pro Junior System which only considers footballers born in 1999 or later, things look a bit different. In this particular category, Lech is ranked 5^th, but moving up the table seems to be a matter of time. This relatively low rank results from the fact that only Tymoteusz Puchacz fits the criteria outlined by Pro Junior System. Nonetheless, soon he will most likely be joined by other teammates who haven’t yet spent 270 minutes on the pitch as required by the rank. Jakub Kaminski (3 games, 192 minutes) and Jakub Moder (3 matches, 186 minutes) should help Lech climb up the rank very soon.