The return to Colombian soccer of players with extensive international experience such as Hugo Rodallega, to Santa Fe (37 years old), or Christian Zapata, to National (36 years); or the local transfers of players like Dayro Moreno (37 years old) and Andrés Correa (38 years old, at Once Caldas; or christian marrugor to Santa Fe (37 years).
But we must also reckon with the almost certain arrival of Teo Gutiérrez in Union Magdalena (37 years old), have spread the idea in a sector of the press and fans that the Dimayor League, which opens the 2023 season today, became a tournament for ‘old’ players who come to finish their careers. A kind of ‘elephant graveyard’.
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Is it so? TIME With data provided by Sofa Score (its statistical partner) and the prestigious Transfermarkt portal, it found that the first-class Colombian championship is far from being a «geriatric» tournament and, on the contrary, it is a league for young people with an average age and a short participation of players aged 35 or over.
To date, 30 players aged 35 or over will participate in the first division of Colombia out of the 613 that make up the 20 participating teams.
It should be noted that the data includes Teo Gutiérrez in the Union. That represents 4.8 percent of the players, a low figure compared to the rest of the leagues in South America and those of U.Ss (MLS) year Mexico, the two strongest in North and Central America. Colombia ranks tenth among the 12.
The average age of the League of Dimayor nor is it the most ‘aged’: 26.1 years, the eighth among the countries it reached, very close to brazil and Chile, they share sixth place with 26.3.
In Colombia, the team with the most players aged 35 or over on its squad is Santa Fe, with 4: Leandro Castellanos (goalkeeper, 38), Christian Marrugo and Hugo Rodallega (37) and Wilson Morelo (35).
Unión Magdalena will match it by making the hiring of Gutiérrez official: it already has the goalkeepers ramiro sanchez(39) and carlos bejarano (37), and James Castro (38).
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