Nigeria fielded the youngest team during the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers among other interesting stats (of the 32 qualified teams) a study by the CIES Football Observatory and FIFA has shown.

The report analyzed the profiles of the players who were fielded by the 32 qualified teams on the road to Russia.

Credit: FIFA

The average age of the players deployed by Sunday Oliseh and eventually Gernot Rohr during the qualifier was 24.9 percent.

The analysis highlights the diversity of the squads in terms of both age and height, as well as the importance of migration with almost two thirds of players currently playing for clubs outside of the association they represent FIFA explained.

In contrast to Nigeria’s young squad, at 29.4 Panama presented the oldest players (on average) during the qualifiers.

Also, the study shows that 11.4 percent of Nigerian players during the qualifiers were born abroad – Morocco had the highest with 61.5 percent.

Credit: FIFA

Nigeria ranked second behind Senegal with the highest number of players based in foreign clubs (outside their football association).

Credit: FIFA

Senegal had 97 percent, Nigeria 91.4 percent of their players based abroad. Meanwhile, Croatia, Sweden and Iceland had executed the qualifiers with 100 percent of their players based abroad.