The Age Report: How Old Are the Squads of Europe's Big Four Leagues?

Chronos Score Editorial · Published 5 October 2026

We measured the squads of all 78 clubs in the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and Bundesliga. The league averages are almost identical. The differences are inside each league.

Article image (16:9) Football squads of Europe's big four leagues compared by average age

Ask a football fan which of Europe's big four leagues is the youngest and you will get a confident answer, usually about whichever league they follow. We checked. We took the registered squads of all 78 clubs in the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and Bundesliga and measured them on the same scale. The result is less dramatic than the stereotypes: as leagues, they are almost identical. The real differences are inside them.

Key findings

The four leagues sit within 0.4 years of each other. The Bundesliga is the oldest at 24.71 years on average, the Premier League is at 24.51, La Liga at 24.35 and Serie A at 24.34.
The gap between clubs is far bigger than the gap between leagues. Serie A has the widest spread, 4.07 years between its youngest club, Lecce (22.81), and its oldest, Napoli (26.88). The Bundesliga has the narrowest, 2.86 years.
Napoli have the oldest squad of all 78 clubs at 26.88, while Lecce have the youngest at 22.81. Real Sociedad (22.82) are a hair behind Lecce.
Goalkeepers are the oldest position group in all four leagues, but the gap is much bigger in Germany (27.4) and England (26.8) than in Spain (24.8) and Italy (24.9).
The oldest names on the lists are Luka Modrić and Daniele Padelli, both 40, followed by Manuel Neuer, Edin Džeko and Tom Heaton at 39.

League by league

Average age of each league's squad players aged 18 and over, as of 5 October 2026, ordered from oldest to youngest league. The last column is the gap between the youngest and oldest club.

League	Clubs	Avg. age	Youngest club	Oldest club	Spread
Bundesliga	18	24.71	Eintracht Frankfurt (23.07)	FC Schalke 04 (25.93)	2.86
Premier League	20	24.51	Sunderland (23.19)	Coventry (26.11)	2.92
La Liga	20	24.35	Real Sociedad (22.82)	Osasuna (26.38)	3.56
Serie A	20	24.34	Lecce (22.81)	Napoli (26.88)	4.07

The median age is 24 in all four leagues. Put plainly, the typical player on a big-four squad list is 24, and no league is meaningfully older or younger than the others at that level.

Premier League: youngest and oldest at the ends, tight in the middle

Sunderland (23.19) are the Premier League's youngest squad, followed by Chelsea (23.44) and Brentford (23.60). At the other end, Coventry (26.11) and Ipswich (25.76) have the oldest squads. Fulham (25.38) are the next oldest.

Manchester City (24.52), Arsenal (24.59) and Liverpool (24.74) sit very close together in the middle of the league, while Chelsea are well below them. The Premier League's spread of 2.92 years is the second narrowest of the four.

#	Club	Avg. age	Players (18+)
1	Sunderland	23.19	37
2	Chelsea	23.44	27
3	Brentford	23.60	30
4	Brighton	23.93	30
5	Newcastle	24.07	29
6	Bournemouth	24.10	30
7	Manchester United	24.39	31
8	Hull City	24.39	36
9	Everton	24.40	25
10	Manchester City	24.52	23
11	Aston Villa	24.57	30
12	Arsenal	24.59	27
13	Leeds	24.72	29
14	Liverpool	24.74	27
15	Tottenham	24.83	29
16	Nottingham Forest	25.07	27
17	Crystal Palace	25.07	29
18	Fulham	25.38	26
19	Ipswich	25.76	29
20	Coventry	26.11	28

La Liga: the youth of Madrid and San Sebastián

Real Sociedad (22.82) and Real Madrid (22.95) lead La Liga's youth ranking, with Racing Santander (23.00) just behind. Barcelona (23.79) are also younger than the league average. Osasuna (26.38) have the oldest squad, ahead of Rayo Vallecano (25.70) and Real Betis (25.67).

Spain also has some of the oldest names on the lists. Iago Aspas of Celta Vigo and Elche goalkeeper Matías Dituro are both 38, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, now at Deportivo La Coruña, is 36.

#	Club	Avg. age	Players (18+)
1	Real Sociedad	22.82	34
2	Real Madrid	22.95	37
3	Racing Santander	23.00	32
4	Malaga	23.52	33
5	Levante	23.54	26
6	Barcelona	23.79	28
7	Getafe	23.94	33
8	Elche	24.15	33
9	Sevilla	24.24	29
10	Villarreal	24.36	28
11	Celta Vigo	24.36	33
12	Espanyol	24.63	30
13	Deportivo La Coruna	24.70	30
14	Athletic Club	24.77	30
15	Valencia	24.81	32
16	Atletico Madrid	25.18	28
17	Alaves	25.48	25
18	Real Betis	25.67	30
19	Rayo Vallecano	25.70	33
20	Osasuna	26.38	26

Serie A: the widest gap in Europe

Serie A is the league of extremes. Lecce (22.81), Parma (23.23) and Genoa (23.28) have the youngest squads in the league, while Inter (25.96) and Napoli (26.88) sit at the other end. That 4.07-year gap between first and last is the widest of the four leagues, even though Serie A's overall average (24.34) is the lowest.

