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The age structure
of the 16 teams
An analysis of the 16 squads
based on the official list
of players of the 16 squads by CAF as from January 13th.
As anchor to derive age
from brithdates has been chosen the 1st of January.
conspicious opposites:
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Mali vs. Egypt
Egypt, Cameroon, Côte
d'Ivoire, and even Liberia have balanced gropus with players from all categories.
This is the most promising for a continuing flow between players generations.
Mali's unconventional selection
rather promises to develop into a structure that could last for some years:
almost all players come from the same age group.
In 1998
(click to open the graphic in a popup window)
Morocco had a team from just one age group and did not perform well. But
they had been some years older in average.
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Algeria vs. Burkina Faso
Algrians, Tunisians, then
South Africa and Morocco have the most experienced players - agewise. But
experience can be also helped by playing a good number of big matches as
for example Samuel Kuffour from Ghana has done with two European Champions
League finals and even more years experience in that competition.
Not to forget Nigeria, whose
numbers are missing on the CAF list.
The youngest players come
from West Africa, Burkina Faso has the biggest group for the second nations
cup in a row.
Ghana with a lot of their
experienced professionals absent are surprise runners up here. But sometimes
those graphics can deceive a little: Several Ghanaian players are 19, several
Ivorians 20.
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others
A significant change has taken place
in the Moroccan squad. Compared to only 1 player below 25 two years ago,
they arrive with half of their squad inthis group now
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