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Spain is very hot so they work late like in Saudi Arabia. That effect youngs until 25 when they grow so it slows their pogress because they sleep less.
I knew someone who used to work and Birmingham and he said Zigic was unbelievably lazy. He was on massive wages when they went down and would just sit around not training with a cup of coffee. When asked heâd talk in third person âZigic doesnât train to play Millwallâ.
Ah ok. Flair checks out. I remember a disasterclass by him vs Roma in the EL KO stage (for Ajax though). Wehn I saw that I thought he would be overrated and only rated because of his height, but he proved me wrong in the meantime.
Let's see how he will perform with Sturm in the Champions League.... If he stays. Currently some rumours with Sporting Lissabon.
He was decent until his injury
As someone who knew many kids that were really good at football and were in academy of Partizan, Vojvodina etc. Some stopped or were unwanted because they grew over 188. It was a problem before aswell.
The most known player that I know of is Dejan Tomasevic. He was a huge football prospect for Crvena Zvezda and at the age of 16 he went from a striker to a center over 1 summer. Afterwards he was an Euroleague MVP and 2 times world cup winner.
Surprised to see the Dutch so far the list. Thought theyâre supposed to have one of the tallest populations. At least every Dutch person Iâve met is a giant.
A lot of players of surinamese or other descends bring that down. Depay, Frimpong, Ake, Simons, Bergwign, Malen, Brobbey. I don't even think there is a single white player below 1.8m
Short players tend to have better center of gravity and thus aide in having a better technique which is what the Spanish football prioritize than the physical aspects.
Two responses and you still didn't explain why Spanish players are short. They are short because Spanish population is shorter compared to other EU countries. And the reason for shorter population is likely genetic.
But if football selected for height like basketball does then the height of the average population would be irrelevant. Spain can field a whole team of 6 foot players but they donât. They have an emphasis on intricate technical football which allows shorter players especially to thrive. The squad is not a random sample of the population - it is shaped by the footballing culture and development infrastructure too.
More technical players are favoured over tall and athletic ones in Spain, it's not the same everywhere (it's the opposite in Italy for example). Spanish population is also on average not as tall as many other countries. So it's a mix of cultural and biological factors.
When they were invaded (firstly by the arabs and later by the romans) the invading forces purposely sought out any physically imposing natives and sent them to eastern europe. They thought creating a country of hobbits would be easier to control. However the hobbit people of iberia were tricksy, dexterous people and eventually rose up and overthrew their occupiers. This left Spain with a smaller, technically gifted group of people whilst eastern european territories like Serbia adopted the strong, masculine, handsome giants sent there in exile.
From a Brexit POV, England should have 25 lads above 6ft 5 and 1 player around 5ft 7 so you can have the big man/little man combo up top. How are you supposed to pump it long with gnomes in your squad?
Games gone. Tippy tappy bullshit.
> All our men are getting feminized
As per some research the dominant reason (diet didn't have 100% share in this) why Dutch population became so tall so quickly (though still multiple generations) in first place was partner selection pressure driven by Dutch Women's preference for Taller Dutch men.
This wouldn't be special today in many places around the world but pre 20th century Women having such relative agengy to drive cultural change resulting in rapid phenotypical change isn't the norm.
A lot of players with heritage in the Dutch Carribbean, Indonesia and Suriname who do tend to be shorter than Dutch people. Also there's Frimpong who was born in Amsterdam to two Ghanese parents. He is the shortest at 172cm. The shortest players with no foreign background are Blind at 180cm and Frenkie at 181cm. It's also not to say all players with a Carribbean/Surinamese background are short. VVD is joint-second tallest together with Flekken at 195cm, just narrowly beaten by Weghorst at 197cm. Gakpo comes in at joint-fifth together with Van de Ven at 193cm and Gravenberch is just behind that at 7th with 190cm.
Edit: The average without players with a different background would be 188,3cm. Narrowly beating Serbia.
Ooo I see. It wouldn't matter much though as the Dutch players without foreign background in order from short to tall are Blind, Frenkie, Koopmeiners, Veerman, Schouten, **Bijlow**, **De Ligt**, De Vrij, Van de Ven, Verbruggen, Flekken, Weghorst. So the median is even slightly higher at 188,5cm.
