Nigeria Presented Youngest Team During World Cup Qualifiers

A study conducted by Swiss-based independent centre, CIES Football Observatory, has revealed that the Super Eagles of Nigeria fielded the youngest players during the World Cup qualifiers followed by Germany and England.

The study revealed that the average age of Super Eagles players during the qualifiers, 24.9 years while current World Champions, Germany have the second youngest team with an average age of 25.7 and England came third with an average age of 25.9.

Leicester City current Young Player of the Year Wilfred Ndidi was the youngest player that represented Nigeria in the third round of the African World Cup qualifiers, aged 19 years, 9 months and 23 days when he played against Zambia on October 9, 2016.

Panama (29.4 years) and Iceland (29.0), as well as 2014 FIFA World Cup quarter-finalists Costa Rica (29.0) fielded the oldest players during the qualifiers.

The average height of players that represented Nigeria is 181.2cm, making them the 19th tallest team.

The study also revealed that African representatives have the highest number of players born abroad. At 61.5%, Morocco has the highest number of players born abroad. Followed by Senegal (39.4%). Tunisia comes up at 5th position on the table of countries with players born abroad (23.5%) while Nigeria takes 7th position with 11.4% of players born abroad. Out of all the teams representing Africa, Egypt has the lowest number of players born abroad with only 3%.

Amongst continental confederations, the Confederation of African Football CAF has the highest number of players born abroad with 28.7%.