Scotland football team oldest in FIFA top 50

A study has found that the average age of the Scottish national football team throughout 2015 was the highest of any in the top 50.

Scotland manager Gordon Strachan (right) and Scott Brown. Picture: SNS Group

Gordon Strachan’s side were approximately two years older for every player than the average of top-ranked FIFA teams.

CIES Football Observatory, the study’s authors, revealed that Scotland’s average player age was exactly 29 years old, with the average of 26.6 years holding true across the top 50 teams.

When UEFA sides were taken into account, the average rose slightly to 27.7 years.

Average age on the pitch of Scotland's footballers in 2015 was 29. Picture: CIES

Compared to other home nations, England’s average was 25.6 years with Wales a mere 0.1 years younger. Northern Ireland held an average of 28.2 years.

Roy Hodgson’s England side had the youngest average team age of any European nation, with the report acknowledging that “the youthfulness of the players available to Roy Hodgson is the sign of a renaissance which prefigures a promising future.”

The CIES data also took into account the weight, height, birthplace and club career of players from each country.

Scotland’s average weight was 74.5kg; dipping below the average of 76.8kg, while the average height of 180.1cm was approximately 2cm less than the average of other teams.

Average age on the pitch of Scotland's footballers in 2015 was 29. Picture: CIES

During last year’s Euro 2016 qualification campaign, Scotland played 8 games and failed to qualify for the tournament set to take place this summer in France.

Scottish players aged 30 or over played 37.5 per cent of the full 90 minutes, with Slovakia topping the table on 42.7 per cent.

Amongst the table of statistics was the revelation that Algeria and Albania were the two countries most-reliant upon players born outwith the association. The North African side, which reached the second round of the 2014 World Cup, had 21 foreign-born players within their ranks, with Albania featuring just five less.