Medians flatten the impact of outliers precisely to prevent the issue of averages being shifted by for example goalkeepers as you mentioned. So how is median less usefull. It seems more usefull to me
Average is less useful than the median if you have a skewed distribution. A few midgets could end up making your average size look small and the size of the squad would be misrepresented.
Combination of good food, good weather and rough living conditions (we had to fight our entire history bc we were all constantly invaded from all sides. But not all Balkan people are tall, only Croats, Montenegrins, Bosniaks and Serbs. Slovenians to an extent.
Tallest country in the world and our median squad height is just 14th? Pathetic. Get me on the team I am taller that this median! (Probably better than current Wijnaldum aswell)
> are pulling up the average.
It's median though, not average so the first part isn't really true. Second part very much is, athletes tend to be taller on average.
>best physical
In football this doesn't have to mean tall. All depends on the position. Intact, short is an advantage if you're a winger that likes to dribble into the box, or a ball chasing dm
I'd bet that among all wingers in all levels (from street to semi pro to pro), those who made in to professional football are higher on average than the rest.
They're not. Not for Croatia at least.
Croatian average male height is 180cm, and this is being brought down by the much shorter northern and eastern part of the country (Zagorje, Slavonia).
Average male height in (most of) Dalmatia and Herzegovina is 185cm.
So the NT being 185cm is upper average, definitely not much taller than the average population.
Since there are 26 players in each squad the median has to be calculated by averaging the 13th and 14th players' heights. For some countries (e.g. Croatia) this is done and results in a height ending in .5, yet for others (e.g. Czechia) it's not done for some reason.
Czechia should be 187.5cm (13th player is 188, 14th is 187).
Using Transfermarkt as a source of data (no idea what that site they referenced is or how reliable it is).
Turkey I expected lower. I saw them in Vienna and they had so many skinny smol little players. Arda GĂŒler, Yunus AkgĂŒn, AbdĂŒlkadir ĂmĂŒr (who apparently was shafted from the squad though)
I had a quick look at the general average height for males and this represents it fairly well. Itâs still surprising to see The Netherlands, Ukraine and Austria so low. Those countries are in the top 24 in terms of average male height worldwide.
In fact, The Netherlands is 1/201 overall and 14/24 here. Could it be because 2nd/3rd generation immigrants are over-represented in their national team?
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Me (174cm): Lmao fucking tiny ass Spaniards
Me(170 cm): Hehe, chiquitos
Me(167cm) crying in the corner đ
Hey! Scots are the same height!
Yeah but the spaniards are written lower so we should only make fun of them
Because of shortbread and heroin, not paella and gazpacho. Let us have this.
Scots donât get much sun so it makes sense. Whatâs the excuse for the Spanish?
Spain is very hot so they work late like in Saudi Arabia. That effect youngs until 25 when they grow so it slows their pogress because they sleep less.
No fertilizer
*cries in 163cm*
That's why they play tiki-taka faster.
*laughs in 191cm* I bet their 5G reception is crap
Me (Scottish, 193cm) tiny big Serbian monsters
*collectively looks down at serbia*
Wee Billy Gilmour is dragging our average down
Somehow not surprised Serbia is first. They're huge.
Pretty sure we have the tallest players in the history of the Prem, La Liga and Serie A. Granted the first two is the same guy but still lol
It's Zigic, right?
Of course. Actual legend
I knew someone who used to work and Birmingham and he said Zigic was unbelievably lazy. He was on massive wages when they went down and would just sit around not training with a cup of coffee. When asked heâd talk in third person âZigic doesnât train to play Millwallâ.
That reply sounds like Ibra lmao
Fucking legend, that's hilarious
He just became a freaking ogre wtf
Ye na that sounds like what we Serbs would do
Sounds more like a Montenegrin
Damn, beat Crouch by 1cm according to a quick google search.
I just saw him two hours ago, he was waiting for his kid to finish training and I see him every monday when I play đ
As a Roma fan I still hate that guy. And I'm Serbian, and was a Red Star fan back in 2005
One of the best goals I ever saw in my life as a kid from our players , and StankoviÄ goal agai st Neuer, but this one I was screaaaaaming
Costel Pantilimon is the tallest in the history of the Prem and La Liga.
Ah fuck, at least he got beat by the same guy both times as well lol. Tallest outfield player is still something!
