Wales are profiting from the emergence of young players at Welsh EFL clubs, whose ambitions to upgrade their academies would be of "huge benefit" for the national team.
Wales are profiting from the emergence of young players at Welsh EFL clubs, whose ambitions to upgrade their academies would be of "huge benefit" for the national team.
Swansea City's academy produced nine of Wales' senior squad in March, while three Cardiff City youngsters made their Wales debuts earlier this September.
Both clubs have ambitions of upgrading their academy status and, with Wrexham surging from the National League up to the Championship following three successive promotions, they are also aiming to bolster their youth programme.
Wales head coach Craig Bellamy, who has placed a strong emphasis on building for the future during his first year in charge, names his squad on Tuesday morning for October's friendly with England and World Cup qualifier against Belgium.
"At the moment we're in a really nice place. Craig's given players opportunities, which is fantastic," Dave Adams, the Football Association of Wales' (FAW) chief football officer, told BBC Sport Wales.
"You need your head coach blooding young players and Craig does that in abundance, and that gives players massive confidence and belief.
"It's having a strategy around maintaining players, giving them a sense of belonging to Wales, making sure they feel connected to the environment and giving them the right coaching and development pathways.
"So I feel that if we can get more players at those clubs - Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham and Newport - in the future, it's a huge benefit to our national team."
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One of the defining features of Cardiff's strong start to the season in League One – following their relegation from the Championship – has been the youth of the team.
New head coach Brian Barry-Murphy picked the youngest Bluebirds side for a league fixture this century in his first game – with 10 academy graduates in the matchday squad – and he has kept faith in those players since.
As a result of their impressive performances, teenage defenders Dylan Lawlor and Ronan Kpakio and 20-year-old midfielder Joel Colwill all made their Wales debuts against Kazakhstan and Canada earlier in September.
"They've been relegated, so maybe League One has given those players more opportunities," said Adams.
"I saw it myself first-hand at Swansea when we were relegated from the Premier League to the Championship, and a lot of players like Dan James, Connor Roberts, Joe Rodon got exposure to senior football.
"By exposing them to senior football, you'll give them the best possible chance of transitioning into our men's national team. And at times it can be a challenge, because young players don't always get that opportunity at the right time.
"But for the moment we've hit a bit of a good period at Cardiff where a manager's come into the club, believes in young players. The club's in a different period in their history, but what's fantastic is they've started the season really well. They've obviously embraced the challenge the young players have and they're doing really well at the club."
'Category one academies would give Wales huge advantage'
Cardiff operate a category two academy, one rung down from the highest possible level - a status enjoyed by leading Premier League academies.
Five years ago, it was estimated that upgrading to the top level could cost around £3m a year, but benefits would include an increase in their ability to recruit young players from a wider catchment area.
Swansea downgraded to category two in 2020, in order to save money following relegation from the Premier League two years earlier.
The Swans remain in the Championship and, although Wrexham are now in the second tier as well, they still have a category three academy because of how rapid their ascent has been from non-league.
League Two Newport County also operate a category three academy.
"Part of our next 10-year high-performance strategy is to try and get one of those clubs [Cardiff and Swansea] back to category one status," said Adams.
"There's no doubt that during the time when Swansea was category one, we saw a huge influx of players into the men's national team, and we're seeing many of them still performing at the top level in the Premier League.
"I think, strategically, if we get one of those clubs back to category one, it would give us a huge advantage in Welsh football and ensure that we'd keep that talented pool of players, for the future generations of success for our national team.
"We've obviously got a few Welsh players now in the first team at Wrexham, who've signed there [Danny Ward, Nathan Broadhead, Kieffer Moore].
"But our long-term ambition in north Wales is to make sure that Wrexham can become a genuine category one academy, and they can support the domestic ecosystem in north Wales and capture some young talent back into Wrexham."
Category: General Sports
