In the team photo – which can be found on the Internet with just a few clicks – the men who will sensationally win the biggest competition in European football are standing and kneeling. The goalkeeper Antonios Nikopolidis, 33 years old. The defender Traianos Dellas, 28 years old.
The midfielder Theodoros Zagorakis, 33 years old. The striker Angelos Charisteas, 28 years old. They are the central axis of the team from Greece that, back in the summer of 2004, against all odds became European champions – and in doing so reached a record that has not been matched to date.
So much has happened in this sport since that tournament in Portugal, since striker Angelos Charisteas decided the European Championship final with his goal, that the Greeks, who were the heroes of football for a summer, are fading from memory more and more with each passing year.
“It is important that you are efficient”
And yet, even in the most fashionable statistical databases of the game, this unfashionable team is still remembered because it left behind not only a myth, but a brand: no other winning team in the history of the European Championship before or since has been as old as it – an average of 28.35 years. This summer, only one of the 24 national teams has a higher average age: 28.58 years – that is the average age of the 26 players from Germany.
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On Monday, when Germany’s second group match against Hungary is just two days away, Manuel Neuer sits on the podium in the press room in Herzogenaurach at lunchtime and says: “It’s important that you perform well.” He has just been asked how he would assess the age structure of his team. “I can vouch for our players,” he then says, “who already have a three in front.”
He means the goalkeepers Marc-André ter Stegen (32) and Oliver Baumann (34). The defender Antonio Rüdiger (31). The midfielders Toni Kroos (34), İlkay Gündoğan (33), Pascal Groß (33) and Emre Can. The strikers Thomas Müller (34) and Niclas Füllkrug (31). And of course he means himself too.
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At 38, Neuer is the oldest player in the team. And when he was asked specifically on Monday whether he could still be as good as he was in 2014, as he was during the World Cup in Brazil, when he revolutionized goalkeeping with his saving sprints out of the penalty area, he only gave a very general answer.
It is true that his team plays differently than it did back then, when the defence was so high, when he had to play the “sweeper-keeper”, as he put it; and that is why he adapts his game to that of the team, that he wants to be at the right level and be there. But even if he didn’t want to say that, the new Neuer should of course know that he can no longer be the old Neuer.
At first glance, the higher average age of the German national team seems to be a disadvantage, at least from an athletic point of view. In 2019, an article (title: “Effects of physical match performance in professional soccer players”) was published in the specialist journal “The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research” that deals with the physical changes in players.
At 31 years old, he is also one of the experienced players: Antonio Rüdiger (right)dpa
Based on player data from the Spanish La Liga (2017/18 season), it was documented that the performance of players who are 30 years or older decreases in comparison to players between 16 and 29 years in the following categories: in the total running distance and in the number of sprints and fast sprints. In running performance, it is on average two percent less, in sprint performance between five and 30 percent less. This should also apply on average to the German players.
Meaningful data
At a second glance at the statistics, with a specific focus on the structure of the German team, one can also see a possible advantage. In the summer of 2022, data from the sports department of the statistics company Twenty First Group was published in the New York Times. They stated that players who are 32 years old or older were collecting more and more minutes in the Champions League season after season. And they even stated that these players would win more dribbles and more aerial duels, score more goals and, in the case of central midfielders, pass more accurately.
On Friday, the German starting eleven included four players who are 30 years old or older (Robert Andrich turns 30 in September): Neuer, Rüdiger, Kroos and Gündoğan. Their strengths can also be seen in the data analysis: Aerial duels? Rüdiger. Passing? Kroos and Gündoğan. This could be the decisive finding with regard to the DFB team: It has older players in the positions where it is easier to be old in modern football.
On Monday, Manuel Neuer spoke about something that cannot be measured with data. He said he observed that Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala, for example, the youngest players in the German starting eleven at 21, were always doing things with older players outside of training. He himself was happy to “hang out with the youngsters” because the conversations were different “than with Toni Kroos or Thomas Müller.”
And that leads to a realization that has always been true and always will be true: that – especially in the weeks leading up to a major tournament – it is not only important how a team plays together, but also how it lives together.
