Oldest Premier League Players of 2022

The English Premier League is without a doubt one of the most competitive football leagues out there. It is known for its intensive physicality as well as the fast-paced action that happens in most of its matches which makes the competition anything but boring. Naturally, when we talk about all these qualities, our mind immediately goes to young players who can handle such an intensive competition but that is not always the case when it comes to the Premier League.

Since its inception in 1992, the competition has been filled with experienced players every year that could very well pull their weight against young players in this intensive league and this year has been no different. In fact, some of the Premier League’s best players are now among the

oldest Premier League players of 2022

. So, let’s take a closer look at these players and see how they managed to stay in such a good shape after all these years of playing professionally.

Oldest Players in Premier League

It is common for goalkeepers to have a longer career than outfield players since they get their start much later than outfield players but surprisingly more than half of the oldest players in Premier League are outfield players and almost all of them play regularly for their respective teams. Let’s find out who they are:

10. Kasper Schmeichel (Leicester City, Denmark)

First up on our list of

10 oldest Premier League players

is the son of former Manchester United and Premier League legend, Kasper Schmeichel, who much like his father, Peter, is a Premier League champion and Denmark international. Kasper’s long career started at his father’s last club, Manchester City, where he was an academy player at. He ended up going on several loan spells between 2005 and 2009 when he was a Manchester City player, all of which was within English football.

Kasper Schmeichel was somewhat of a late bloomer since his loan spells at Darlington, Bury, Falkirk, Cardiff City and Coventry City did not convince Manchester City owners and managers to bring him back to the club. So, he left them in 2009 after only making 8 senior appearances for the club to join Notts County. After winning the League Two title with Notts County on his debut season he was released by the club for financial reasons which was followed by him joining Leeds United where he had yet another successful season.

Following his season at Leeds, Schmeichel joined Leicester City, a club he is now the captain of, and it was there that his fortunes turned around. Leicester City began building a young team with smart recruitment policies in order to get back to the Premier League, a feat they achieved in 2014 in large parts due to Schmeichel’s influence and after a narrow escape from relegation in their first season back at the EPL, Schmeichel rallied Leicester to the title, making the Foxes the champions of the Premier League which is now remembered as being the ultimate rags to riches story in sports.

Schmeichel’s influence on

’s success, both as a performer and a leader, has been undeniable as the Dane has been one of the best goalkeepers in Europe since Leicester got back to the Premier League. He has since led the Foxes to their first FA Cup title and has been brilliant for Denmark in major tournaments. At 35 years 04 months 28 days, Kasper Schmeichel is one of the oldest Premier League players of 2022 and yet he is one of the best goalkeepers in the league!

9. Joao Moutinho (Wolverhampton Wanderers, Portugal)

One of the

oldest players in Premier League currently

is Wolverhampton and Portugal’s Joao Moutinho who if you don’t know exactly how old he is, you wouldn’t at all guess that he is past 30 since the Portuguese international is so hard-working and such a dedicated fighter in Wolverhampton’s midfield against the much physically bigger opponents he regularly faces in the Premier League, especially in midfield.

Joao Moutinho started his career at Sporting’s youth academy and went on to play for the Portuguese giants for 6 seasons between 2004 and 2010 before joining their rivals Porto where he stayed at for 3 seasons. Moutinho won a total 12 trophies with Porto and Sporting before moving to Ligue 1 and

. At Monaco, he became an important figure in a team that consisted of youngsters like James Rodriguez and later, Kylian Mbappe, Thomas Lemar and Bernardo Silva, which culminated winning the 2016-17

title.

Moutinho’s new footballing chapter began when he joined

in 2018, a team full of Portuguese talent as well as having a Portuguese manager. Moutinho won the Wolves’ Player of the Season on his debut season and has since become an integral part of the team both as a leader and as a player. His partnership with Ruben Neves in the middle of the park is one of the best midfield partnerships around Europe in terms of how they manage to shield Wolves’ backline, resulting in Wolves having one of the best defensive records in the Premier League in the past couple of seasons.

