8 ms·

Visualization of age, height and weight of players in the 2014 FIFA World Cup

79 points by lejohnq 12y ago

caipre 12y ago
FYI, the link to the LoTR project[0] on the about page is broken. [0]: http://ejoh.se/worldcup2014/lotrproject.com http://ejoh.se/worldcup2014/lotrproject.com
pkaye 12y ago
Would be interesting to see their BMI. People always say BMI is not a good indicator for athletes.
- Dewie 12y ago
  It isn't a good measure if they are muscular, no.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- jaytoross 12y ago
  Ignore the BMI. It was an insurance company scam that became mainstream. The formula uses weight and height only, so everyone (men and women, broad and narrow, young and old) who has the same height and weight has the same BMI. According to the BMI, many muscular athletes actually fall into the morbidly obese category. Nonsense. If you want a free, accurate estimate of how much you should weigh, go here: www.weightzonefactor.com It's scientific.
  - rockdoe 12y ago
    Needs you to give your email address. Also I see no references why it would be scientific, most certainly not the "Science Behind The Zone" part. This is spam.
- MattBearman 12y ago
  Chest to waist ratio is a much better indicator.
mdlthree 12y ago
The height vs weight chart is screaming for a linear regression line.
- misiti3780 12y ago
  agreed
- rockdoe 12y ago
  The point of which would be pointing out that morbidly obese or underweight people don't make world-class athletes?
  - davidw 12y ago
    Depends on the sport. Chris Froome, for instance, is one skinny dude: http://inrng.com/2014/06/the-moment-the-race-was-won-2014-dauphine/ http://inrng.com/2014/06/the-moment-the-race-was-won-2014-da... - he's the one in the yellow jersey in the 3rd picture.
    - rockdoe 12y ago
      He's not exactly winning many sprints. Checking out UCI World Ranking #1's on the graph, they're reasonably in the middle.
colmvp 12y ago
I didn't realize soccer players were so much shorter than a lot of North American athletes in hockey, basketball, American football, and baseball. For example, the average height of Brazil's team is 181.7 cm or 5 foot 10, whereas I wouldn't be surprised if most North American sports teams had an average height of 6 feet (much higher for basketball). Of course, if I look at Team USA's stats, the average is 6 feet. Also interesting to note is that the goaltender on most teams is the tallest guy.
- Dewie 12y ago
  What do you suggest is a good height for soccer? Is taller always better? This might go against American thinking, but more is not always more. ;) (though I don't know if this is the case when it comes to soccer.) > For example, the average height of Brazil's team is 181.7 cm or 5 foot 10 That's closer to 5" 11.5'.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- rpedela 12y ago
  Agility and speed is more important than size in football (soccer). Someone smaller is likely to have more agility than someone larger, but someone smaller will also get pushed around more and less likely to win head-balls or catch balls in the case of goalies. So there is a sweet spot between size, agility, and speed.
- maxerickson 12y ago
  For football, the speed guys start at ~5' 10". The rest of the team is usually taller: http://espn.go.com/nfl/players http://espn.go.com/nfl/players Baseball trends lower, but they still sort of start at 6': http://espn.go.com/mlb/players http://espn.go.com/mlb/players Hockey is there too, they occupy a somewhat tighter range, but still easily beat 6'. (I'm just a bit less than 6' and had the opportunity to stand next to a Div I NCAA football team, the majority of them towered over me, so I felt compelled to find some numbers)
- mbell 12y ago
arshadcn 12y ago
The data here is wrong for most players. Example: Ramires from Brazil is 73kg not 83kg. Hulk is 85kg..etc
- drpgq 12y ago
  I was wondering how accurate these heights and weights were. Are these taken from the World Cup site, or wikipedia or something else?
goshx 12y ago
Hm... this data doesn't seem to be 100% accurate. Fred, from Brazil, for instance, is 30. Not 22 years old.
jrs99 12y ago
There's a real height, and there's a "listed" height. A lot of people say that the "listed" height is often very wrong. Sometimes by several inches and more for certain organizations that aren't really particular about getting an accurate height.
davidw 12y ago
I'd be curious to see teams ranked by the combined salaries of their players.
- maest 12y ago
  Normalized by purchasing power, maybe.
  - davidw 12y ago
    The market for those guys seems to be fairly globalized.
- DanBC 12y ago
  I'd love to see some stats that take into account wages or the purchase price of players. Each touch of the ball costs €x; each tackle costs €y etc.
- rockdoe 12y ago
  Salaries before or after the WC? Or player purchase price? Some players will vastly have increased their market value after the tournament.
- Tomis02 12y ago
  I'd be curious to see teams ranked by the amount of doping each player does. http://www.4dfoot.com/2013/02/09/doping-in-football-fifty-years-of-evidence/ http://www.4dfoot.com/2013/02/09/doping-in-football-fifty-ye...
- adwf 12y ago
  Yeah, seeing avg. team salary plotted against world cup performance would be interesting. Spain and England would be right at the bottom despite the salaries (or perhaps because of).
aw3c2 12y ago
This kind of visualisation screams for a "small multiples" display not spread over 5+ pages. How are you supposed to get a full picture with a layout like this?! Is the data available? What's the source?
bsaul 12y ago
spain really has a disproportionnate amount of small players. That's why they use such a different kind of game (which i like a lot), with many fast short passes rather that long kick reaching the head. I'm really surprised by their poor performance at this world cup. Does anyone here analyzing this set of stats can see another difference that would explain this bad result ?
- carlio 12y ago
  That style of football is also dependent on closing down the opposition when Spain don't have the ball, meaning the players have to run a lot, and be fast and fit. Several of the important midfield players are now "old" (Xavi is 34, Xabi Alonso is 32, for example) so they aren't as good at that side of the game as they used to be. Also, while it was completely new 6 years ago when they won the European Championship, now people know what to expect and have better counter-tactics. And thirdly, a lot of the Spanish players play for Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, who all had long and difficult seasons. The players weren't able to ease off at all, so must be more exhausted than normal.
  - vorador 12y ago
    Yes, Xavi has been declining for a number of years. I think it's one of the reasons the FC Barcelone isn't as good as they were. Also, Del Bosque has made some questionable player choices.
eiliant 12y ago
Can't find Lionel Messi on the Height vs. Weight chart based on the data from Height/Weight.
seanewest 12y ago
I really wish there was a kg/lbs toggle

