Watching a doco, the area of South London provides 1 out of every 6  English  EPL players ATM.

This is a remarkable stat!

 ATM England produces just over 30% of the players currently playing in the EPL. 

Hence, South London with only 3% of the entire English population, with 1.6 million residents, produces half of the English domestic players playing in the EPL.

The total population of England is circa 60 million. South London, with only 1.6 million residents, produces half of the English domestic  EPL players.

Why?

How?

The consensus  is it is  due to all the small cages with mini-football pitches in the South London area, similar to the Brazilian favelas, where heaps of the local juniors and youths spend a lot of time playing Small Sided Games in street football.

There are a number of semi-pro clubs in the region, who play in the  1st, 2nd and 3rd ranked semi-pro tier leagues, just below the lowest level of pro league in England - League 2.

League 1 and 2 clubs constantly scout South London for  recruits. These 1st, 2nd and 3rd semi-pro league clubs play lots of practice games against League 1 and 2 academy teams. Players who excel from the semi-pro South London clubs in the se games, often between 1 - 3 players per game, sometimes 0, go on trial for 1-2 weeks,  and may secure youth contracts with the League 1 and 2 youth teams. 

Observing the coaches coach in this area, there is very little instruction of  the technical  and tactical advice for players compared to what is done now in Aus ( based on parent countries  France, Spain, Germany, Netherlands'  coaching practices).

The coaches seem to think the onus is almost  totally on the players. They don't seem to perceive themselves as educators in players' development. A lot more expletive laden phrases telling players to - 'lift, focus, concentrate, get stuck in, this is what you've been waiting for, this is your big moment'  - sort of instructions - totally devoid of tactical and game plans.

It is a remarkable stat though, that 3% of England's population in South London are providing 50% of the domestic English EPL players.

See, lack of Underground stations does have advantages!

Before even reading I thought that they surely play a lot as kids outside ans there it is. It's true you click on player profiles across the EFL and it's very regularly that part of the UK. 

That number of players from a small region playing in the EPL is impressive, and obviously says a lot about the type of player development that occurs there.

However I am not sure about your maths in this Decentric. You start off by saying that the area "provides 1 out of every 6  English domestic EPL players ATM". Somehow you have then derived from that stat that the area "produces half of the English domestic players playing in the EPL". Or did you mean to say in the first statement that South London provides 1 in 6 of EPL players from all countries?

It makes a nice change from stabbing each other in South London 

The numbers don't surprise me.

London greater Metro is approx 15 mill out of a general population of 60.

The south side is a lot more dense then the north.

The south has a strong youth population.

The south is poorer.

Add to that the preference in the north of england for the rugby variants.

It just seems logically sound

Try 68 million, 80 million estimate based on supermarket food consumption

Try 58 officially.

Thanks.

I just realised my mistake and corrected it a few minutes ago, Keeper.

I have taught specialist maths, so my bad. My original post didn't make sense!

South London produces one out of every 2 English players playing in the EPL. Nearly 70 % are foreigners who play in the EPL. 

Conversely, there are nearly 70% of domestic French players who play in the French top division. Spain has 60% domestic Spanish players, whilst Germany and  Italy both have circa 50% domestic German and  Italian players plying their trade in these leagues. 

I looked this up, and Central London had easily the greatest population density.

Have lived in south London for the last 4 years or so and  play football around here too. There’s so many facilities for football. But not only that, one thing I think London (and most of UK) does quite well is parks (at least compared to parts of Sydney). The population density means access to green space is even more important (as we learned during covid) and there is generally a park or something within 5-10 min walk. There is always kids kicking a ball around, or there are more formal sessions being run with parents/coaches. I also see many private individual skill sessions being run. The council flats generally have courts that double as Futsal/basketball courts. Kids could have a muck around game within 100m of where they live, they are outdoors and being social, but still be within eyeshot of their parents. Or they can walk 5-10 min to a local park/other facilities and do the same thing. There’s plenty of people about too, so more opportunities to play, more varying levels of skill. 

Which year was that,lol 

He is talking about the population of England not the UK.

Point taken 

One Shot.

I've watched it on Stan.

Interesting and informative  post, Reedy.

Correct.