Academy player that costs Tokens is FT. The free one isn't.
All recommended players are FTs. As well as Scouts, but they are old FTs. That means they may progress slowly than 18 y/o, but faster than most players of same age.
There is no "levelness" of FT, there is a hidden parameter that affects XP, let's say Talent. I gathered some statistics (it is lost now xD), but couldn't find a way to get this Talent. Closest thing is dividing Value by Wage, but it only lets us to compare players of same age and more or less same Overall quality.
I will check again in 5 days, but
AFAIK the free one is not FT.