At 35 years 06 months 25 days, Moutinho doesn’t seem like slowing down anytime soon as he is still starting regularly and at such a high level for a side that emphasizes playing with high intensity. He is also the second most capped Portugal international ever behind Ronaldo with 144 caps and barring any major injuries will represent his country in the next World Cup.

8. James Milner (Liverpool, England)

The year was 2002 and Wayne Rooney had just scored a banger against Arsenal to become the youngest Premier League goalscorer of all time. A week later and there comes this Leeds youngster by the name of James Milner who breaks Rooney’s record and has his name written in history before he even turns 17 as one of the top

youngsters in the Premier League

.

Even though the two had similar starts, Wayne Rooney and Milner’s paths to success couldn’t be more different as the latter would become one of the best players in the world early on and would be playing outside the Premier League after being 33 whereas Milner experienced most of his success in the latter part of his career, especially after turning 30. Perhaps what makes Milner such a resilient player is his attitude towards playing in any role that is given to him by the manager, which makes him a valuable asset to any manager.

After spending his first two seasons of senior football at Leeds, Milner joined

in 2004 when Leeds United were relegated and went on to play for the Toons for 5 seasons before joining Aston Villa, first on loan and then years later on a permanent deal in 2008. At Aston Villa he performed brilliantly, particularly in the 2009-10 season where he was selected in the Team of the Season which brought in the attention of Manchester City who were gearing up for a title challenge. Milner was able to help the Cityzens win 2 Premier League titles, an FA Cup and a League cup in the 5 seasons he stayed at the club.

The latest and perhaps the last chapter of James Milner’s career as a footballer has been at Liverpool since 2015. The Premier League veteran has helped make

one of the best teams in Europe ever since he has arrived and has won a Premier League and Champions League title with the Reds. At 36 years 02 months 29 days and as one of the oldest Premier League players of 2022, Milner is still an integral part of Klopp’s plans for Liverpool and is a utility player that could help Liverpool whenever and wherever he is wanted!

7. Ashley Young (Aston Villa, England)

A true Premier League veteran and one of the oldest players in Premier League currently, Ashley Young is the next player on our list. The Aston Villa and Manchester United legend has won nearly everything there is in the European football and still has a lot to give at the highest level of European football. Young is currently spending his 16th season in the Premier League, on the back of a career renaissance that saw Young become only the 3rd Englishman in history to win the Serie A title, after he did so last season at Inter Milan.

But let’s first go back to the beginning of his career where he started as a Watford academy player. He then moved on to the first team and helped the club reach the Premier League during the 2005-06 season as a 20-year-old. After a season at the Premier League, young moved to Aston Villa where he established himself as one of the best youngsters in the Premier League, winning the PFA Young Player of the Year award during the 2008-09 season and attracting a lot of attention to himself as well as being called up to England’s senior side.

The next step in Young’s career came when he joined the Red Devils in 2011 and slowly and over time become one of their most important players as well as inheriting the captain’s armband at some point. Young spent 9 seasons at United, winning the Premier League, FA Cup and Europa League with them before leaving them to join Antonio Conte’s Inter Milan in 2019. with much of Conte’s style of management coming from utilizing the wing backs, a player as experienced as Young came extremely handy at Inter and therefore the Englishman massively helped in Inter’s resurgence as a Serie A giant.

After winning the scudetto with

during the 2020-21 season, Young decided to come back to Aston Villa where he had established himself as one of the best Premier League wingers a decade earlier. Since the start of the season young has appeared in 20 games for Villa as one of the

oldest Premier League players of 2022

and with the way he performs it is doubtful that he will retire anytime soon!

6. Fernandinho (Manchester City, Brazil)

Manchester City’s Fernandinho is possibly the most underrated player in the Premier League in the past decade. The Brazilian has been at the center of so much that is happening at Manchester City, even before Pep Guardiola came along, that it is just criminal to undermine his importance in Manchester City’s path to becoming a Premier League giant that they are today. And the beautiful thing is that he is still one of the best midfielders in the league even considering his limited playing time as well as him being one of the

oldest players in Premier League

.

