In Terms of Age, Experience, England Just Right to Win World Cup

Could average player age be the X-Factor when it comes to winning World Cups? Ricky Rothstein does the math.

There are certain patterns that are noticeable about World Cups over the years. A European team has never won a tournament held in South Africa, but a South American team has won in Europe – Brazil won its first World Cup in Sweden, in 1958.

The top scorer has only been a member of the winning team on four occasions. Brazil’s Ronaldo, Italy’s Paolo Rossi and Argentina’s Mario Kempes all scored six each when their countries won the World Cup in 2002, 1982 and 1978 respectively, while Brazil’s Vava and the immortal Garrincha shared the golden boot when they bagged four each in 1962.

As for the rest, there was more to victory than the glory boys who bang in the goals – defenders like Cannavaro in 2006 or Beckenbauer in 1974, midfielders like Mattheus in 1990 or Zidane in 1998. But here’s a statistic you don’t read about often but that could be especially significant in cauldrons of Manaus, Recife and Salvador – what if the most important factor is age?

Here at Sports Interaction we’ve crunched the numbers for all World Cup winning squads since the World Cup began in 1930 and come to some quite interesting conclusions.

The youngest squad to win a World Cup was the great Brazil side of 1970, often hailed as the greatest team ever. Their average age was 24 years and 132 days. The oldest squad was Italy of 2006, who averaged 28 years and 80 days of age.

Over the nineteen tournaments held since 1930, the average age of a player in a World-Cup winning squad is 26 years and 146 days. By this method, Bosnia and Herzegovina are closest to the ideal average this year with an average age 26 years and 204 days.

Unfortunately, it’s very hard to see Bosnia and Herzegovina win the World Cup at its very first attempt, and the next nearest countries in this year’s schedule, Algeria and Cameroon, wouldn’t be good bets either.

But then comes France, winner in 1998, with an average age of 26 years and 238 days, and England, winner in 1966, with an average age of 26 years and 45 days. France struggled to qualify for Brazil, needing an amazing 3-0 win in the second leg of their playoff against Ukraine to recover from a 0-2 first leg deficit, but now the French are in Brazil the pressure is off and the draw has been kind.

The pressure will never be off England, but a win over Italy in their first game could give Roy Hodgson’s men the belief they need to go on a run for the ages. Because not only does England have youth on its side, it also has experience.

The current England team has an average of 27 caps a man, while the French have 24. Could that be the perfect blend of youth and experience to see the World Cup trophy return home to where the game was first invented? Only time will tell.