A Literature Review of the Psychological Aspects among Professional Soccer Players

Abstract

In this review, we examined the literature on psychological aspects among professional soccer players and discussed the research trends in this field. National and international databases were searched using terms such as “psychological and (soccer OR football) and professional” and 56 studies were selected. A total of 15 psychological aspects were extracted from the selected studies. In addition, an overview of the studies revealed that (1) most of the studies were conducted in Europe and targeted approximately one soccer team, (2) most of the studies were survey or observational studies and only a few were intervention studies, and (3) most of the research topics were related to players’ mental health, with many studies dealing with aspects such as stress and coping strategies. From study designs, it can be said that the research targeting professional soccer players is still in the stage of identifying the psychological aspects among the players and organizing these in terms of significance. In the future, it will be necessary to determine the significant psychological aspects through research and suggest and evaluate interventions for professional soccer players.