Compared to the other teams of the big four, “Valmiera” was by far the youngest and also the most Latvian. The average age of Valmieri this season was 22.2 years, 4.4-5.7 years behind all the closest competitors. There were an average of 5.3 Latvians on the pitch – 1.2-2.0 more than the main rivals. And at the same time, there were an average of 6.3 players on the field who were born no earlier than 2000, or were allowed to play in the U21 national team this cycle. RFS had an average of 1.6 such footballers, but “Riga” and “Liepāja” did not have even one.
If, in terms of legionnaires, “Valmiera” stood out against the background of the bottom teams, then in terms of age, they could compete with them as well. “Valmiera” was the third youngest team in the league, ahead of only “Metta” (20.3) and Tukumnieks (21.2), and all three did not have a single thirty-year-old player on the field. Also, “Valmiera” used the most foreign U21 players (4.1) and was the only one without players who reached the age of 26. The Senegalese Gay will not celebrate his 26th birthday until Saturday and was the youngest among the senior players of the Premier League teams this season.
“Metta” was not completely without experienced players, for which former national team midfielder Glebs Kliushkins, who turned 30 a month and a half ago and who finished the season in Liepāja, played 11 matches at the beginning of the season. For Tukumnieks, the oldest was the youngest of the Stugli brothers – midfielder Ingars Stuglis, who turned 26 in February, played 26 matches. The oldest player this season was Daugavpils football legend Valerijs Afanasjevs, who already entered his fifth decade in September.
The birth years of the players who played on the “Valmiera” field
| Year | Players |
|---|---|
| 1996. | Gay |
| 1997. | |
| 1998. | Pigeon; Kudryavtsev |
| 1999. | Matrevic; New Earth; Murata; Silage harvester; Chudar; Jorginho |
| 2000. | Tag; joked Lynx; Tonyshev; Vapes; Falls; Neiland; Murza |
| 2001. | Kroll; Jakub; Želizko; Ndoy; Dusaliyev |
| 2002. | Mena |
| 2003. | Diop; Raschevsky; Berzins; Penkevics; Limestone |
| 2004. | Lion |
Premier League teams in the 2022 season
| Club | Age | Locals | Local U21 | All U21 | Foreign U21 | All 26+ | All 30+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valmiera | 22.21 | 5.32 | 2.44 | 6.30 | 4.06 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Riga | 26.62 | 3.33 | 0.19 | 0.96 | 0.77 | 5.50 | 2.30 |
| RFS | 27.60 | 4.11 | 0.46 | 1.59 | 1.13 | 6.16 | 4.32 |
| Liepaja | 27.86 | 3.74 | 0.00 | 0.32 | 0.32 | 6.72 | 2.06 |
| Wet | 24.28 | 3.54 | 1.01 | 3.02 | 2.01 | 2.51 | 0.87 |
| Tukums 2000 | 21.18 | 9.07 | 6.71 | 8.62 | 1.91 | 0.58 | 0.00 |
| Daugavpils | 23.35 | 6.53 | 3.98 | 7.51 | 3.53 | 1.77 | 1.18 |
| Spartacus | 22.84 | 7.82 | 4.46 | 7.09 | 2.63 | 1.90 | 1.65 |
| Metta | 20.30 | 9.70 | 8.62 | 9.91 | 1.29 | 0.28 | 0.00 |
| Super Nova | 22.42 | 10.26 | 7.99 | 7.99 | 0.00 | 0.89 | 0.62 |
Notes: 1) the average age is calculated according to the minutes played, 2) the age of the players is taken into account at the midpoint of the calendar year, i.e. on July 2, 3) local players – footballers who could play in the Latvian national team, and not who are considered as players brought up by the LFF, 4) U21 – players who could play in the U21 national team, or who were born no earlier than 2000, 5) 26+ – players who turned at least 26 years old on July 2 of this year, 30+ – players who turned at least 30 years old on July 2 of this year . in July.
Senior players of Premier League teams this season
| Player | Club | Age | Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valery Afanasyev | Daugavpils | 39.78 | 1675 |
| Vugar Askerov | Super Nova | 37.13 | 786 |
| Pavel Steinbor | RFS | 36.78 | 1170 |
| Oleg Laizans | Spartacus | 35.26 | 3172 |
| Marko Simic | Liepaja | 35.04 | 525 |
| Alexander Solovyov | Wet | 34.35 | 431 |
| Vladimir Kamesh | Riga | 33.68 | 1021 |
| Gleb Kliushkin | Metta | 29.75 | 878 |
| Ingar Stuglis | Tukums 2000 | 26.38 | 1895 |
| Jibril Gay | Valmiera | 25.62 | 1985 |
Note: age is given as of July 2 of this year.
The age of Valmiera stands out not only in this season, but also in the entire history of the Premier League – if last year RFS won its first title with the oldest ever champion squad (average 28.3 years), then this year “Valmiera” won its first title with the youngest ever The composition of the champions of the Premier League (average 22.2 years). In the previous seasons, as the budgets of the majors, the number of legionnaires and the age of the squad grew, “Valmiera” won the title with a squad more than six years younger than RFS did in 2021. And the proportion of local players on the field increased by 1.8 players, while it had fallen by 2.9 players in the previous two years.
