Player talent identification and development in football

Pruna, Ricard; Tribaldos, Luz Miñarro; Bahdur, Khatija

doi:10.1016/j.apunts.2018.02.002

Cited by 20 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…that's why you need breadth of coverage and why you need to build relationships with clubs so you can easily get on the phone and discuss things" (Participant BE1). There appeared a desire for academies to find the best young talent to develop in order to save money later down the line (Pruna, Miñarro Tribaldos, & Bahdur, 2018;Reeves et al, 2018) and relationships emerged as an important aspect of that (Gerke & Wäsche, 2019). Indeed, contemporary studies, adopting a network perspective suggest that clubs' success in the transfer of players is strongly associated with their networks and relationships (Liu, Liu, Lu, Wang, & Wang, 2016).…”

Section: Professional Club (Globally)mentioning

confidence: 99%

A bioecological perspective on talent identification in junior-elite soccer: A Pan-European perspective

Reeves

Roberts

2019

Journal of Sports Sciences

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Elite soccer clubs across Europe spend ever-increasing sums of money on transfers and salaries for worldclass players. Consequently, clubs' talent identification and development processes for junior players have become more professionalised. Based on a holistic ecological approach, this study presents an analysis of talent identification practices across some of the most productive soccer academies in Europe (N = 11). Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with 11 heads of academy recruitment from clubs in the "big five" European leagues. Clubs were purposively sampled based on their player productivity ranking. Interviews ranged from 52:26 minutes to 114:06 minutes in length (m = 87:53 ± 20.10 minutes). This study argues that holistic ecological approaches the environments were characterised through the interplay of factors that ranged from high-level internal to international level relationships. This resulted in the identification and recruitment of players from local and international environments. The purpose of recruitment was suggested to have a dual purpose: recruitment of players for the first team; recruitment of players for further development/monitoring and/or selling to another club.

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Section: Professional Club (Globally)mentioning

confidence: 99%

A bioecological perspective on talent identification in junior-elite soccer: A Pan-European perspective

Reeves

Roberts

2019

Journal of Sports Sciences

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“…Identifying sports talent is an exciting and complex area of sports science, due to its multidimensional nature [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Moreover, this complexity increases when competitive performance must be explained or predicted in a team sport such as soccer [ 11 , 12 ]. Cognitive constructs related to the greater or lesser success in the execution of certain tactical skills, performed by a player who always interacts with his teammates and opponents, are difficult to assess individually [ 13 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical Fitness and Performance in Talented & Untalented Young Chinese Soccer Players

et al. 2022

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Sports performance is a complex process that involves many factors, including ethnic and racial differences. China’s youth soccer is in a process of constant development, although information about the characteristics of its players and their methodological systems is scarce. The aim of this retrospective study was to characterize the physical fitness and the competitive performance of 722 Chinese players of three sports categories (8.0–9.9, 10.0–11.9 and 12.0–13.9 years), who were classified by their coaches as talented (n = 204) or untalented (n = 518). Players were assessed for anthropometry (body height, body mass, body mass index), lung capacity (Forced Vital Capacity), jumping performance (Squat Jump, Countermovement Jump and Abalakov tests), sprinting performance (10 m and 30 m Sprint tests), agility performance (Repeated Side-Step test) and flexibility (Sit & Reach test). A descriptive, comparative, correlational and multivariate analysis was performed. Competitive ranking was created in order to act as dependent variable in multiple linear regression analysis. Results indicate that Chinese players classified as talented have better motor performance than untalented ones. However, these differences are neither related nor determine the competitive performance of one group or the other.

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“…As a result, it is important to measure and analyze factors that may contribute to greater development, to further support developmental systems and processes applied within youth football. The world's greatest professional football players are characterised by expert decision-making ability, whilst possessing outstanding physical competencies, both of which have a critical impact on performance [40]. Consequently, the cognitive function of perceptual-cognitive expertise (PCE) [3,44,45,52,53,55] and the physiological feature of physical performance [5,6,35,42,46,51,58], should be explored at academy level to examine their respective contribution towards coach perceptions of potential.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Speed of Thought and Speed of Feet: Examining Perceptual-Cognitive Expertise and Physical Performance in an English Football Academy

Kelly

Wilson

Jackson

et al. 2020

J. of SCI. IN SPORT AND EXERCISE

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The world’s greatest professional football players are able to execute effective tactical decisions as well as fulfil various physical demands. However, the degree to which both are associated with greater potential in a football academy is unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate decision-making skill and physical performance as contributing factors to coach potential rankings in an English football academy. Ninety-eight outfield academy players (Foundation Development Phase [FDP] under-9 to under-11 n = 40; Youth Development Phase [YDP] under-12 to under-16 n = 58) participated in the study. They engaged in 45 film-based simulations at two occlusion phases (e.g., the visual display is cut-off at a precise time during an action), firstly “during” and secondly “post” execution, to examine decision-making skill. Participants also completed four fitness tests to examine physical performance. A classification of “higher-potentials” (top third) and “lower-potentials” (bottom third) were applied through coach rankings. Independent t-tests compared the decision-making and physical performance tests. Higher-potentials made significantly more accurate decisions within the “post” phase within the FDP (P < 0.05) and the “during” phase within the YDP (P < 0.05). Additionally, higher-potentials were significantly faster for the 0–30 m sprint in both the FDP and YDP (P < 0.05), with higher-potentials within the YDP also significantly faster in the 0–10 m sprint (P < 0.05) and jumped significantly higher in the countermovement jump (P < 0.05). These findings indicated that greater football potential may be associated with superior perceptual-cognitive expertise and quicker sprint ability in both academy age phases, with a greater discriminatory function within the older cohort.

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Player talent identification and development in football

Cited by 20 publications

References 10 publications

A bioecological perspective on talent identification in junior-elite soccer: A Pan-European perspective

A bioecological perspective on talent identification in junior-elite soccer: A Pan-European perspective

Physical Fitness and Performance in Talented & Untalented Young Chinese Soccer Players

Speed of Thought and Speed of Feet: Examining Perceptual-Cognitive Expertise and Physical Performance in an English Football Academy

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