Fernandinho has had somewhat of a strange career path. The Brazilian started his career at Atletico Paranaense in Brazil and moved to Europe by the time he was 20 in 2005. But instead of moving to a big European League like so many of his Brazilian peers, he opted to move to Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine and spent the next 8 years there before joining Manchester City in 2013. His versatility as a holding central midfielder who possesses both the technique to attack as well as the discipline and awareness to defend allowed him to play a number of roles both under Manuel Pellegrini and later Guardiola.

His importance in City’s squad became apparent especially during Guardiola’s reign as manager, since his teams fielded quite a lot of attacking players and Fernandinho’s job was to bring a defensive balance to that squad as well as often being the first point of build-up play. Perhaps if it was any other player in his place, City would’ve had a much harder time dominating the way they have in the past 5 years but with Fernandinho in their side, City was almost unbeatable.

Last season, Fernandinho lifted his 4th Premier League trophy but this time as a

captain. He has also won 6 League Cup trophies as well as an FA Cup and reached the Champions League final last season which they eventually lost to Chelsea. A loss that many contribute to his absence in the final. At 36 years 09 months 08 days Fernandinho is one of the oldest Premier League players of 2022 and it seems that Fernandinho’s career at Manchester City and possibly his professional career is coming to an end by the end of this season but what a glorious career it has.

5. Lukasz Fabianski (West Ham United, Poland)

The second goalkeeper on our list of 10 oldest Premier League players is the former Arsenal and current

keeper, Lukasz Fabianski. Despite being Polish, Lukasz Fabianski has spent almost the entirety of his career in the Premier League with Arsenal, Swansea City and now West Ham United with 15 of his 17 seasons of professional being in the Premier League. Fabianski is one of those late bloomers in terms of goalkeeping since he only got better as he became more experienced and now, he is one of the more reliable shot-stoppers in the Premier League.

But let’s go back to the start of his career where he made a name for himself first in Lech Poznan’s academy which prompted the Legia Warsaw to sign him when he was only 19. 2 seasons of senior football at Legia was enough to convince Arsene Wenger to sign Fabianski for Arsenal in the hopes of one day taking Almunia’s place in the first team and become a starter for Arsenal. Unfortunately for Fabianski that never materialized as his place in the squad was soon to be contested with another young Polish talent, Wojciech Szczęsny, who would also become his rival in the Polish national team.

Lack of playing time at

that saw Fabianski average less than 10 games a season in over 8 years at Arsenal, saw the Polish shot stopper move to Swansea City where he became a regular for the next 4 seasons before the club was relegated in 2018. He then joined West Ham and has been a regular with the Hammers ever since. Perhaps the best period of his career would be between 2017 and 2019 where he was voted consecutively to be the best Swansea and West Ham Player of the Season.

As one of the oldest Premier League players of 2022 with Fabianski turning 37 in a couple of weeks and him still being a regular starter without even showing hints of being past his best, it is safe to assume that he still has a couple of years at the top level. But even if he decides to retire tomorrow, his career would still be deemed successful.

4. Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, Portugal)

For someone to be on this list and to play regular football at this level, it is an achievement that not too many players can boast about. When that someone is Cristiano Ronaldo and he is this high on the list and is still dominating headlines with his performances and going toe to toe with even the best players in the league, is just mind boggling. It seems like that Cristiano’s hunger and desire as well as his physical ability to outperform everyone and leave records is unending which is exactly why he is considered to be the best ever by a lot of people.

The Portuguese megastar wanted a new challenge after spending 3 seasons with

and not winning the Champions League like he wanted to so what better club to come back to than his beloved Manchester United. Although things didn’t go exactly the way Ronaldo or United fans hoped it would with their manager Solskjaer being sacked halfway through the season and a lot of drama surrounding Mason Greenwood, Harry Maguire and Cristiano himself. But as always Ronaldo found a way to perform, at least as best as his surroundings allowed him to.