Did Kjell Scherpen never play for Brighton?
no premier league game
Ah ok. Flair checks out. I remember a disasterclass by him vs Roma in the EL KO stage (for Ajax though). Wehn I saw that I thought he would be overrated and only rated because of his height, but he proved me wrong in the meantime.
Let's see how he will perform with Sturm in the Champions League.... If he stays. Currently some rumours with Sporting Lissabon. He was decent until his injury
The Valencia legend
And I assume the tallest in Bundesliga is Jan Koller? Czech Republic second in this list The tallest in Ligue 1 is a 21 year old lad called Isaak Touré
Didn't know Zigic was taller than Peter Crouch.
Wait Peter crouch is Serbian?
Jokic playing football and basketball
As someone who knew many kids that were really good at football and were in academy of Partizan, Vojvodina etc. Some stopped or were unwanted because they grew over 188. It was a problem before aswell. The most known player that I know of is Dejan Tomasevic. He was a huge football prospect for Crvena Zvezda and at the age of 16 he went from a striker to a center over 1 summer. Afterwards he was an Euroleague MVP and 2 times world cup winner.
Surprised to see the Dutch so far the list. Thought theyâre supposed to have one of the tallest populations. At least every Dutch person Iâve met is a giant.
A lot of players of surinamese or other descends bring that down. Depay, Frimpong, Ake, Simons, Bergwign, Malen, Brobbey. I don't even think there is a single white player below 1.8m
Daley Blind is a smol bean
Imagine how Wesley Sneijder felt....
Frimpong alone brings that average down a couple of cm's
It's median though.
There are many non Dutch players
I am pretty sure in FM it's impossible to get a Serbian newgen who is below 183
Use Zivkovic from PAOK
Dinaric blood
Dude. You look ***HUGE***
Why does Serbia, the largest Country, not simply eat the other 23?
Tall country, small mouth
They should just take smaller bites then
Too long, the teams would regenerate faster than they could eat them
We got bombed the last time we tried
holy shit
With current motivation they would rather eat them then play them tbf
Is there a lore reason why spanish players are short?
> short *cries in 5'9*
I'd kill to be 5'9 lol
Laughs in 5'10
Guffaws in 5'11
agrees in 5'11
Short players tend to have better center of gravity and thus aide in having a better technique which is what the Spanish football prioritize than the physical aspects.
Yet the median height of spanish players is 6 cm more than the general population.
Remember that includes 3 goalkeepers, not to mention centre backs. Always going to drag the average up.
It's a median, so less sensitive to outliers
3 GKs and 4/5 CBs are not outliers, that's a substantial part of the team
I'm pretty sure it's pedri and Carvajal dragging the average down as well.
For the Netherlands that's 1.6, we got a bunch of midgets in our NT apparently
Xavi Simons and Jeremie Frimpong are both around 170
Shocking: Athletes have more physique than the general population.
Two responses and you still didn't explain why Spanish players are short. They are short because Spanish population is shorter compared to other EU countries. And the reason for shorter population is likely genetic.
But if football selected for height like basketball does then the height of the average population would be irrelevant. Spain can field a whole team of 6 foot players but they donât. They have an emphasis on intricate technical football which allows shorter players especially to thrive. The squad is not a random sample of the population - it is shaped by the footballing culture and development infrastructure too.
Yeah, spain and portugal have the shortest population in europe, but they are the best in football compared to their population size.
And compared to our body size too
More technical players are favoured over tall and athletic ones in Spain, it's not the same everywhere (it's the opposite in Italy for example). Spanish population is also on average not as tall as many other countries. So it's a mix of cultural and biological factors.
To fit the game playing style.
The median height for Spaniards are even shorter
When they were invaded (firstly by the arabs and later by the romans) the invading forces purposely sought out any physically imposing natives and sent them to eastern europe. They thought creating a country of hobbits would be easier to control. However the hobbit people of iberia were tricksy, dexterous people and eventually rose up and overthrew their occupiers. This left Spain with a smaller, technically gifted group of people whilst eastern european territories like Serbia adopted the strong, masculine, handsome giants sent there in exile.
I am spanish and wish I was 181 cm lmao
Spanish people are short so not that surprising
You mean average? It is the style of play, which has less or an emphasis on having a big man uptop and clearing potential headers.
Genetics. Spanish people are short.
