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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Darren Johnstone

Rangers have oldest team in Scottish Premiership as new data emerges

RANGERS have the oldest team in Scottish football, according to data from the CIES Football Observatory.

Since the start of the season, the average age of players in the Gers team was 28.42, the highest figure out of any 12 Premiership sides.

At the other end of the scale, Aberdeen are the youngest at 25.67, followed by Celtic (26.07) and Hibs (26.31).

When broken down to percentage of minutes played by age category, Aberdeen had the highest of under 21s at 23 per cent. 

For 22-25s Hibs came out on top at 53.5 per cent, 26-29s was Livingston at 56.85 and for over 30s it was St Johnstone 39.1 per cent.

Celtic had the lowest percentage of minutes played by over 30s at 11.8 per cent, while Livingston came in bottom for playing under 21s at 1.5 per cent, followed by Hearts 4.8 per cent.

CIES pulled together data from 60 leagues worldwide (not including B-teams) and discovered that Danish side FC Nordsjaelland had the lowest average age at 22.31 - 73.7 per cent of minutes played by under-21s.

At the other end of the scale, Thai club Nongbua Pitchaya had the oldest team at 31.99.

When only taking into account the average age of clubs in Europe’s big five leagues (England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France), Spanish side Valencia (23.99) were the youngest, with Bochum of Germany the oldest (29.85)

Average age on the pitch since the start of the season:

Age Club

25.67 Aberdeen

26.07 Celtic

26.31 Hibs

26.64 Ross County

26.69 Kilmarnock

27.27 Dundee United

27.28 Motherwell

27.8 Hearts

27.97 St Mirren

28.05 Livingston

28.26 St Johnstone

28.42 Rangers

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