Experience is a degree and LaLiga EA Sports is the best example. Last season, coaches who were over 60 years old were synonymous with success. ANDn these times in which ex-players who become coaches are close to 40 years old, sixty-year-olds will account for 30 percent of the benches in the highest category. The last to join was Rafa Benítez, who will lead Celta. In the highest category of Spanish football, five other coaches await him from his ‘decade’: Ancelotti (64), Aguirre (64), Setién (64), Pellegrini (69) and Mendilibar (62).
Beyond the date of birth, another striking fact of the good moment of the most veteran coaches is the leaderboard. Of the eight teams that will play in Europe next season, half, that is, four, are led by coaches who have exceeded this age barrier: Real Madrid, Villarreal, Betis and Sevilla..
The figure will reach five taking into account that Athletic has managed to qualify after the exclusion of Osasuna, as long as the Bilbao team manages to reach the knockout phase that begins in February. The coach of the Lezama team, Ernesto Valverde, will turn sixty on February 9, 2024. Bordalás, Getafe coach, turns sixty on March 6, 2024. If both finish the season, the sixty-year-olds will occupy eight of the 20 benches, 40 percent. The same number of benches that those under 50 have.
This next season LaLiga EA Sports will be the one that bets the most on veteran coaches. Of the five major European leagues, the closest is the Italian one, which will have four sixty-year-olds, including Mourinho, on the bench. As with the Spanish competition, most veteran coaches have managed to qualify their teams in European competition. The Premier League only has two, the same as the French Ligue 1. In France, they could end the year with three sixty-year-olds if Gastien, from Clermont, remains in office until January. However, in both the English Premier and the highest French competition, being a veteran coach is not a guarantee of playing in continental competitions. None of the sixty-year-old coaches, in these two competitions, will be in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference. The Bundesliga is not a competition for ‘old men’, at least on the benches. No coach next season is over sixty years old.