500

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

Interesting theory put forward this avvy... A mate who's Dutch (and a neurologist) suggested that footballers 'these days' have a maximum mileage of about 500 games.

 

Obviously there are anomalies like Giggs, but look at Fowler, Owen, Torres (maybe) and others who started out young & who knack at relatively young ages.

 

I'm too fuvking drunk now to type out the conversation, but from what he suggested - across all sports - it sounded like it had legs

[_00_deathscar]

Messi and Ronaldo will clock up more than that. Gerrard has.

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

not saying it's absolute, or even anything to base anything on, but his suggestion was that players are hitting '500' far younger these days & burning out younger too - in other words, the Giggs (my Gran smoked 8- a day till she was 90 etc) aside, there's something like an absolute or a finite for most players

[Cheesecake]

well the games quicker now but players look after themselves better too, but where pace is most useful is porbably at centre fowards and consequently at centre back, the contant strain that their body is put under might lead to them burning out quicker such as the likes of players such as Michael Owen who you could say was burned out 2 years ago at the age of what 27/28?

 

Giggs seems to be the exception, I cant think of a single outfield player who was playing in 1993 who is still on the go now at a high profile club apart from perhaps Robert Pires and Patrick Vieira and Pires only hit 500 or so games a year ago at the age of 36

Edited April 18, 2011 by DPD1973

[Nebraska Red]

I think that the better players will last longer as they seem to get better protection from referees (unless they play for Liverpool) these days.

 

The biggest issue for me is the number of games, many of them meaningless, that are being played today.

 

Players in Spain will probably last the longest as the top teams only play about 8 difficult league games per season.

[Cheesecake]

I think that the better players will last longer as they seem to get better protection from referees (unless they play for Liverpool) these days.

 

The biggest issue for me is the number of games, many of them meaningless, that are being played today.

 

Players in Spain will probably last the longest as the top teams only play about 8 difficult league games per season.

 

by difficult you mean truly competitive I assume? They still have to run, shoot, tackle get buffeted by the oppo in the 40 or so other games they play or 50+ in the case of Barcelona and Real Madrid each season. Okay so there might be less likelihood of meeting a Karl Henry, a Shawcross or a Martin Taylor but they still dont get a free ride for those games. From watching games from Spain and France its obvious that players get better/more protection from referees than in the PL and I think that would aide longevity more than anything else, most of the 'horror tackles' I've seen in the 3 years since I took an active interest in watching the full 90 minutes of league games in France/Spain in addition to England have happened on the pitches of the premier league.

[John am Rhein]

is there any actual quantitive evidence that the trend is towards players's careers getting shorter? Until fairly recently at least, the trend seemed to be in the opposite direction.

 

Of course you can point to one or two players who seem to be 'burnt out' at a fairly young age, but go back to the 80s or, I dare say, 60s and it was the same

[Cobs]

Might be true of players whose pace is vital to their game but players look after themselves much better now and advances in prevention/treatment of injuries mean 500 games as some sort of rule of thumb doesn't stack up, for me.

[Nerik]

Trends in recent years showed that players were playing for longer. In the 80s and early 90s few players remained at top level by the time they hit 32-33. It is a much more common sight nowadays.

 

I think the burnout theory does have some validity though, especially when it comes to attacking players who are prone to injuries yet still played a lot when they were young. Owen is a case in point.

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

Might be true of players whose pace is vital to their game but players look after themselves much better now and advances in prevention/treatment of injuries mean 500 games as some sort of rule of thumb doesn't stack up, for me.

Dunno, it's potentially an interesting theory. Could be a load of bobbins too

[Cam]

Look at Carragher. 33 now but playing like he's 2 or 3 years older - and has appeared so for a couple of years now. Looking like a veteran enjoying an indian summer.

 

I've argued for a while that players are reaching peaks earlier. Whereas it was always said to be 28 - 32 I've said it's more like 24 - 28. And I think that may be lowering again. It's a young man's game with the number of games and sheer length of peak physical fitness they need to attain; a 100m sprinter would break down if he need to be at 100% for so long.

 

Also coming back for injury so soon will eventually tell. Sure, medical advances are seeing players come back after 3 or 4 weeks whereas 30 years ago their careers would be over. Obviously a good thing! But the lack of rest will take it's toll. I certainy think an international needs to be retiring by 30.

[Owen1978]

I thought this post was about a sequel to '300'

 

[Foo]

Lets see how that theory works out for the everpresents in the Barcelona side.

[John am Rhein]

I thought this post was about a sequel to '300'

 

 

299

[schmuckdonald]

This will be counter-acted by science, blood doping etc. etc.

 

Will probably be a transitional period, mind. There's an interesting bit on it in 'issue zero' of The Blizzard by Marcotti.

[Owen1978]

299

 

Thats the prequel

[John am Rhein]

Thats the prequel

 

It goes down not up

[Ombudsam]

haha

[allez les rouges]

A neurologist won't have a clue about anything like this. Epilepsy maybe. But not athletics.