In video: Who has played the most Premier League minutes by age?

Football

In a series of lists, English greats of the modern game dominate.

Which Premier League players were the most prolific at each age group when it comes to minutes?

Here, the PA news agency has analysed the data to show which players had accrued the most minutes in the division by a series of landmark ages.

Unsurprisingly, the results are dominated by Englishmen – but which overseas players broke into the top 10?

Wayne Rooney tops the list for 17-year-olds in the Premier League, having played 437 minutes by the time he reached the milestone.

Rooney notched his famous goal against Arsenal just five days before turning 17, with James Milner sitting in second at the same age, having played 283 minutes for Leeds.

There is a rare appearance by a foreign player at 21, as Cesc Fabregas knocks Rooney off top spot with 10,808 minutes in the league for Arsenal by the end of the 2007/08 season.

By that point Fabregas had become one of the best passers of the ball in the league, while Rooney had accrued 10,169 minutes by his 21st birthday, sitting second behind the Spaniard.

An Englishman leads the way again for 25-year-olds with more than 20,000 minutes, and it is the top appearance maker in the league’s history, Gareth Barry.

Everton's Gareth Barry celebrates scoring his side's first goal during the Barclays Premier League match at Goodison Park, Everton
(Peter Byrne/PA)

At 25 Barry was still plying his trade with Aston Villa, before a move to future champions Manchester City.

In fact, it is the midfield ever-present who leads the way for 30-year-olds (36,375 minutes) and 35-year-olds (49,951 minutes) too – he was playing for City at 30 and by 35 had joined Everton.

Rooney drops out of the top 10 list altogether by 35 meanwhile, with greats from Chelsea (Frank Lampard), Manchester United (Rio Ferdinand), Liverpool (Jamie Carragher) and Arsenal (Sol Campbell) making up the top five at that age.

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