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Matarazzo club 1st in Germany
With an average age of just 24.76, Arsenal field the youngest team in the Premier League. This season the Gunners spent €165.6 million on new players—more than any other club in Europe (all summer signings). The new arrivals, however, have an average age of just 22.4 years, and, as a result, the average age of the starting XI has also dropped significantly. Arsenal and Brentford are the only two Premier League clubs in the top 20 with the lowest average starting XI among Europe’s elite leagues. But who is fielding the youngest team in Europe’s top five leagues? A glance at the Transfermarkt database shows that only Bayer Leverkusen (24.75 years), VfB Stuttgart (24.72 years), FC Empoli (24.71 years), Olympique Marseille (24.7 years), and AS Monaco (24.47 years) are ahead of Arsenal.
In detail
Arsenal’s squad at a glance
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Young and younger is not a goal,” Stuttgart’s sporting director Sven Mislintat said in an interview with the German magazine kicker when asked about his strategy to buy younger players that can be developed and then be sold with a profit. “It is consequential and part of our philosophy, which is dictated by the club’s financial framework.” The financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic only further underlined the importance of the club’s plan to focus on young players. “With our budget, it is difficult to sign a 23-year-old Champions League level player,” Mislintat said. “As a result, we are looking for players who we believe can reach the level to play Champions League one day.”
Coached by American Pellegrino Matarazzo are the top Bundesliga team in that category. They are closely followed by Bayer Leverkusen, who were not even in the top 25 of that category last season. But with Lars and Sven Bender retired and the quick integration of the 20-year-old Odilon Kossounou and the 21-year-old Mitchel Bakker, the average age of the club’s starting XI dropped to 24.75.
The top 5 leagues compared: No team younger than Monaco
No club, however, has fielded a younger starting XI on average than Monaco (24.47). “I think the turning point in which the club started to work with younger players was in 2017/18,” Area Manager France Ronan Caroff said about a development that has been in the works for some years. “After the club reached the Champions League semifinal, they earned almost €200 million on the transfer market and then re-invested the money.” But Monaco did not earn instant success and was almost relegated the following year. “But the payers were here; Monaco had no choice but to start a rebuild.”
After one year of consolidation, Monaco, under head coach Niko Kovac are now on their way back to become a force in French football. Benoît Badiashile, Sofiane Diop, Aurélien Tchouaméni and Youssouf Fofana are some of the young stars that have established themselves in the starting XI. “Another example that Kovac truly builds on young stars is that the 23-year-old Axel Disasi usually replaces the 31-year-old Wissam Ben Yedder as captain, should the latter not be in the starting XI.”
The youngest teams in Europe’s top 5 leagues (Starting XI for league games 2021/22)
Average age under 23: RB Salzburg continue youth policy
RB Salzburg and not Monaco are the number one; however, once you add Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, and Austria to the top five leagues. Salzburg, in fact, lead the table by a significant margin. The Austrian Serienmeister has an average starting XI age of under 23 (22.97). A glance at all games shows that the Red Bulls have three of the youngest starting XIs of all top 10 leagues in the 2021/22 season (22.27 against Klagenfurt; 22.35 against LASK; 22.52 against Admira Wacker).
With a team build around 19-year-old German national team striker Karim Adeyemi and 20-year-old American Brenden Aaronson, Salzburg, coached by new head coach Matthias Jaissle have won their first ten games in the Austrian Bundesliga this season. Jaissle continues the work that he began with FC Liefering and has promoted several players from the farm team—among them Benjamin Sesko, who is already being compared to Erling Haaland. “Our goal is to develop our team the best possible way and to be successful,” Jaissle said when asked about the club’s youth first policy.
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