I have a friend who played for the Tulsa Ruffnecks A-league for a few seasons then went back to school for a spell. Then he went overseas to play on a few Division II or III teams. He has since returned to nurse an injury. Now, physicaly fit agian I've incouraged him to pick up on A-league agian. can anyone tell me what the average age for A-league is?
This year, I believe it was somewhere between 26 and 27. Players from 18 years old to about 40 played in the league.
I've only been able to track down birthdates for a little less than half (225 of 476) of the players who played in the A-League this year. They ranged from 36-year-old Scott Benedetti of Portland to 18-year-old Sita-Taty Matondo of Montreal. The average age of those 225 players was 29.5. 49 guys were 30 or over (as of July 1, 2003). Only 11 were under 21. Again, that's with less than half of the precincts reporting. Adjusting for playing time, the average drops a bit, to 26.7.
With serious thanks to ChrisE, I now have birthdates for 472 of the 476 players who played in the A-League in 2003. The average age of those 472 players as of July 1, 2003 was 25.39. Weighing the age for playing time, the average was 26.01. Makes sense. I would imagine the second level would be slightly younger than the one above it. And even if the PDL wasn't by mandate predominantly a U23 league, that average should be even lower. If anyone wants to try their hand at that study, be my guess. The PDL average is probably between 20 and 21. Just a guess. Number of players of each age: Age...# 18....2 19...13 20...10 21...19 22...63 23...59 24...54 25...53 26...56 27...31 28...16 29...24 30...19 31...14 32...18 33....5 34....9 35....4 36....3 The big clump was from 22-26 and then there was a significant drop. It makes sense that there would be a lot of 22-year-olds - that's usually the age at which you graduate from college. This is some valuable information that I don't think anyone has ever put together before - thanks to Chris and Phil for their work on this and the MLS age study.
Great stuff Kenn! I'm a bit amazed at the drop-off from 26 (56) to 28 (16). And of course it's a bit depressing that I'm three months older than the oldest player in the league (our own Scott Benedetti who will probably play next year at the age of 37). If you want to tweak the numbers a bit, how about a breakdown as to who was the youngest team in the league, and who was the oldest?
Although I'm too tired (and lazy) to make sure these figures are absolutely correct, and I'm missing a few player's ages, I did a calculation on minutes adjusted playing age; here are the results: Calgary----------- 23.0 El Paso----------- 23.0 Cincinnati--------- 24.2 Portland---------- 25.6 Atlanta----------- 25.6 Milwaukee-------- 25.9 Indiana----------- 26.0 Montreal---------- 26.1 Pittsburgh-------- 26.3 Seattle------------26.3 Syracuse----------26.4 Toronto-----------26.8 Vancouver-------- 26.9 Charlotte----------27.1 Richmond----------27.4 Virginia Beach----- 27.4 Minnesota---------27.5 Charleston-------- 28.5 Rochester---------28.9 I guess what's immediately most apparent is that most of the playoff teams are in the upper half of the age range. Of the top 7, 5 made the playoffs, with the ones who missed being Richmond, who only missed out because of VB's owner, and Charlotte, who were run as a non-profit Christian venture, and so are probably selecting from a much smaller pool. Additionally, the three teams at the bottom of the list were absolutely terrible this year, and at least two of them won't be back next year.
There's probably an economic component at work there as well. Only a young player will put up with the low pay (or, in Cincinnati's case, no pay) of the bad franchises. Some other numbers: Median age: 25 Games and minutes played by players of each age: Age....#....GP....Min 36.....3....51....4,236 35.....4....64....4,182 34.....9...187...16,054 33.....5....96....7,429 32....18...339...25,175 31....14...272...20,636 30....19...337...24,871 29....24...427...27,289 28....16...291...20,690 27....31...575...42,587 26....56..1005...74,746 25....53...817...60,011 24....54...905...65,467 23....59...946...65,949 22....63...807...52,413 21....19...213...12,913 20....10...121....6,771 19....13...165....9,171 18.....2....24......874 The 34-year-olds had the highest average games played per player (which makes sense, I guess - you're unliikely to keep a 34-year-old around unless he can play a lot) and the highest average minutes played per player and the highest average goals per player (3.3). There were more than twice as many "young" players (23 and younger) as "old" players (over 30). There were 166 players 23 and younger, 234 players between 24-29, and only 72 players over 30. Now, the really useful information will be having these numbers over time and seeing how they change. At what age do players enter and leave the A-League? How does MLS expansion and contraction affect that? Among other things.
Very interesting numbers. Thanks for taking the time to break it down for math challenged people like me.
Okay, I have received the last four birthdates I was missing from my man at USL. The final average age of the 476 players who played in the A-League in 2003 was 25.36 and 26.14 when adjusted for playing time.
Wow ! Thanks for all of the information. Nice research job, good effort. My friend has recently recieved an offer from a club in Oman, but I will still pass along this data.