It has been clear for some time that Cercle Brugge play with the youngest team every week. With an average age of 23.5 years, Groen-Zwart is on average 0.9 years younger than RSC Anderlecht and one year younger than Charleroi this season. This is a strong statistic, especially if you look at it on the European level: behind only Red Bull Salzburg (Austria) and Vitesse (Netherlands), Cercle is the third youngest team in Europe.
Cercle remains the youngest
In fact, during the recent match between Cercle and Union, our Groen-Zwart lowered the average age even more. Coach Miron Muslic's starting eleven averaged just 22.8 years old, the youngest starting eleven so far this season. When it comes to playing minutes that Cercle have given to players under the age of 24, Groen-Zwart is even at the top.
But Cercle also scores well in terms of playing minutes for academy-trained players such as Somers, Vanhoutte, Deman and Decostere. According to a study by CIES Football Observatory, Cercle rank fourth team in Belgium after Anderlecht, Genk and Standard in offering the most playing minutes to its own youth players.
