Issue number 195 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks top division clubs from 31 European associations according to the average age of line-ups fielded since the start of the current season. The lowest figure overall was recorded for the Ukrainian side Stal Kamianske (21.7 years), while the youngest team at big-5 league level so far is LOSC Lille (22.9 years).

In the top five positions of the rankings also are NAC Breda, Lokomotiva Zagreb, AS Trenčín and FC Nordsjælland. Fifteen clubs from the five major European leagues are in the top 100: seven from Bundesliga (Leipzig, Leverkusen, Freiburg, Wolfsburg, Stuttgart, Hamburg and Köln), six from Ligue 1 (Lille, Rennes, Toulouse, Bordeaux, St-Etienne and Lyon), one from Italy (Milan) and one from Spain (Valencia).

The youngest English Premier League team, Newcastle United, is only ranked 113th out of the 466 clubs included in the analysis. The data for all of the teams is available in the freshly updated version of the exclusive CIES Football Observatory Digital Atlas. More than 50,000 internauts passionate about football have already visited this unique tool.

Average age since the start of the season - [number of matches]

Weighted according to the number of minutes played in domestic league games

Editors : Raffaele Poli, Roger Besson and Loïc Ravenel

Contact: football.observatory@cies.ch