Blog > News & Trivia

The 10 Oldest Premier League Players of All Time

29 Apr, 2025
The 10 Oldest Premier League Players of All Time

For many people, the Premier League represents the physical pinnacle of football. Not only is the standard of play in England's top tier extremely high, the level of fitness, stamina, speed and strength required to operate effectively in this division arguably outstrips any other domestic league.

Numerous top players from Europe and South America have moved to Premier League sides and initially struggled to cope with the physical demands of the competition. Meanwhile, coaches like Jurgen Klopp and Marcelo Bielsa have had success in the English top flight using intense, high-pressing strategies that require huge amounts of running from players all over the pitch.

Given this backdrop, you may be surprised to learn that the Premier League has played host to a number of older players, pros who have continued playing long past their prime and got high-level gametime into their forties.

It takes a huge amount of dedication to the sport to continue playing at this age, and in this article we'll be focusing on some of the pros who have shown that commitment and stretched their careers out as long as possible. 

Who Is The Oldest Player In The Premier League 2024/25?

No two professional players are the same, and there's plenty of variation in terms of when people hit their physical peak and how long they can maintain that level. As a result, some players may be able to continue playing until their late 30s and beyond, while others will call it quits in their late 20s (particularly if they suffer persistent injuries). 

That being said, there is a typical cut-off point in the game, with most male professional football players retiring between the ages of 34 and 36, and most female players retiring between 32 and 34.

This may increase as time goes on, as in recent years there has been a steady increase in typical retirement ages for soccer players, due to improvements in sports science, fitness and nutrition knowledge and application within the game.

But still, some players take it to the extreme, with multiple Premier League stars still making a significant impact on the pitch despite being in their late 30s.

A current example would be the versatile Everton defender and midfielder Ashley Young, who at the age of 39 is the oldest football player still playing Premier League football in 2024/25.

The former Manchester United, Aston Villa, Inter Milan and Watford star (who earned a total of 39 caps for England) has had an impressive career and will end the 2024/25 campaign just two months before his 40th birthday. But who is the oldest Premier League player of all time, and how does Ashley Young rank amongst the league's all-time oldest pros?

The 10 Oldest Premier League Players Of All Time

Some extremely well-known footballers have plied their trade in the EPL at the age of 40+, although some of the names challenging for the status of oldest player in Premier League history may be unfamiliar to younger readers. If you think Young's longevity is remarkable, wait until you see the age some of these pros played until.

#10. Edwin van der Sar (40 years, 205 days)

Legendary Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar ended his Manchester United career in the best possible way, lifting the Premier League trophy for the fourth time after a final-day victory over a Blackpool side heading for relegation.

This was at the end of the 2010/11 season, when the shot-stopper hung up his boots having made a significant impact on the English top flight under Sir Alex Ferguson.

#9. Teddy Sheringham (40 years, 272 days)

Very few outfield players continue playing past the age of 40, which is what makes Teddy Sheringham's career so extraordinary. The highly-decorated former Manchester United striker played professionally until the age of 42, turning out for Colchester United in the Championship in 2008 nearly 25 years after his 1983 debut for Millwall.

Sheringham's final Premier League appearance came over a year earlier that Colchester match, when he played for West Ham United in a loss at Old Trafford, just days after he became the Premier League's oldest ever goalscorer. These late-career feats were extremely impressive, although to this day the Englishman is remembered best for his crucial goal in the 1999 Champions League final.

#8. Jens Lehmann (41 years, 151 days)

The departure of legendary goalkeeper David Seaman from Arsenal in 2003 was a real blow for Gunners fans, but in Jens Lehmann they gained a fantastic replacement. The German played an integral role in Arsenal's historic 2003/04 'Invincibles' campaign, playing in all 38 league games and going on to register 200 appearances for the North London club.

That final appearance came after Lehmann was brought back to the Emirates from Stuttgart due to a goalkeeping injury crisis. He featured in a 3-1 win over Blackpool in April 2011 and in doing so became Arsenal's oldest ever player, and one of the Premier League's oldest players ever too.

