Multi-dimensional perspective of long-term athlete development in male soccer in Malawi

Abstract

The study was conducted to establish the athlete support personnel’s knowledge on talent identification and development, the study also aimed at establishing the process used by athlete support personnel during talent identification and development in soccer. The environmental factors effect on soccer players’ progress to national level was studied as well. The population comprised athlete support personnel and male soccer players from teams taking part in the Northern Region Premier Division league in Malawi. Multistage sampling which included purposive, volunteer and convenience sampling was used to select seventy-four (74) athlete support personnel and two hundred eighty-nine (289) male soccer players. The findings revealed that, the athlete support personnel’s knowledge on talent identification and development of male soccer players was not adequate; while athlete support personnel did not have a process of talent identification and development. There was no significant difference in knowledge of talent identification and development among athlete support personnel in Malawi based on districts (F(4,73)=.769; p>0.05. Environmental attributes of setting, individual and provision jointly influenced progression to national level among soccer players of teams in Northern Region of Malawi (F(3,285)=56.334, p<0.05).