79 points by lejohnq 12y ago

FYI, the link to the LoTR project[0] on the about page is broken. [0]: http://ejoh.se/worldcup2014/lotrproject.com http://ejoh.se/worldcup2014/lotrproject.com

pkaye 12y ago

Would be interesting to see their BMI. People always say BMI is not a good indicator for athletes.

Dewie 12y ago
It isn't a good measure if they are muscular, no.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
jaytoross 12y ago
Ignore the BMI. It was an insurance company scam that became mainstream. The formula uses weight and height only, so everyone (men and women, broad and narrow, young and old) who has the same height and weight has the same BMI. According to the BMI, many muscular athletes actually fall into the morbidly obese category. Nonsense. If you want a free, accurate estimate of how much you should weigh, go here: www.weightzonefactor.com It's scientific.
- rockdoe 12y ago
  Needs you to give your email address. Also I see no references why it would be scientific, most certainly not the "Science Behind The Zone" part. This is spam.
MattBearman 12y ago
Chest to waist ratio is a much better indicator.

mdlthree 12y ago

The height vs weight chart is screaming for a linear regression line.

misiti3780 12y ago
agreed
rockdoe 12y ago
The point of which would be pointing out that morbidly obese or underweight people don't make world-class athletes?
- davidw 12y ago
  Depends on the sport. Chris Froome, for instance, is one skinny dude: http://inrng.com/2014/06/the-moment-the-race-was-won-2014-dauphine/ http://inrng.com/2014/06/the-moment-the-race-was-won-2014-da... - he's the one in the yellow jersey in the 3rd picture.
  - rockdoe 12y ago
    He's not exactly winning many sprints. Checking out UCI World Ranking #1's on the graph, they're reasonably in the middle.

colmvp 12y ago

I didn't realize soccer players were so much shorter than a lot of North American athletes in hockey, basketball, American football, and baseball. For example, the average height of Brazil's team is 181.7 cm or 5 foot 10, whereas I wouldn't be surprised if most North American sports teams had an average height of 6 feet (much higher for basketball). Of course, if I look at Team USA's stats, the average is 6 feet. Also interesting to note is that the goaltender on most teams is the tallest guy.

