The Euro 2008 Elderly Eleven

As Euro 2008 approaches, we of course will be joining the long and storied tradition of making up somewhat silly hypothetical starting elevens. After all, imagining up your own impossible rosters is an important quality of every good beer-soaked football conversation, and what better time than a major tournament to get your fill of those? Here are the oldest players at Euro 2008, by position. I decided to limit myself to a 4-4-2, rather than get tricky. A 4-5-1 seemed too conservative, considering all the great attacking players available, and a 4-3-3 or more attacking formation would leave the old boys a bit exposed at the back. Here goes.

Keeper:
Jens Lehmann (38) - Germany

Defenders:
Lilian Thuram (36) - France
Martin Hiden (35) - Austria
Jacek Bąk (35) - Poland
Christian Panucci (35) - Italy

Midfielders
Ivica Vastić (38) - Austria
Niclas Alexandersson (36) - Sweden
Niko Kovač (36) - Croatia
Tomáš Galásek (35) - Czech Republic

Forwards
Henrik Larsson (36) - Sweden
Jan Koller (35) - Czech Republic

A few surprises on the list. First, and I think foremost, there’s really only one Italian defender? As it turns out, Materazzi and Cannavaro just barely miss out on the cut. There are two representatives each from Austria, the Czech Republic, and Sweden. The “golden walker” for oldest player on the current Euro 2008 rosters goes to Austria’s Ivica Vastić, who came into this world a few months before Jens Lehmann. Those most experienced, though, in terms of caps, is Thuram, with an unbelievable 139 appearances. I’m not sure how long this starting eleven would last … a manager would certainly have to use his bench … but who wouldn’t want Thuram and Panucci in the back, and Larsson and Koller up top? In total, the eleven players above have 855 international appearances. It would keep the team physios busy, but there’s still a lot of quality left in some of these old boys.