10 oldest players in the Premier League right now | OneFootball

One of the most common things that is said about the Premier League is that it is the most physically demanding league in the world. Despite past comments by Chelsea manager, and former Paris Saint-Germain boss, Mauricio Pochettino claiming that France's top league (Ligue 1) was "the most physical league in the world," as per the Daily Mail, the top flight of English football is the toughest on players' bodies. According to AnalyticsFC, this statement is true due to the running loads and volume of high-intensity activities that are carried out by players in the league.

The Premier League also suffers more injuries than any of the other top leagues on the continent. ESPN reported there were 1,231 separate injuries in the league in the 2021/22 season; the next closest was Germany's top division (Bundesliga) with 1,205. Of course, technology and recovery practices have improved so much from what was being done 10 to 20 years ago.

The players on this list may seem old at first, especially to be playing in the most physically demanding league in the world, but they don't get close to being the oldest players to ever play in England's best soccer division. At a staggering 43 years old, goalkeeper John Burridge is the oldest player to ever play in the Premier League. He was between the posts for Manchester City in their 3-2 loss to Queens Park Rangers, back in May 1995.

Most of the top 10 oldest players to ever play in a Premier League match are goalkeepers; in fact, former England striker Teddy Sheringham is the only player in said top 10 to have not earned a living from trying to stop balls hitting the back of a net. His job was the opposite. He was 40 years old when he played in his final top-flight fixture, in England. Not only does he make that prestigious list, but, as per The Analyst, he's also the fourth oldest and oldest Englishman, to score in the Champions League final. His goal in the 1999 final brought them level with Bayern Munich, only for Ole Gunnar Solskjær to win the game in the dying embers of the match, sealing the treble (winning the Champions League, Premier League, and FA Cup) for the Red Devils.

In contrast to the oldest Premier League players of all time list, the current oldies of the league list only features one keeper in its top 10. When you couple that with the physical demands that the players need to meet nowadays to be able to play in the Prem, it makes the fact that they're still playing at this age all the more impressive.

10 Chris Basham - 35 years old

The Sheffield United defender has been with the club during their two most recent stints in the Premier League. Basham joined the club as a free agent in 2014 and has been with them since. He started out with Bolton Wanderers' academy, he eventually joined the Blaydes eight years into his professional career. Throughout the near decade that he has spent with the club, he's played for United in three of the four professional football leagues in England. He and the team were down in the third tier of English football as little time ago as the 2016/17 season. Three years later, they were in the Premier League.

9 Willian - 35 years old

The Brazilian winger has had a long career in the Premier League. The first team that he was supposed to play for, in the top division of English soccer was Tottenham Hotspur. They were supposed to be getting their hands on the exciting South American winger, according to The Guardian, before an intervention from his agent, as the player told the Daily Mail, and a hijack by Chelsea put a stop to that, and he ended up on the blue side of London. He would spend the rest of his Premier League career in the English capital, but he never once made the move to Tottenham. He instead joined Arsenal in 2020, went back to play in his home country for a year, and then joined Fulham in the 2022 summer.

8 Angelo Ogbonna - 35 years old

Ogbonna is one of two West Ham players to feature on this list. The Hammers have the second-oldest squad by average age in the entire Premier League at 28.8 years old, according to Four Four Two, with only Willian's team Fulham being older (29.28). It may come as a surprise to some that Ogbonna has been with West Ham for over eight years now. The Italian defender first made his name with a giant team in his homeland: Juventus. But his time in East London has also brought him a lot of success, including a Europa Conference League medal in the 2022/23 season.

7 Adam Lallana - 35 years old

Like West Ham and Fulham, Brighton & Hove Albion have two players on this list of soccer oldies. They have the 14th oldest squad in the Premier League, according to Four Four Two. Lallana takes their average age up quite a lot, but even the few goals that he has scored in a blue-and-white striped shirt make up for it. He joined Brighton from Liverpool in 2020, after winning the Premier League with the Reds. He's found the back of the net on 33 occasions in the Premier League, and he's assisted others in doing so 32 times. Lallana played his first game in said league over 10 years ago, but he has only managed 276 appearances in that time.

6 Jonny Evans - 35 years old

The Northern Irish central defender made an unlikely return to the Premier League, in the 2023/24 campaign. He'd just been relegated with former Premier League title winners Leicester City, and his days in England's top division seemed over. But he re-joined Manchester United; the team that he'd left nearly 15 years ago. That previous tenure at Man United brought him lots of success. He lifted the Premier League three times, the Champions League once, and the English League Cup twice. But his stats and achievements aren't just limited to his time in Manchester. He won the FA Cup with Leicester in 2021.

5 Tim Ream - 36 years old

Here's yet another Fulham player, although it shouldn't be much of a surprise given that they have the oldest squad in the league, by average age. Former goalkeeper of the Cottagers, Mark Schwarzer, is the fifth-oldest player to ever make a Premier League appearance, as per The Analyst.

Ream is the only American-born player to be on this list of the current oldest players in the Prem. His compatriot, Brad Friedel, is fourth on the list of oldest players of all time to feature in an English top-flight fixture, as per The Analyst. Ream has been with Fulham for nearly a decade. He joined the Cottagers in 2015 and has helped the club win promotion to the Premier League on three separate occasions.

4 James Milner - 37 years old

He made his debut for the club in the FA Cup in the 2002/03 campaign, and he's still playing today. In that year, Arsenal had their invincible season where they went undefeated for an entire league campaign. Most of the players from that team are now either coaches or pundits and yet Milner is still playing. His fitness is a testament to his longevity. Andy Robertson, a Scottish international and former teammate of Milner's at Liverpool, said, to the Liverpool Echo: "I don’t think I’ll ever see anyone as fit as him." The midfielder, who sits third in the Premier League for all-time appearances, once ran 8.5kms in 34 minutes, at an average pace of just under four minutes per kilometre.

3 Ashley Young - 38 years old

The Everton full-back has spent most of his career playing for one or another of the 20 best football teams in England, but not all of his career has been in England's toughest domestic competition. For two seasons - 2019/20 and 2020/21 - he played for Inter Milan, one of the biggest teams in Italy. His time on the continent was short-lived though, and he returned to Villa for the 2021/22 campaign. From his debut in the early 2000s to now, he's played 541 of his nearly 700 career matches in the Premier League. He's also achieved 104 clean sheets in his English first-division career, and 57 of his 85 career goals came in the top flight of English football.

2 Lukasz Fabianksi - 38 years old

The 38-year-old won his first-ever European trophy in 2023 when West Ham lifted the UEFA Conference League title. It was also the first in the club's history. He is one of the more short-tenured players on this list, having only been with the Hammers for half a decade. He played for Arsenal, and then Swansea City, before returning to London. Fabianski has 92 Premier League clean sheets to his name througout his time in England's first division. Not only has he had success at club level, but the Polish goalkeeper has also been voted as his country's Player of the Year in 2019.

1 Thiago Silva - 39 years old

The 39-year-old is the oldest active player in the Premier League. When he arrived in London, in August 2020, he'd have been old enough to make this list then. The Chelsea defender is yet to win any domestic trophies with the London-based club, but he won the Champions League with the residents of Stamford Bridge in May 2021. Outside the Premier League, he won seven league titles in France, with PSG and one in Italy, with AC Milan. The Brazilian international has kept 29 clean sheets in 97 league games with Chelsea, and has scored 11 goals since making the move to England.