With 37 years 01 month 07 days of age, Ronaldo is one of the oldest players in the Premier League but his hunger and passion for the game as well as his insane goal return at this age shows youngsters in the Premier League what they must strife for which is part of the legacy that this legendary player is leaving behind.

3. Thiago Silva (Chelsea, Brazil)

Next up is the former

captain, Thiago Silva, who is spending his second season at Chelsea and Premier League and is one of the oldest players in Premier League currently. The Brazilian defender like a few other players on this list was a late bloomer as he didn’t really get to play European football until he was 25 when he joined AC Milan in 2009. From then on it was smooth sailing for Thiago Silva as he became one of the best defenders of the last decade.

A modern center back in every sense of the word, Thiago Silva is extremely versatile when it comes to defending. He is able to play a ball-playing center back, or provide cover for his more attacking partners in defense. His leadership qualities as well as his low rate of mistakes is what set Thiago Silva apart as one of the best defenders around Europe and it is precisely the reason why Chelsea signed him when he was 35.

At 37 years 06 months 11 days, Thiago Silva is well on his way to follow the likes of his mentor Paolo Maldini in terms of career longevity and he boasts of lifting the Champions League with Chelsea at 36. Whether he chooses to retire on a high note now or kick a ball for a few more years remains to be seen but in terms of silverware there are few who could top Silva on our list of oldest Premier League players of 2022.

2. Ben Foster (Watford, England)

In the penultimate place we have the Cycling GK himself, Ben Foster, who is now not only a Premier League veteran and one of the 10 oldest Premier League players but also a Youtuber as well whose’ great content over the past couple of years has brough a new popularity and a lot of attention to Foster’s career. A career which is the embodiment of a working-class goalkeeper, one that has worked his socks off, from playing in the lower leagues to slowly reaching the Premier League level.

Foster’s career started at Racing club Warwick where he was an academy player earlier. He then joined Stoke City but spent almost all of his time as a Stoke player on loan at lower league clubs. His last loan spell at Stoke was spent at Wrexham where he caught the eye of Manchester United scouts and transferred to United where he would spend the next 5 years, winning 2 Premier League titles.

Two Loans at Watford during his time at United followed by his time at Birmingham and West Brom, made Foster an experienced Premier League goalkeeper after which he again join

in 2018 where he is playing regular football right now.

An England international with 8 caps under his belt, Ben Foster was never the best that Premier League had to offer at any point of his career but he is the prime example of a player who has a workman-like mentality and everything that he is achieved by now is exactly because of that. This article about the oldest Premier League players of 2022 is quite fittingly being written on Foster’s 39th birthday!  

1. Willy Caballero (Southampton, Argentina)

And the last spot on our list of

oldest Premier League players of 2022

goes to Willy Caballero. The Argentine goalkeeper was never in the spotlight for the majority of his career, especially in the last decade where he was mostly used as a second or 3rd goalkeeper but his reliability in goal is exactly why he has been part of great teams like Manchester City and

and was used quite often by both clubs.

Caballero’s career started at Boca Juniors in Argentina where he spent 4 seasons at but barely got to play. He then headed to Spain’s Segunda Division where he joined Elche and became a regular started for the next 5 and a half seasons before joining Malaga in 2011. His impressive performances at La Liga with Malaga prompted Manchester City to sign him in 2014 and he has been a Premier League player ever since.

After winning a League Cup with City, Caballero joined Chelsea where he won an FA Cup, a Europa League and a Champions League before leaving the club last summer. He then joined Southampton on December as a free agent and is currently with them until the end of the season. With 40 years 02 months 17 days, Willy Caballero is by far the oldest player on this list. For a player with such humble beginnings, to win a Champions League title at 39, an age that most football players won’t even be playing at, is a great feat all onto its own.

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