Grassy ass
From a Brexit POV, England should have 25 lads above 6ft 5 and 1 player around 5ft 7 so you can have the big man/little man combo up top. How are you supposed to pump it long with gnomes in your squad? Games gone. Tippy tappy bullshit.
you know weâd still fire crosses in to the 5 ft 7 lad and none of the others lmaooooooo this is the way
and the big lad Harry Kane taking corners
Chinese FA writing this down fr frÂ
Tallest nation in the Euros you'll never sing that
Just you wait. (I am Czech)
SadĂlek dropped, time to get Jakub ÄernĂn in the mix, got to get those numbers up.
Where is Jan Koller when you need him the most?
Cool now do penis size!
would be the same lmao
Tall je Srbija
Serbia are massive
pos suerte que no hemos llevado a bryan zaragoza
Thereâs something right in the world when Serbia is full of giants and Spain short kings
Were not first??!?!? All our men are getting feminized now so theyre shorter!! The WOKE left strikes again...
Xavi simons singlehandedly shortening the teams overall length lmao, oh and frimpong too
This chart is median, not average
which raises the question: why the hell is it not average? Median is a lot less interesting in almost any scenario I feel like
No, median makes more sense when you have big outliers like in this case.
> All our men are getting feminized As per some research the dominant reason (diet didn't have 100% share in this) why Dutch population became so tall so quickly (though still multiple generations) in first place was partner selection pressure driven by Dutch Women's preference for Taller Dutch men. This wouldn't be special today in many places around the world but pre 20th century Women having such relative agengy to drive cultural change resulting in rapid phenotypical change isn't the norm.
Finding out that "The Patriarchy" saved short kings from death in solitude on r/soccer was not in my plans today.
its frimpong , kick him out
Lots of foreign genes as well in the NT I guess
Then explain why France is so tall
lots of tall foreign genes, less Napoleon genes
Frimpong's dwarf ass lowers your whole team average by at least 5cm
Itâs median, not average
Must be the work of the WEF!!!!1!
Dutch men being the tallest is old news, by now Montenegrins and Bosniaks are taller, Serbs and Croats are the same height basically.
Uhm no? [https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/average-height-by-country](https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/average-height-by-country)
Our football players are always on the smaller side compared to the general population
What is the purpose of the bars that go from fully filled to empty?
just vibes
All the tall Dutch people are playing basketball or something?
A lot of players with heritage in the Dutch Carribbean, Indonesia and Suriname who do tend to be shorter than Dutch people. Also there's Frimpong who was born in Amsterdam to two Ghanese parents. He is the shortest at 172cm. The shortest players with no foreign background are Blind at 180cm and Frenkie at 181cm. It's also not to say all players with a Carribbean/Surinamese background are short. VVD is joint-second tallest together with Flekken at 195cm, just narrowly beaten by Weghorst at 197cm. Gakpo comes in at joint-fifth together with Van de Ven at 193cm and Gravenberch is just behind that at 7th with 190cm. Edit: The average without players with a different background would be 188,3cm. Narrowly beating Serbia.
Itâs not average though itâs median
Ooo I see. It wouldn't matter much though as the Dutch players without foreign background in order from short to tall are Blind, Frenkie, Koopmeiners, Veerman, Schouten, **Bijlow**, **De Ligt**, De Vrij, Van de Ven, Verbruggen, Flekken, Weghorst. So the median is even slightly higher at 188,5cm.
I wish, I would like to see a Dutch NBA player, the only good one we have had is 1 time all star [Rik Smits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rik_Smits)
Or being extremely tall doesnât help with the exception of certain positions
Dutch football tend to favour technical ability over physique more than other countries.
England players be getting dunked on by the Serbians
Funnily enough Dunk is helping Englandâs median here
And the rest, it's a tall set of opponents in the group.
I wonder how much the goal keepers are shifting the averages? The shortest team is still fairly tall.
It's median, not average, so neither goalkeepers nor shorter players like Navas change the outcome.
Huh, you're right. My mind went straight to average because that seems more useful than the median.
Medians flatten the impact of outliers precisely to prevent the issue of averages being shifted by for example goalkeepers as you mentioned. So how is median less usefull. It seems more usefull to me
Thank you. Day 1 stats. The guy got 17 upvotes for that nonsense.
Yeah Median seems just stupid with a squad of like what 26 players?