Dewie 12y ago
What do you suggest is a good height for soccer? Is taller always better? This might go against American thinking, but more is not always more. ;) (though I don't know if this is the case when it comes to soccer.) > For example, the average height of Brazil's team is 181.7 cm or 5 foot 10 That's closer to 5" 11.5'.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
rpedela 12y ago
Agility and speed is more important than size in football (soccer). Someone smaller is likely to have more agility than someone larger, but someone smaller will also get pushed around more and less likely to win head-balls or catch balls in the case of goalies. So there is a sweet spot between size, agility, and speed.
maxerickson 12y ago
For football, the speed guys start at ~5' 10". The rest of the team is usually taller: http://espn.go.com/nfl/players http://espn.go.com/nfl/players Baseball trends lower, but they still sort of start at 6': http://espn.go.com/mlb/players http://espn.go.com/mlb/players Hockey is there too, they occupy a somewhat tighter range, but still easily beat 6'. (I'm just a bit less than 6' and had the opportunity to stand next to a Div I NCAA football team, the majority of them towered over me, so I felt compelled to find some numbers)
mbell 12y ago

arshadcn 12y ago

The data here is wrong for most players. Example: Ramires from Brazil is 73kg not 83kg. Hulk is 85kg..etc

drpgq 12y ago
I was wondering how accurate these heights and weights were. Are these taken from the World Cup site, or wikipedia or something else?

goshx 12y ago

Hm... this data doesn't seem to be 100% accurate. Fred, from Brazil, for instance, is 30. Not 22 years old.

jrs99 12y ago

There's a real height, and there's a "listed" height. A lot of people say that the "listed" height is often very wrong. Sometimes by several inches and more for certain organizations that aren't really particular about getting an accurate height.

davidw 12y ago

I'd be curious to see teams ranked by the combined salaries of their players.

maest 12y ago
Normalized by purchasing power, maybe.
- davidw 12y ago
  The market for those guys seems to be fairly globalized.
DanBC 12y ago
I'd love to see some stats that take into account wages or the purchase price of players. Each touch of the ball costs €x; each tackle costs €y etc.
rockdoe 12y ago
Salaries before or after the WC? Or player purchase price? Some players will vastly have increased their market value after the tournament.
Tomis02 12y ago
I'd be curious to see teams ranked by the amount of doping each player does. http://www.4dfoot.com/2013/02/09/doping-in-football-fifty-years-of-evidence/ http://www.4dfoot.com/2013/02/09/doping-in-football-fifty-ye...
adwf 12y ago
Yeah, seeing avg. team salary plotted against world cup performance would be interesting. Spain and England would be right at the bottom despite the salaries (or perhaps because of).

aw3c2 12y ago

This kind of visualisation screams for a "small multiples" display not spread over 5+ pages. How are you supposed to get a full picture with a layout like this?! Is the data available? What's the source?

bsaul 12y ago

spain really has a disproportionnate amount of small players. That's why they use such a different kind of game (which i like a lot), with many fast short passes rather that long kick reaching the head. I'm really surprised by their poor performance at this world cup. Does anyone here analyzing this set of stats can see another difference that would explain this bad result ?

carlio 12y ago
That style of football is also dependent on closing down the opposition when Spain don't have the ball, meaning the players have to run a lot, and be fast and fit. Several of the important midfield players are now "old" (Xavi is 34, Xabi Alonso is 32, for example) so they aren't as good at that side of the game as they used to be. Also, while it was completely new 6 years ago when they won the European Championship, now people know what to expect and have better counter-tactics. And thirdly, a lot of the Spanish players play for Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, who all had long and difficult seasons. The players weren't able to ease off at all, so must be more exhausted than normal.
- vorador 12y ago
  Yes, Xavi has been declining for a number of years. I think it's one of the reasons the FC Barcelone isn't as good as they were. Also, Del Bosque has made some questionable player choices.

eiliant 12y ago

Can't find Lionel Messi on the Height vs. Weight chart based on the data from Height/Weight.

seanewest 12y ago

I really wish there was a kg/lbs toggle