Reviewing the role of the environment in the talent development of a professional soccer club

Abstract

This two-part study examined the perceptions of talented Swiss soccer players about their talent development environment. The first study presented the translation and validation of the Talent Development Environment Questionnaire (TDEQ) into French using a recommended methodology for translating and culturally adapting questionnaires. Two hundred and three Swiss athletes (M = 16.99 years old) responded to the 25 items of the TDEQ-5. One item was excluded due to low factor loadings, and the descriptive statistics showed that the re-specified TDEQ-5 instrument had acceptable global model fit according to the thresholds in the literature (χ2 (df = 17) = 484.62, p<0.001, CFI = 0.91, TLI = 0.90, RMSEA = 0.07, SRMR = 0.06). This adaptation is thus valid for assessing the effectiveness of talent development processes. For the second study, a holistic design was used to examine the perceptions of a set of players embedded in a top-level Swiss soccer academy (i.e., 64 elite soccer players from 14 to 18 years old) by using the TDEQ-5. The results showed some relative strengths (i.e., F1-Long-Term Focus for the M15 and M16 age-groups) and weaknesses (i.e., F2-Alignment of Expectations for the M17 and M18 age -groups and F3-Communication for M17). They also highlighted that the talent pathways of these Swiss soccer players could not be summarized by a single type of transition toward a professional team. Rather, there were context-specific requirements, such as the critical period between the M15-M16 and M17-M18 age-groups, suggesting that when the players first entered their TDE they experienced a set of affordances to develop and flourish, which thereafter were perceived as less rich and/or abundant. These results offer a starting point for optimizing talent pathways.

German version of the Talent Development Environment Questionnaire (TDEQ-5)

“…Therefore, given the generic nature of the TDEQ, more information on specific talent environments is needed-no matter whether across sports or across cultures. Indeed, as an example, there have previously been calls for the development of a soccer-specific TDEQ (e.g., Gledhill & Harwood, 2019;Mills et al, 2014), and recent work has highlighted the importance of examining and understanding the environment across different age levels within an academy setting (e.g., Gesbert et al, 2021).…”

“…For further exploration of the TDEQ-5 validity from an applied perspective the descriptive analyses on an item level would allow insights into the athletes' perceptions of environmental factors and social support, as well as insights into interactions of the stakeholders in talent development as perceived by athletes. This type of TDEQ analysis has proven useful in evaluating strengths and weaknesses across a range of environments (e.g., Gangsø et al, 2021;Gesbert et al, 2021;Gledhill & Harwood, 2019;Mills et al, 2014;Thomas, Abbott, Gastin, & Main, 2020;Thomas et al, 2021), and also in helping those responsible for effective talent development programs to design, deliver, and monitor evidencebased interventions across time. Future work on improving the validity and context specificity of the TDEQ, and also on developing its role and usefulness in helping to manage and develop the quality of environments in real-world athletic settings, would be highly appreciated.…”

“…Research has also focused on capturing relevant information about the relative strengths and weaknesses of specific talent development environments in order to inform applied practitioners, coaches, and others responsible for the development and management of such environments (e.g., Gangsø et al, 2021;Gesbert, Crettaz von Roten, & Hauw, 2021;Gledhill & Harwood, 2019;Mills, Butt, Maynard, & Harwood, 2014;Thomas et al, 2021). Indeed, taking this a step further, Hall, Jones, and Martindale (2019) highlighted the utility of the TDEQ to not only identify relative strengths and weaknesses, but also to guide the development and evaluation of evidence-based interventions within elite sport contexts.…”

“…In this tradition, studies were undertaken in a number of countries, like China (Li et al, 2017), Greece (Andronikos et al, 2021), Korea (Wang et al, 2016), Singapore (Wang et al, 2011), Sweden (Ivarsson et al, 2015), and the United Kingdom (Mills et al, 2014). ( 3) Finally, the objective of research may focus on intervention in the field of talent environments by improving those aspects that are rated low (Gesbert et al, 2021;Hall et al, 2019). This research is quite rare to date and should definitely be expanded, preferably in combination with longitudinal designs and with measures of athletes' variables like psychological skills or mental toughness.…”

“…As such, it is perhaps unsurprising to see a number of translations of the TDEQ and TDEQ-5 emerging in the literature. These include Spanish (Brazo-Sayavera, Olivares, Andronikos, & Martindale, 2017), Portuguese (Costa, Grazina, Miragaia, Crisóstomo, & de Carvalho, 2017), Swedish (Ivarsson et al, 2015), Korean (see Wang et al, 2016), Chinese (Li, Martindale, Wu, & Si, 2018), Polish (Siekańska & Wojtowicz, 2017), Norwegian (Gangsø et al, 2021), and French versions (Gesbert et al, 2021). However, to date, there exists no German TDEQ translation.…”