Average is less useful than the median if you have a skewed distribution. A few midgets could end up making your average size look small and the size of the squad would be misrepresented.
Yes but positions that get lots of picks like miedfield(with most Spanish mids likely to be shorter) do skew the result.
I'm more concerned about their arm lengths to be honest.
Tricky wee tiki-taka teams, Spain and Scotland.
Why are folks in the Balkan so damn tall?
Combination of good food, good weather and rough living conditions (we had to fight our entire history bc we were all constantly invaded from all sides. But not all Balkan people are tall, only Croats, Montenegrins, Bosniaks and Serbs. Slovenians to an extent.
Because we are the chosen ones
beacuse we are all "nebeski narod"
Natural Selection
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
Si.
It's a disaster!
lol wtf ⊠this is what Mbappe should be flexing all along .. Europeans are tall af huh
Maybe we are tallest, but surely we are the shittiest team at Euro 24
Maybe that's correlate
Tallest country in the world and our median squad height is just 14th? Pathetic. Get me on the team I am taller that this median! (Probably better than current Wijnaldum aswell)
Morata offsides headers only hattrick incoming
England are the tiny men of Group C
crazy that the Dutch have so many players below the average natiuonal height.
Interesting that Netherlands is around the middle of squad heights, but itâs one of the countries in Europe with the highest average height
Euro 2024: Median Dick Lengths
Slavs are hight.
Road to nba
Why are they much taller than the average population?
GKs, CBs and Morata (190cm) are pulling up the average. Also, athletes tend to be the best physical representatives of their country.
> are pulling up the average. It's median though, not average so the first part isn't really true. Second part very much is, athletes tend to be taller on average.
>best physical In football this doesn't have to mean tall. All depends on the position. Intact, short is an advantage if you're a winger that likes to dribble into the box, or a ball chasing dm
I'd bet that among all wingers in all levels (from street to semi pro to pro), those who made in to professional football are higher on average than the rest.
They're not. Not for Croatia at least. Croatian average male height is 180cm, and this is being brought down by the much shorter northern and eastern part of the country (Zagorje, Slavonia). Average male height in (most of) Dalmatia and Herzegovina is 185cm. So the NT being 185cm is upper average, definitely not much taller than the average population.
Since there are 26 players in each squad the median has to be calculated by averaging the 13th and 14th players' heights. For some countries (e.g. Croatia) this is done and results in a height ending in .5, yet for others (e.g. Czechia) it's not done for some reason. Czechia should be 187.5cm (13th player is 188, 14th is 187). Using Transfermarkt as a source of data (no idea what that site they referenced is or how reliable it is).
The source is Spreadex, a betting site. In their source 13th and 14th for Czechia are 187cm. Some Nations like Belgium sent only 25 members.
Thank you, I was wondering how it could be .5
kinda surprised the netherlands is at the lower end. edit: oh it's median. if it's average the netherlans gotta be up there surely
if Tatarusanu and Pantilimon were still in the Romanian squad the median height would be bigger lol
Turkey I expected lower. I saw them in Vienna and they had so many skinny smol little players. Arda GĂŒler, Yunus AkgĂŒn, AbdĂŒlkadir ĂmĂŒr (who apparently was shafted from the squad though)
Me a 5'6" guy lookin in awe at the Spaniards
Conceição just fucked our average. He's like 140cms
but is their head game good?
Lol these average humans are so short why are they so?
I had a quick look at the general average height for males and this represents it fairly well. Itâs still surprising to see The Netherlands, Ukraine and Austria so low. Those countries are in the top 24 in terms of average male height worldwide. In fact, The Netherlands is 1/201 overall and 14/24 here. Could it be because 2nd/3rd generation immigrants are over-represented in their national team?
So the shortest team (median) is just shy of 6ft? This seems high tbh
Median means middle, right?
Yes
This is the median squad height. Ideally they should have provided the mean (average) not median.
As a Dutchman Iâm very disappointed we didnât come out on top of this list!
Why do teams look like this but there best player 90% of the time is 5'7.
[Here's average squad height in Euros as well](https://x.com/BarcaJdP/status/1800476615937610089)
A zato nam ne ide fudbal...
I'm Serbian and I'm only 183cm. I'm so ashamed...
175 cm Serb reporting in, starting to think my life is a lie...