Player Development Index: 1st Year In Review

Upon looking over the Player Development Index thus far, one thing becomes very evident; Uruguay are the PDI kings. They have had the highest score in every installment, with their score peaking at 80.14 in April 2019. This is no surprise considering the small South American nation have always been somewhat of an anomaly in world football. Uruguay holds the record for the smallest nation to lift the FIFA World Cup, with a population of only 1.5 million amid their success in the inaugural tournament, held in 1930. Although their population has now grown to 3,369,299 (according to the 2018 census), Uruguay is continuing to grow at a very leisurely pace, thanks to a very low birth rate. So it probably will not come as a surprise that Uruguay is the smallest country to have ever been featured in the PDI and their low population plays a very significant role in calculating their PDI score.

The obvious question is, how is Uruguay able to produce so much quality footballing talent with such a small population? The answer, in short, is that the country’s success is truly a testament to Uruguay’s demographics along with their football culture and history. In a BBC Sport article from 2002, writer Tim Vickery points out that “football owes a huge debt to the Uruguayans [because]... football's global success today - both in the way it is played and watched - was given enormous impetus by the Uruguayans.” Vickery is referring to the great Uruguayan team of the 1924 and 1928 Olympic Games, whose dominance eventually led to them hosting and going on to win the aforementioned, first ever FIFA World Cup in 1930. 

However, Uruguay’s football roots go back much further than the 1920s and 30s. In a separate article, Vickery wrote that “football in South America began with the European-educated elite,” and Uruguay is no exception. As of 2011, 87.7% of Uruguayans are of European descent. What’s more, the immigration of a football-rich culture to Uruguay upon its independence in 1828 has greatly bolstered the football history and culture of the small nation. 

Another factor in developing more modern football talent, such as Luis Suárez, is Uruguay’s mass urbanization. As of 2019, 95.4% of Uruguayans live in urban areas. As Tim Vickery once again pointed out, this urban population allowed football to move “down the social scale very quickly. They [football academies] were picking financially-poor players earlier than their rivals, drawing on potential from all walks of life.” This is perhaps best exemplified by Suárez’s own rags to riches backstory. 

Luis Suárez was born in 1987 in the city of Salto, Uruguay. However, seven years later, Luis and his family moved to Montevideo, the largest city in Uruguay. Despite ranking just above Salto (Uruguay’s second largest city), Montevideo is home to over 13 times more people, making the move very difficult for a young Suárez. Not making things any easier on the young boy were the emotional and financial difficulties which him and his family experienced. But then, he found football. He began playing for his local youth club, Urreta FC, shortly after moving to Montevideo. His former coach at Urreta, Antonio di Candia, recalled that little Luis “didn't speak much, but on the pitch he was pretty unbearable” also mentioning in a separate interview that Suárez “liked the fights, the clashes, chatting, complaining.” Another seven years down the line, Luis’ talent led him to Nacional, one of Uruguay’s biggest clubs, to join their youth team; and the rest, as they say, is history. 

At this point you may be wondering, what does the backstory of Luis Suárez have to do with a silly, and very simple, little statistics sheet? The answer is everything. The football culture and structures seen in Uruguay have allowed players like Suárez to be taken out of poverty and into the world’s football elite. Yet arguably the most important aspect of football in Uruguay is their demographics. While countries like France rely on both immigration and a large network of scouts to unearth football talent, Uruguay has also produced elite footballers with a fraction of the talent pool. Their football system is aware of and works with Uruguay’s mass urbanization, turning their small population into one of their biggest strengths. In other words, Suárez might not have been able to make it from rags to riches if he had not grown up in Uruguay. Therefore as a nation, Uruguay demonstrates my original intents and purposes for the Player Development Index; that being to reward countries that in footballing terms, are doing a lot with a little.