When do players really peak?

There is a huge debate surrounding about when players reach their peak. Most people believe that a player reaches their peak at around the age of 26 to about 28. There is a lot of evidence to back this up, Messi, Ronaldo and Suarez arguably the best players in the world are all around that age.

You can’t really argue with that but what about all the other data? Paul Pogba(21), Eden Hazard(23), Raheem Sterling(19), Romelu Lukaku(21), Koke(22), Philippe Coutinho(22) and James Rodriguez(23) all well below the so called ‘peak age’ had outstanding seasons for either club or country and for some both. You might say some of these players haven’t proven themselves yet over a few seasons. To that I will say: Toni Kroos(24), Mario Gotze(22), Marco Reus(25), Thomas Muller(24) and Gareth Bale(24). All proven players some who have just won the world cup, in particular Gotze scoring the winning goal.

Now you might even say that these players are still young so it is easy to perform at the highest level as compared to someone who is 27 and been playing for a number of years. Then you would have to look at Phillip Lahm(30), Steven Gerrard(34), Andrea Pirlo(35) and Gigi Buffon(36) who all competed at the recent world cup, Lahm captaining the winning Germany. If you’re still not convinced I would just like to point you to a one Miroslav Klose who at the age of 36 became the all time record goal scorer in world cups.

So if the sentiment is true that a player only reaches their peak at around 27, then the world better be ready for a wave of world class players in about 5 years.