Age of Peak Performance Among Soccer Players in Sweden

Performance and age have an intertwined relationship in soccer. However, despite the sport’s popularity and the great value of insight into this topic to decision-making personnel, this is a fairly unexplored topic, particularly for lower-ranked leagues. In this paper, we use a novel performance metric to investigate the peak age among soccer players in Sweden for goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, and forwards. Each playing position is analyzed separately using univariate and bivariate methods and is also modeled by a hierarchical Bayesian model with player-specific age trajectories. The results indicate an average overall peak age between 25 and 27. Forwards typically peak at 25, while defenders and midfielders reach their peak performance between the ages of 25 and 27. For goalkeepers, the peak generally occurs by age 27. The performance decline post-peak is the steepest among forwards and midfielders. Defenders and goalkeepers see a long-lasting and slow decline.