Milan's Luka Modrić and Udinese goalkeeper Daniele Padelli, both 40, are the two oldest players in the data. Serie A also lists the fewest players aged 33 or older of the four leagues: 27, against 32 or 33 elsewhere.

#	Club	Avg. age	Players (18+)
1	Lecce	22.81	36
2	Parma	23.23	26
3	Genoa	23.28	36
4	Sassuolo	23.45	33
5	Monza	23.47	32
6	Fiorentina	23.72	25
7	Cagliari	23.93	29
8	Frosinone	24.03	30
9	Lazio	24.24	34
10	Como	24.33	27
11	Torino	24.43	30
12	Bologna	24.45	29
13	Atalanta	24.52	31
14	Juventus	24.60	35
15	AS Roma	24.69	26
16	Udinese	25.07	30
17	Venezia	25.15	33
18	AC Milan	25.46	26
19	Inter	25.96	27
20	Napoli	26.88	26

Bundesliga: the oldest league on average, the smallest gap

The Bundesliga has the highest average age of the four (24.71) but also the narrowest range between clubs, 2.86 years. Eintracht Frankfurt (23.07), Hoffenheim (23.34) and Stuttgart (23.50) are the youngest squads. Schalke 04 (25.93), Bayern München (25.92) and Freiburg (25.86) are the oldest, with Mainz (25.83) and Bayer Leverkusen (25.81) right behind. Two of the league's biggest clubs, Bayern and Leverkusen, are in that older group, a reminder that the best-known clubs are not always the youngest.

Veterans are easy to find in Germany: Bayern's Manuel Neuer and Schalke's Edin Džeko are both 39, and Union Berlin's Christopher Trimmel is 38.

#	Club	Avg. age	Players (18+)
1	Eintracht Frankfurt	23.07	27
2	1899 Hoffenheim	23.34	29
3	VfB Stuttgart	23.50	34
4	FC Augsburg	23.60	25
5	SC Paderborn 07	23.77	30
6	RB Leipzig	23.85	27
7	Hamburger SV	24.38	26
8	Borussia Dortmund	24.52	25
9	Werder Bremen	24.61	31
10	SV Elversberg	24.88	24
11	Borussia Mönchengladbach	25.13	30
12	1. FC Köln	25.38	24
13	Union Berlin	25.53	34
14	Bayer Leverkusen	25.81	26
15	FSV Mainz 05	25.83	30
16	SC Freiburg	25.86	28
17	Bayern München	25.92	24
18	FC Schalke 04	25.93	30

Goalkeepers are old, attackers are young

Splitting the squads by position shows the usual pattern, with some national differences. Goalkeepers are the oldest group in every league, but the average goalkeeper is 27.4 years old in the Bundesliga and 26.8 in the Premier League, against 24.8 in La Liga and 24.9 in Serie A.

At the other end, attackers are the youngest group in the Premier League (22.6) and Serie A (23.0), while midfielders are the youngest in La Liga (23.4) and the Bundesliga (23.1). These averages include young players on the squad lists, so they are best read as a comparison between positions rather than as the age of a typical starter.

League	Goalkeepers	Defenders	Midfielders	Attackers
Premier League	26.84	24.59	23.41	22.60
La Liga	24.82	24.31	23.39	24.02
Serie A	24.88	24.06	23.49	23.03
Bundesliga	27.40	24.29	23.09	23.54

Position averages use every listed player aged 15 to 45, including those under 18.

The veterans and the teenagers

The oldest players on the squad lists are AC Milan's Luka Modrić and Udinese goalkeeper Daniele Padelli (both 40), Bayern's Manuel Neuer, Schalke's Edin Džeko and Manchester United goalkeeper Tom Heaton (all 39). Players aged 33 or older number 33 in the Premier League, 32 in La Liga, 27 in Serie A and 32 in the Bundesliga.

At the other end, the youngest players listed are 15: Liverpool's Joshua Abe, Manchester United's J. Gabriel, Fiorentina's F. Croci and Bayern's F. Pavic. Players under 18 make up 4.2% of the squad lists in La Liga, 6.5% in the Premier League, 8.0% in Serie A and 8.2% in the Bundesliga. Lists differ a lot from club to club: Bayer Leverkusen list seven players under 18, while Real Sociedad, Stuttgart and Celta Vigo list none.

How we measured it

The data comes from the squad lists our data provider, API-Football, publishes for each club, collected on 5 October 2026 for 78 clubs: 20 each in the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A, and 18 in the Bundesliga. Ages are the ages shown on those lists on that date.

The rankings use players aged 18 and over. We did this because the lists mix first-team players with academy players. Clubs that register many teenagers look much younger on paper, even if their senior group is not: Bayern München's full list averages 23.97 years, but 25.92 once the six players under 18 are removed. Using 18 and over makes clubs easier to compare, although it is still not a measure of who actually plays. Two records with impossible ages (2025) were excluded.

This is a snapshot of the squads on paper, not of minutes played, and lists change with transfers, loans and call-ups. It does not take minutes played into account, so it says nothing about how much the young or old players actually feature.