Every squad in the Betway Premiership sits inside a band 3.4 years wide, from AmaZulu's 25.6 to Milford's 29.0. The pattern inside it runs against the youth-development story: the newly promoted clubs field the oldest squads in the division. Sixteen clubs, 616 registered players — and a plain account of the measure that would matter more and does not exist.
By Noma Dora, Senior Regulatory & Sports Journalist · Published · Last updated
More than four years covering sport for the regional South African press.
Every squad in the Betway Premiership sits inside a band 3.4 years wide. The oldest club in the league is 29.0 and the youngest is 25.6, and thirteen of the sixteen are between 26 and 28.
South African football talks constantly about youth development, and almost never with a per-club number attached. Here is the number, for all sixteen clubs of the 2026/27 season — along with an honest account of the far more useful measure that does not exist.
| Club | Squad size | Average age | Foreign players | Foreign share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AmaZulu | 37 | 25.6 | 5 | 13.5% |
| TS Galaxy | 42 | 26.0 | 6 | 14.3% |
| Orlando Pirates | 40 | 26.4 | 6 | 15.0% |
| Sekhukhune United | 34 | 26.6 | 5 | 14.7% |
| Stellenbosch | 26 | 26.6 | 3 | 11.5% |
| Kaizer Chiefs | 39 | 27.1 | 5 | 12.8% |
| Richards Bay | 36 | 27.3 | 8 | 22.2% |
| Golden Arrows | 39 | 27.3 | 4 | 10.3% |
| Siwelele | 37 | 27.3 | 4 | 10.8% |
| Chippa United | 36 | 27.3 | 5 | 13.9% |
| Mamelodi Sundowns | 47 | 27.6 | 10 | 21.3% |
| Polokwane City | 35 | 27.7 | 3 | 8.6% |
| Marumo Gallants | 36 | 28.2 | 8 | 22.2% |
| Kruger United | 51 | 28.2 | 7 | 13.7% |
| Durban City | 40 | 28.3 | 6 | 15.0% |
| Milford | 41 | 29.0 | 0 | 0.0% |
The league average is 27.3 and the median 27.3. Across all sixteen clubs, 616 players are registered — an average squad of 38.5 — of whom 85, or 13.8%, are foreign.
The most striking pattern here runs opposite to the one the youth-development conversation assumes.
The two oldest squads in the league, Milford at 29.0 and Durban City at 28.3, are both recent arrivals in the top flight. Kruger United, also newly promoted, sit level with Marumo Gallants at 28.2. The clubs that have just come up are not fielding young sides built for the future; they are fielding the oldest sides in the division.
That is not irrational. A promoted club's immediate problem is surviving its first season, and experience is the cheapest available answer. But it does mean the bottom of the Premiership is where the league's oldest players are concentrated, and it complicates any story about promotion as a route for young South African talent.
AmaZulu are the youngest squad in the league at 25.6, more than a year and a half below the league average, with TS Galaxy and Orlando Pirates behind them.
Kruger United register 51 players. Stellenbosch register 26. Those are squads for two different sports.
Stellenbosch run the leanest operation in the division by a distance — the next smallest is Sekhukhune United at 34 — and they do it while being one of the more competitive sides in the league. Mamelodi Sundowns, at 47, carry nearly twice Stellenbosch's headcount.
Squad size and average age move together at the top of the range: the three largest squads in the league (Kruger United 51, Sundowns 47, TS Galaxy 42) include two of the older ones. Large registered squads are not, on this evidence, a sign of a youth pipeline.
Milford register no foreign players at all — the only club in the league with an entirely South African squad.
At the other end, Richards Bay and Marumo Gallants both run 22.2% foreign squads, and Mamelodi Sundowns carry the most in absolute terms with ten. The league-wide share is 13.8%.
This page answers half of a question, and the missing half is the more important one.
Average squad age counts registered players, not playing time. A 19-year-old who never leaves the bench and a 19-year-old who starts every week both pull a club's average down by the same amount. A club can therefore register a young squad and play an old team, and nothing here would reveal it.
The measure that would actually settle the youth-development argument is minutes played by under-23 players, per club — and no public source carries per-player minutes for South African club football. We checked before writing this page rather than after. That figure does not exist in retrievable form, and we have not estimated it.
This is the same wall our Bafana squad age profile ran into, and it is worth stating plainly what it means: the central claim in South African football's most persistent policy argument cannot currently be checked by anyone outside the clubs.
The related question — whether the league's own reserve competition actually produces senior players — is audited name by name on our Diski Challenge graduates page, which is the closest anyone can currently get.
Do not read these averages against tournament squads. The figures here are full registered squads of 26 to 51 players; a World Cup or AFCON squad is 23 to 26 players chosen from them. The two are different populations, and the registered-squad figure is dragged in both directions by fringe players who may never appear.
Our Bafana squad age profile measures the tournament-squad version for the national team, computed from individual dates of birth. That page's 26.9 average and this page's 27.3 are not comparable figures, and setting them side by side would be a mistake.
What is the average squad age in the PSL?
27.3 years across all sixteen Betway Premiership clubs in 2026/27, with a median of 27.3. The full range runs from 25.6 to 29.0.
Which PSL club has the youngest squad?
AmaZulu, at 25.6 years, followed by TS Galaxy at 26.0 and Orlando Pirates at 26.4.
Which PSL club has the oldest squad?
Milford, at 29.0 years — a newly promoted club, and the only side in the league with no foreign players.
How many players do PSL clubs register?
616 in total across sixteen clubs, an average of 38.5 each, ranging from Stellenbosch's 26 to Kruger United's 51.
How many minutes do under-23 players get in the PSL?
Nobody outside the clubs can say. No public source publishes per-player minutes for South African club football, which is why this page reports squad composition and not playing time.
Period covered: All sixteen South African Premiership clubs of the 2026/27 season, covering 616 registered players. A single-season snapshot, not a series.
Every figure on this page is in the files below, so you can check the arithmetic yourself. Released under CC BY 4.0 — free to reuse, including commercially, with attribution.
Journalists and researchers are welcome to use this data. Please credit Bet AFR and link to this page — that link is the only thing we ask for in return.
Bet AFR, "PSL squad age by club, 2026/27", last updated 3 August 2026. https://betafr.co.za/statistics/psl-squad-age-by-club
Licensed CC BY 4.0 (licence terms). Spotted an error, or have a better source? Tell us — corrections are published with the date they were made.
The national-team version of this question — measured from individual dates of birth, and not comparable with the figures here — is on our Bafana squad age profile. Whether the league's reserve competition actually produces senior players is audited name by name on Diski Challenge graduates, and the movement behind these squads is counted on the 2026/27 transfer window.