Serie C 2026-27 starts on 21 August with sixty clubs split into three groups. Three of those sixty are second teams of professional clubs: Juventus Next Gen in Group A, Atalanta U23 in Group B, Inter U23 in Group C. Five per cent. It is worth understanding what that five per cent does that the rest of the system obtains another way, and why nobody copies it.
The map
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Clubs in Serie C 2026-27 | 60, split into three groups of 20 |
| Season start | 21 August 2026 |
| Juventus Next Gen | Group A |
| Atalanta U23 | Group B |
| Inter U23 | Group C |
| Milan Futuro | Relegated to Serie D after 2024-25 |
| Second teams out of the total | 3 out of 60 |
What a second team does that a loan does not
The difference is not minutes. A young player on loan in Serie C plays exactly as much as he would in his club’s second team, sometimes more. The difference is the context in which those minutes are played.
A club with a second team can decide that both sides play with the same structure, that the pressing principles are identical, that the movements asked of a wide forward are the same ones asked in the first team. The young player who steps up has nothing to relearn: the level of the opponent changes, not the vocabulary.
On loan the opposite happens. The player joins a team with its own ideas, a coach answering for his own results and a league position to defend. He learns a lot, but he learns something else. And when he comes back, he comes back with automatisms his own club has no use for.
The cost that explains the numbers
If the advantage is that clear, the question is why only three clubs out of sixty have chosen it. The answer is that a second team is a structure, not a decision. It requires entry into a professional league, a full technical and medical staff, an approved ground, an administration and a full season of travel.
Against all that there is no direct financial return: a second team does not generate meaningful broadcasting income, does not fill stadiums, does not sell shirts. The return is developmental and arrives three or four years later, in the form of a player who debuts ready or of a capital gain. It is exactly the kind of investment a fragile balance sheet does not allow.
The case of Milan Futuro, relegated to Serie D at the end of the 2024-25 season, also shows the other risk: a second team plays a real competition, with real promotions and relegations, and it can lose it. When that happens the whole tool loses its purpose, because the level it exposes young players to drops.
A market that buys for the second team
There is a less visible and more interesting effect: whoever owns a second team has one more destination on the transfer market. On 17 August 2026 an initial contact by Atalanta for Charlie Rosenqvist, a forward born in 2007 at Kalmar, was reported, with the player mentioned as a possible addition to the Under 23 side. It is an exploratory stage and should be read as such, not as an ongoing negotiation.
The point, though, is structural. A club without a second team that wants a nineteen-year-old from abroad has two options: put him in the first team, where he will not play, or buy him and send him straight out on loan, where he will grow according to someone else’s methods. A club with a second team has a third option, and that third option widens the pool of players it can afford to take.
The pathway seen from below
It is worth looking at how this works in one player’s life. Mattia Liberali, now at Como, made 8 league appearances for Milan Futuro in 2024-25, plus 2 in the cup with a goal, before going on to play 29 league games at Catanzaro. He used both tools, in the order in which they make sense: first the protected context where the trade is learned, then the real competition where you find out whether it has been learned.
That is the correct function of the second team. It is not an alternative to the loan, it is the step that precedes it. The problem with the Italian system is not that there are too many loans: it is that this step exists for only three clubs out of sixty, and everyone else has to skip it.
What to watch this year
The Serie C season starting on 21 August offers a test bench across three different groups. The things to watch are not the league positions of the three second teams, which matter little. They are others: how many of their players are called up to the first team during the season, at what age, and how many of those who come down from the first team go back up having actually played.
If those numbers stay low, the second team is working as an expensive parking space. If they rise, three clubs out of sixty are building an advantage the others simply have no way of buying on the market.
Data and information gathered from public sources: official communications on the Serie C 2026-27 groups, Wikipedia and Italian sports press. The transfer indications cited are reports and not negotiations confirmed by the clubs.
Frequently asked questions
How many second teams are in Serie C 2026-27?
Three out of sixty: Juventus Next Gen in Group A, Atalanta U23 in Group B and Inter U23 in Group C. The league is made up of 60 clubs split into three groups of 20 and starts on 21 August 2026.
What happened to Milan Futuro?
They were relegated to Serie D at the end of the 2024-25 season and are not among the second teams in Serie C for 2026-27.
What is the difference between a second team and a loan?
In a second team the player stays inside the methods, language and playing principles of the club that owns him. On loan he gets minutes in a competitive environment that has different ideas, demands and priorities, and that plays for its own league position.
Why do so few clubs run a second team?
Because it costs. It requires entry into a professional league, a full staff, a ground and an organisation, against a return that is not financial but developmental, and that arrives years later.
Do second teams sign players from abroad?
It can happen. On 17 August 2026 an initial contact by Atalanta for Charlie Rosenqvist, a forward born in 2007 at Kalmar, was reported, with the player mentioned as a possible addition for the Under 23 side. It is an exploratory stage, not a defined negotiation.
