On Friday, FIFA.com published the roster for all sixteen teams on its micro-site for the U-17 WWC. The rosters are also available in a single document as a PDF file. The rest of this post examines the teams’ age and height statistics, primarily for Group B, which includes the United States, along with France, Gambia, and North Korea.
(For the United States’ roster, please also see this earlier post, which also has some notes on the likely preferred starting line-up.)
The teams’ average and median ages plus average and median heights, along with rankings for each category are provided in the following table.
TABLE: Summary Age And Height Statistics For the Teams
TEAM AGE-A AGE-M HT-A HT-M AAR AMR HAR HMR -- Group A -- Azerbaijan 16.29 16.29 161.7 163.0 13 13 14 T-11 Canada 17.19 17.19 169.3 170.0 2 3 2 T-1 Colombia 16.88 16.96 162.8 163.0 7 9 11 T-11 Nigeria 15.95 16.21 155.7 154.0 14 14 16 16 -- Group B -- France 16.82 17.14 165.7 166.0 8 5 8 T-6 Gambia 15.08 14.95 164.3 165.0 16 16 10 T-8 North Korea 16.59 16.58 164.9 165.0 11 12 9 T-8 United States 17.35 17.41 170.4 170.0 1 1 1 T-1 -- Group C -- Brazil 17.09 17.25 166.1 165.0 T-3 2 7 T-8 Japan 16.67 16.70 161.8 161.0 9 11 13 14 Mexico 17.02 17.17 166.8 166.0 5 4 6 T-6 New Zealand 16.64 16.97 167.0 167.0 10 8 5 T-4 -- Group D -- China 16.93 17.00 168.3 168.0 6 7 3 3 Germany 17.09 17.12 168.0 167.0 T-3 6 4 T-4 Ghana 15.60 15.42 162.5 163.0 15 15 12 T-11 Uruguay 16.46 16.75 159.1 157.0 12 10 15 15
Key
AGE-A: Average Age
AGE-M: Median Age
HT-A: Average Height
HT-M: Median Height
AAR: Average Age Rank (#1 means the team has the oldest average age)
AMR: Median Age Rank (#1 means the team has the oldest median age)
HAR: Average Height Rank (#1 means the team has the tallest average height)
HMR: Median Height Rank (#1 means the team has the tallest median height)
STATISTICAL NOTES FOR GROUP B
UNITED STATES: The USA has the oldest and the tallest team. Concerning age, the USA is the only squad where all of its team members were born in 1995, and has a team average age of 17.35 years and a median age of 17.41 years. Regarding height, the USA has the tallest average height of 170.4 centimeters, but is tied for first on median height with Canada at 170 cm.
FRANCE: Les Bluettes are in the second quartile in terms of both height and age. Their median age of 17.14 is the 5th oldest, although their average age of 16.82 years ranks them down in the 8th slot. France’s birth year break down is: 12 born in 1995, 7 born in 1996, and 2 born in 1995. With an average height of 165.7 cm and a median height of 166.0 cm, France is ranked 8th and tied for 6th in those respective categories.
GAMBIA: The stand-out statistic is that Gambia is the youngest team at the tournament, with an average age of 15.08 and a median age of 14.95. This is due mainly to the fact that Gambia has no players born in 1995. The birth year break down is: 0 born in 1995, 5 born in 1996, 10 born in 1997, and 6 born in 1998. Gambia’s team height (164.3 cm average height, ranked 10th; and 165.00 median height, ranked Tied-8th along with North Korea and Brazil) is in the middle of the pack.
NORTH KOREA: Concerning age, the Koreans are fairly young, as only 6 players were born in 1995. The rest, 15, were born in 1996. The team has an average age of 16.59 years (rank: 11th) and a median age of 16.58 years (rank: 12th). Regarding height, Korea DPR is in the middle of the pack, with an average height of 164.9 cm (ranked 9th) and a median height of 165.0 cm (rank: T-8th).
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