#7. Kevin Poole (41 years, 164 days)

Many readers will be unfamiliar with the career of Kevin Poole, who didn't make a Premier League appearance for almost three years before Bolton Wanderers called on his services in 2005, in the absence of first-team shot-stopper Jussi Jääskeläinen. The match finished 1-1 and back-up keeper Poole never played for Bolton again, despite doing enough to earn his team a valuable PL point. Regardless, his name remains in the history books due to the grand old age he played at.

#6. Neville Southall (41 years, 178 days)

A true legend of the English top flight, Neville Southall played 750 games for Everton between 1981 and 1998, contributing to two First Division title triumphs and a European Cup Winners' Cup victory in the 1980s before establishing the Toffees as one of the Premier League's foremost clubs in the 1990s.

The Welsh goalkeeper was known for his big, intimidating presence and excellent shot-stopping skills, and he continued showcasing those skills in the top flight well past his 41st birthday.

#5. Mark Schwarzer (42 years, 159 days)

An Australian soccer icon who played in England for the majority of his career, Mark Schwarzer racked up hundreds of top-flight appearances for clubs like Middlesbrough, Fulham, and Chelsea. To date, he is the only non-Briton to have played more than 500 Premier League matches, and his last game came for Leicester City in March 2015, when the Foxes were fighting for their lives at the bottom of the Premier League. Incredibly, after scraping survival, they would go on to win the league title the following season, with Schwarzer as backup goalkeeper.

#4. Brad Friedel (42 years, 176 days)

Another tall, physical, imposing goalkeeper that continued making a mark on the Premier League in their 40s was USMNT international Brad Friedel, whose final league match in England came in 2013 for Tottenham Hotspur. By this point, Friedel had played 450 EPL games and held the record for the most consecutive PL games ever played, with the American making an incredible 310 consecutive appearances across a total of nine season for Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa, and Spurs.

#3. Steve Ogrizovic (42 years, 237 days)

Steve Ogrizovic's pomp came a little earlier than Friedel's, with the Coventry City icon making over 600 appearances for the Midlands club in the 1990s before turning out in the Premier League for the final time in May 2000.

Known affectionately as 'Oggy', Ogrizovic's career spanned a period of huge change in English football, which included the creation of the Premier League; in this time, his presence between the sticks for the Sky Blues was a constant.

#2. Alec Chamberlain (42 years, 327 days)

Alec Chamberlain was pushing 43 when he played his final Premier League fixture, an emotional final-day send-off against Newcastle United in May 2007. The Watford legend had racked up nearly 250 appearances for the Hertfordshire club by this point, playing a key role in their 2005/06 Championship promotion campaign but ultimately failing to keep them in the top flight the following season. He retired straight after this game aged 42 years and 327 days old, making him the second oldest Premier League player of all time.

#1. John Burridge (43 years, 162 days)

Chamberlain was pipped to the post by a goalkeeper who made his final PL appearance almost a decade earlier: John Burridge. Incredibly, Burridge made his professional debut in 1969 (just three years after England's one and only World Cup win), and yet in 1995 he was still playing, albeit as a so-called 'gun for hire' with tons of top-flight experience to call on.

He played for a whopping 29 clubs including Blackpool, Sheffield United, Newcastle United and Southampton, making his final top-flight appearance for Manchester City after being drafted in during a goalkeeping injury crisis. Burridge eventually retired after spending a couple of years drifting around the non-league system; his incredible longevity shows a commitment to the game that is very hard to come by, and he remains the oldest player in Premier League history.

Why do goalkeepers play longer?

You probably will have noticed that nine of the ten players in the list above are goalkeepers, with Teddy Sheringham the only outlier. That's not a coincidence; generally speaking, goalkeepers can extend their careers longer for a multitude of reasons, including a delayed start to their career (with teenage goalkeepers unlikely to be trusted to make regular appearances), a reduced physical burden (due to a lack of intense, sustained running) and a greater premium placed on playing experience and knowhow (which goes a long way when you're between the sticks).

If you want to find out more about this position on the football field, and why goalkeepers often end up enjoying longer careers than outfield players, check out our in-depth guide to the role of the goalkeeper. 

 

Related Articles

Article 1

What Age Do Soccer Players Usually Retire? (And 5 Reasons Why)

Article 2

Who Has The Most Clean Sheets In Premier League History?