The Average Age Of All World Cup Squads
June 2nd, 2010 | by: chris

CapelloAcMichaelRegan3Perusing the Italian squad earlier, I noticed something odd: people in their early 20’s. In fact there were 7 – seven! – players 25 or under in Marcello Lippi’s squad, which made me think perhaps this Italy squad was, dare I say, young (comparison and all that). Therefore I hacked out the average age of the Azzurri and came up with 28.2, which meant nothing aside from I could convince myself this team still wasn’t that old (having no comparison this time) for the time being.

31 teams and a lot of yelling at Pim Verbeek later, we have the average age of every team at the World Cup and Italy isn’t the oldest, but a team coached by an Italian is…

Just cannot win.

Group A

France: 27.4
Mexico: 27.1
South Africa: 26.9
Uruguay: 26.7

Group B

Argentina: 27.1
Greece: 27.7
Nigeria: 27.7
South Korea: 27.1

Group C

Algeria: 27.2
England: 28.7
Slovenia: 26.7
USA: 26.9

Group D

Australia: Australia's average is 28.4 (assuming Wikipedia is correct)
Germany: 25.0
Ghana: 24.1
Serbia: 26.0

Group E

Cameroon: 25.2
Denmark: 27.7
Japan: 27.8
Netherlands: 27.7

Group F

Italy: 28.2
New Zealand: 27.3
Paraguay:28.1
Slovakia: 26.1

Group G

Brazil: 28.6
Ivory Coast: 26.7
North Korea: 24.8
Portugal: 27.7

Group H

Chile: 25.9
Honduras: 28.1
Spain: 25.9
Switzerland: 26.7

* – At this point, several hours after the FIFA deadline, Pim Verbeek hasn’t omitted anyone and is trying to sneak one past by bringing through a suspiciously large squad of 23. Either that or he doesn’t care about the people calculating meaningless statistics.

And now the important part: all 32, from youngest (best) to oldest (less best).

Ghana – 24.1
North Korea – 24.8
Germany – 25.0
Cameroon – 25.2
Spain – 25.9
Chile – 25.9
Serbia – 26.0
Slovakia – 26.1
Switzerland – 26.7
Ivory Coast – 26.7
Uruguay – 26.7
Slovenia – 26.7
South Africa – 26.9
USA – 26.9
Mexico – 27.1
Argentina – 27.1
South Korea – 27.1
Algeria – 27.2
New Zealand – 27.3
France – 27.4
Greece – 27.7
Nigeria – 27.7
Denmark – 27.7
Netherlands – 27.7
Portugal – 27.7
Japan – 27.8
Honduras – 28.1
Paraguay – 28.1
Italy – 28.2
Australia's average is 28.4 (assuming Wikipedia is correct)
Brazil – 28.6
England – 28.7


http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-2010/the-average-age-of-all-world-cup-squads.html