So far, the youngest team of champions in the history of the Premier League belonged to the 2010 model of “Skonto”. Although Latvian football legends Vitalijs Astafjevs, who was already in his 40s, and Juris Laizāns, who had already crossed the 30-year threshold, played less than a thousand minutes, the average age of the team that season was only 22.6 years. Under-23s also saw Skonto’s first title-winning team in 1992, when Astafyev was just over 21, while eventual English champion Igor Stepanov made his Premier League debut a few months after his 16th birthday. The only thirty-year-olds in that team were Vladimir Pachko and Gennady Soshenko, who played 90 and 544 minutes, respectively. The oldest player to reach 800 minutes was Einars Gnedojs, who celebrated his 26th birthday this summer and whose life unfortunately ended recently.
| Year | Champion | Age | Locals | Year | Champion | Age | Locals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992. | Cash discount | 22.86 | 10.66 | 2008. | Ventspils | 27.50 | 6.97 |
| 1993. | Cash discount | 23.76 | 10.95 | 2009. | Metallurgist | 27.27 | 9.16 |
| 1994. | Cash discount | 25.03 | 10.44 | 2010. | Cash discount | 22.59 | 9.52 |
| 1995. | Cash discount | 25.83 | 10.39 | 2011. | Ventspils | 24.08 | 6.56 |
| 1996. | Cash discount | 25.78 | 10.11 | 2012. | Daugava D | 27.52 | 6.57 |
| 1997. | Cash discount | 24.59 | 8.03 | 2013. | Ventspils | 25.06 | 7.72 |
| 1998. | Cash discount | 24.13 | 7.89 | 2014. | Ventspils | 25.02 | 7.09 |
| 1999. | Cash discount | 24.26 | 7.10 | 2015. | Liepaja | 26.15 | 9.57 |
| 2000. | Cash discount | 24.47 | 6.61 | 2016. | Spartacus | 25.44 | 6.45 |
| 2001. | Cash discount | 25.89 | 6.65 | 2017. | Spartacus | 26.04 | 6.63 |
| 2002. | Cash discount | 25.91 | 6.45 | 2018. | Riga | 25.87 | 6.08 |
| 2003. | Cash discount | 26.37 | 7.39 | 2019. | Riga | 27.62 | 6.41 |
| 2004. | Cash discount | 26.58 | 7.67 | 2020. | Riga | 27.13 | 4.80 |
| 2005. | Metallurgist | 26.37 | 7.72 | 2021. | RFS | 28.29 | 3.49 |
| 2006. | Ventspils | 27.93 | 6.25 | 2022. | Valmiera | 22.21 | 5.32 |
| 2007. | Ventspils | 27.49 | 7.00 |
In order to better understand how new the “Valmiera” team is, it is much better to compare it not against the background of the usually new Premier League, but against the background of the rest of Europe. And among the current champions of the UEFA member states, “Valmiera” is the youngest team – the closest follower, Salzburg, is more than 0.8 years older, while the oldest champion in Europe is “Inter d’Escaldes” from Andorra, which surpasses the Valmiera by almost eight years. It should be noted that the tables below show 56 teams – in Georgia, two rounds until the end of the season, this year’s champion is not yet known, therefore the two title contenders Tbilisi “Dinamo” and Batumi “Dinamo”, which are separated by three points, are included.
If in terms of legionnaires, “Valmiera” corresponds to the European average, occupying 29th place and three hundredths ahead of the average, then there is practically no competition for Valmiera in terms of age. “Valmiera” is the youngest team, almost five years ahead of the average, in first place in terms of using U21 players, almost five players ahead of the average, the only champion in Europe with no 30- or 26-year-old players, and in second place after local The use of U21 players – if “Dinamo” Tbilisi does not win the title, then “Valmiera” will be in first place in Europe in this regard as well.
The average age
In this and the following tables: 1) current champions are indicated – 2021/22. g. in the season in leagues in which the season runs from autumn to spring, or in 2022 in the season in the leagues, which takes place from spring to autumn, 2) Liechtenstein does not have its own championship, therefore the cup winner “Vaduz” is indicated, for which the statistics of the last season in the second league of Switzerland are indicated, 3) the exception is Georgia, which includes the current leaders Tbilisi “Dinamo” and Batumi “Dinamo”, which continues to fight for the title, 4) the average age is calculated according to the minutes played, 5) the player’s age is determined at the midpoint of the season – December 30, 2021 or July 2, 2022. 6) Minutes and birth data are mostly taken from the portal soccerwaybut for the champions of Kosovo, Gibraltar and Andorra – from TransferMarkt.
Average number of domestic players on the pitch
Notes: 1) Tallinn “Flora” was the only champion team that did without legionnaires, but did not reach 11.00 local due to rejections. 2) The theoretical applicant of the specific national team is considered a local player, not the one who met the definition of the championship regulations. For example, in Kazakhstan, there can be no more than five legionnaires on the field, but the champion “Astana” had more than seven – because players from the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union do not count as foreigners. Also, the naturalized players are included among the local ones, while the players of other national teams who grew up in the country – among the legionnaires.
Average number of local U21 players on the field
Note: local players who could play in the U21 national team, or who were born no earlier than the year 2000, are indicated.
Average number of all U21 players on the field
Note: taking into account that, due to the different tournament systems, the spring-autumn championships are half a year ahead, but the date does not change in the definition of a U21 player, the number of U21 players in these leagues should objectively be greater – therefore, it could be argued that Salzburg’s 6.28 is a slightly higher value than Valmiera’s 6.30, although the Latvian club is in first place.
The average number of players on the field who have reached the age of 26
Note: players who are at least 26 years of age at the midpoint of the season – December 30, 2021 or July 2, 2022 – are listed.
Average number of players over 30 years old on the pitch
Note: players who are at least 30 years of age at the midpoint of the season – December 30, 2021 or July 2, 2022 – are listed.
