Average player height of participating national teams at the 2018 World Cup in Russia

While they may not have made it out of the group stages of the 2018 World Cup, the Serbian national team were top of the table when it came to the average height of their players – their squad boasted an average height of 185.6 centimeters per player. The first-choice goalkeeper for Serbia, Vladimir Stojković, was one of the tallest members of the team at 195 centimeters. At the other end of the scale, the squad of Saudi Arabia came in at an average of just 176.2 centimeters, making them the shortest squad at the 2018 World Cup.

Youth vs. Experience

The oldest squad at the 2018 World Cup belonged to Costa Rica. Their squad had an average age of 29.6 years, almost four years older than the squad of Nigeria, who had the youngest squad at the tournament. However, neither youth nor experience triumphed in this instance as both teams failed to get out of their groups. Indeed, the result of the World Cup, with France emerging victorious after beating Croatia in the final, went very much to form. The France squad was the most expensive squad at the tournament, with a combined market value of 1.08 billion euros. Panama’s squad, on the other hand, had a combined transfer value of just 9.13 million euros.

Homegrown talents

The Premier League is often called the best league in the world, so it is unsurprising that the entire England squad at the World Cup plied their trade in the English top division. In contrast, there were three national squads in which all of the players played their domestic football abroad – none of the players in the squads of Croatia, Sweden, or Iceland played their club football on home soil. Manchester City was the most represented club team at the World Cup in 2018, with 16 of its players participating. Real Madrid came a close second with 15 members of the squad taking part in the tournament.