Special Report
I have two friends who were released by Premier League football clubs at the age of 14. They are both adamant the decision to let them go was made because, at the time, they were not tall enough. In light of this, I did some research into the subject.
Lionel Messi has broken records left, right and centre this year. After the five-foot-five Argentinean became the only individual other than Michel Platini to be crowned FIFA Ballon d’Or for three consecutive years, he became the first ever to score five goals in a Champions League game.
Then, with his eighth hat trick in six months, the 24-year-old became Barcelona’s all-time record goalscorer by surpassing Cesar Rodriguez’s total of 232.
In his Sun newspaper column in May last year, Harry Redknapp remarked of Messi: “If he turned up at your club as a 16-year-old, you’d send him away with a pat on the head and tell him he’d no chance of making it.”
I spoke to former Arsenal and England winger Graham Rix, who is now a coach at the Glenn Hoddle Academy, and he agreed that English clubs are too quick to dismiss players based on size.
He told me: “We judge people so harshly on whether they’re going to be big enough and strong enough. We don’t really give them time to develop.”
Rix also sung the praises of the Spanish youth system and he thinks English clubs could learn a lot from them.
“When I watch the Spanish players, whether it’s a centre half or a midfield player, they all manipulate the ball properly, put it in the right spot and use both feet,” he explained.
“These things are what I consider the basics, but I am not sure that we are making them a priority in our game.”
In light of my discussion with Rix, I did some extensive research to find out the average heights of the teams involved in this summer’s European Championships in Poland and the Ukraine.
I wanted to see how England and Spain measured up in terms of height, but also in comparison the the rest of Europe’s elite.
The results are based the matchday squads that each nation summited for their last competitive fixture.
In General
Unsurprising, however nevertheless impressive, is that reigning World and European champions Spain are the shortest of the 16 qualifiers. With a mean height of just 179.28cm, Vicente del Bosque’s side are 2.91cm per player shorter than the average Euro 2012 entrant (182.19cm).
Only five nations – Sweden, Germany, Ukraine, Croatia and Denmark – had squads that average over 6 feet (182.88cm) per player, while England and Ireland are joint-ninth tallest, both measuring 181.67cm per player.
Defences
Despite being 2.39cm per player taller than Spain, England are marginally shorter than them in terms of their central defenders. John Terry, Gary Cahill, Phil Jones and Phil Jagielka have an average height of 185.25cm, which is the second-shortest of all 16 teams’ central defensive options.
Only four of the 54 probable Euro 2012 centre-backs which I sampled are under six feet tall. They are:-
- Theodor Gebre Selassie, Czech Rep – 182cm
- Carles Puyol, Spain – 178cm
- Yaroslav Rakitskiy, Ukraine – 180cm
- Vitaliy Mandziuk, Ukraine – 180cm
Goalkeepers
The average height of the goalkeepers sampled was 189.16cm (6ft 2.47in). Swansea City and Holland stopper Michel Vorm (181cm [5ft 11.25in]) is the only goalkeeper under 6 feet likely to participate at Euro 2012. The tallest is Sweden’s Andreas Isaksson (199cm [6ft 6.34in]).
I have selected two dream Euro 2012 XIs. One consisting solely of players under 6 feet (182.88cm) tall and the other of players over 6 feet.
(Height in cm)
Tall XI (left): Neuer; Cassani, Kaboul, Pique, Chiellini; Van Bommel, Aquilani, Busquets; Van Persie, Gomez, Ronaldo.
Short XI (right): Vorm; Lahm, Puyol, Rakitskiy, Evra; Parker, Xavi, Ozil; Silva, Villa, Nani.
Pie at Half Time 