Although he is not the oldest athlete called up to defend the Brazilian team in a World Cup, goalkeeper Weverton helped raise the average age of the team defined by Carlo Ancelotti to represent Brazil in the World Cup hosted jointly by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
At 38 years old, the Grêmio player raises the group’s average age by around five months. With an average age of 28.7 years, the Canarian team will have its highest average age in the country’s history in World Cups.
Ancelotti’s call-up indicates a selection less focused on renewal and more based on experience. Of the 26 names defined by the coach, 42.3% are 30 years old or over. There are 11 players in this range. After Weverton, the oldest are Alex Sandro, 35, Casemiro, Neymar and Danilo, all 34.
Despite the high average in this edition, the oldest player to defend Brazil in a World Cup was Daniel Alves, in 2022, at 39 years old.
Although he even renewed his contract with the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) until the next World Cup, Ancelotti gave little space to young promises who could take advantage of this year’s edition to gain more experience. On their list, the youngest are Rayan, from Bournemouth, in England, and Endrick, from French Lyon, both 19 years old.
Together with 22-year-old Wesley, from Roma, the boys form a curious trio, of athletes who weren’t even born when Brazil won its last world title, in 2002, in Korea and Japan.
The kids chosen by Ancelotti are going through a time that could equal Brazil’s longest streak without winning a World Cup. If he returns from North America without the trophy, he will complete 24 years without winning the tournament.
In the 1994 World Cup, the Brazilian team was going through a similar scenario, having gone 24 years without winning a title. At the time, however, only one player called up had not been born in the last World Cup in which the country won the cup: striker Ronaldo, who debuted for the national team at the age of 17.
Although full-back Cafu, midfielder Leonardo and defender Márcio Santos were 24 years old, they were all born a few days or months before the 1970 conquest.
The average age of the team in 1994 was 27 years old, with goalkeeper Gilmar Rinaldi being the oldest, at 35 years old.
Demographics
Rio de Janeiro is the city with the most squad members, with Bruno Guimarães, Lucas Paquetá and Rayan. Next, three cities appear with two players each: São Paulo (Gabriel Magalhães and Marquinhos), Brasília (Endrick and Igor Thiago) and João Pessoa (Bremer and Matheus Cunha).
Endrick was born in Taguatinga, an administrative region of the Federal District, while Lucas Paquetá is from Ilha de Paquetá, located in Guanabara Bay. The IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), however, considers these two locations respectively to be Brasília and Rio de Janeiro.
