The medium age of TOP5 European Leagues and what we can learn with them

In this first episode of Football Data Club, we will travel through the TOP5 European Leagues (Premier League, Ligue 1, La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A) and we will think about what the Average Age of the squads of this leagues can tell us about that.

In the second phase, we will be comparing this to the average age of the formations that are considered the most probable champions (or already crowned) of this season 2019/2020.

Join us?

Let’s fly to Italia, where the “Vechia Signora”, still dominated Serie A, initial this year seems like it was possible for other contenders to reach the final trophy. But a competition like Serie A is a true marathon, and marathons are won by mature and experienced athletes. Juventus is the squad that have the older age average with 29.6 years aside of US Lecce and Parma Calcio 1913 and this cannot be a surprise, despite the fact that the Italian Football seems to have plans to rejuvenate the squads (National Team tell us a bit of that story), Serie A still practice a football very tactical and at a medium pace, perfect for players in advanced state of theirs careers. In a country like Italia, where the “Nonno” is the chief and the wiser man in the family, they know how to increase the longevity of a player like nobody else. Does this data mean that in order to win Serie A you have to be one of the older teams in the Championship?

On the other hand, Juventus has invested this year in young players in a manner never seen before (Dejan Kulusevski, Cristian Romero, Luca Pellegrini, Merih Demiral, Rogério). Is Italian Football and Serie A changing to younger rosters? Is Juventus aware of that and prepared for the future? Something is changing in Turim, definitely.

From Italy to France… two countries who share a border, with some shared customs but with a football so different in all the aspects.

France Football is fed by African Immigration, in majority. The matches are frenetic, fast, there is individual talent but a lot of mistakes also, the game is not rigid and cerebral like the neighbors along the coast — fruit of the young roaster they have. So, it’s not a surprise that teams like Nice and Lille are focused on developing young players and sell them for high values (Nicolas Pepe, Rafael Leão, Saint-Maximim). There is extreme talent in France, and the teams who are capable of developing can have good seasons and maximize the earnings of the Club. A note to PSG, who is one of the older teams, but there on another planet, PSG does not need to sell, just buy the most incredible players in the world.

This is the end of EP1. In the second episode we are going to drive through the problem of relative age effect on Portugal Teams and will give some data about that.

Stay with us!