Arsenal have made £115.8million from selling academy players since the summer of 2015, with Alex Iwobi’s sale to Everton in the summer of 2019 the highest-earning.
The figure accounts for 31% of transfer monies received by the North London club, meaning that while much praise has been heaped on the club's academy for bringing through Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka it is also a strong source of income.
That is according to the latest post from CIES’ Football Observatory, which ranks the top 50 clubs worldwide to have "generated the most incomes since July 2015 from the transfer of players [who] graduated from their youth academy and having been at the club for at least three years between the seasons of their 15th and 21st birthday."
While Chelsea are the highest ranked among Premier League clubs in eighth overall, with £175million accounting for 21% of their income, they are followed by Liverpool in 10th on £142.4million, accounting for 41% of their total market income.
Arsenal sit 19th overall with Tottenham Hotspur in 31st. Both Manchester clubs, Leicester and Aston Villa are also listed.
Benfica tops the table with £316million made, Real Madrid are second with £274million, Monaco third on £237.4million and Ajax just behind having banked £235.7million. The highest non-European team is Brazilian club Flamengo in 13th on £126.6million.
The Football Observatory said: "With €2.03billion (£1.69million), English clubs generated the most money by the transfer of academy graduates since July 2015, just ahead of French teams (€1.61billion).
"Spanish clubs (€1.39billion) complete the podium per nation, ahead of the Italians (€1.11billion), the Brazilians (€951million), the Germans (€916million), the Portuguese (€788million), the Dutch (€709million) and the Argentineans (€566million)."
You can read more from the CIES Football Observatory here .
