Youngest Basis Ever

Youngest Basis Ever

05/14/2017

The average age of the players who started against Willem II was only 20 years and 138 days. This was more than a year younger than the previous record holder, the Champions League Qualification home match against Rapid Wien a little less than two years ago. See here for the complete list.
The improvement of this record by 1 year is unprecedented. Until just a few years ago, there were two games from 1960 at the top (with amongst others Sjaak Swart), and recently there were five matches with younger lineups, with a maximum of 85 days difference.
Something else that is noteworthy is that there are now 3 matches with opponent Willem II in the top of matches with the youngest lineups. In addition to today's match, the home matches of this season and last season are also in the top 10.
From today's contest you could argue that Bosz deliberately gave young players a chance because the title was actually given up. Even if that has been the case then that is not the case for most matches in the top of the list. There are also 3 European qualification matches in the top 10 and 4 eredivisie matches that were played early in the season.


Filed under: Willem II - Ajax 1 - 3 (5/14/2017)