Abstract
Talent research has recommended that multidimensional assessments of performance are needed to improve the identification and development of talented young athletes. However, factors such as the relative age effect may cloud our ability to assess factors related to performance. The aim of this study was to determine the extent of any relationship between soccer players' chronological and relative age, and objective and subjective performance assessments. Data for highly talented male soccer players selected into the German Soccer Associations' talent promotion program (N = 16,138) for U12 to U15 age groups (Mage = 12.62 ± 1.04 years) were examined. Besides anthropometric assessments, players completed a battery of five motor tests that objectively assessed speed abilities and technical skills (specifically sprint, agility, dribbling, ball control, and juggling). In addition, coaches subjectively rated players on their kicking, tactical, and psychosocial skills, as well as providing holistic evaluations of each player's current and future performance levels. Correlation analyses were used to investigate the extent of any relationships between the chronological and relative age of players and their results for each of the assessments. A strong linear decrease in the frequency of later-born players confirmed the overrepresentation of early-born players in all age groups (0.92 ≤ |r| ≤ 0.95, each p < 0.001). From U12 to U15, significant (each p < 0.001) correlations were found between the chronological age of players and their height (|r| = 0.70), weight (|r| = 0.69), speed abilities (|r| = 0.38), and technical skills (|r| = 0.43). When evaluating each age group separately, small effects were found when correlating relative age with the anthropometric assessments (0.18 ≤ |r| ≤ 0.26), and only trivial effects with speed abilities and technical skills (0.01 ≤ |r| ≤ 0.06). Similarly, low correlations were found for the subjective evaluations of kicking, tactical, and psychosocial skills with chronological age across age groups (0.03 ≤ |r| ≤ 0.07), and with relative age in each age group (0.01 ≤ |r| ≤ 0.11). The results show a skewed distribution toward early-born players and—in reference to their relative age—advanced performance in late-born athletes. However, trends toward a better holistic rating of early-born players for current and future performance levels were found. Coaches should be aware of these effects during talent selection, but also when interpreting results from subjective and objective assessments of performance.
Highlights
The identification of talented soccer players is a key challenge for both researchers and practitioners
When considering the relative age of the players within each age group, Table 2 shows a trend for an overrepresentation of players born earlier within the selection year (M ≤ 23.32 for all age groups with regard to the week of birth within the year), which is reflected in the odds ratios for players born in Q1 compared with those born in Q4 (U12: OR = 1.85; U13: OR = 1.88; U14: OR = 2.16; U15: OR = 2.37)
Consistent with the call for multidimensional approaches that incorporate objective, and subjective assessments of talent (Ford et al, 2020; Williams et al, 2020), insights were given into the relative magnitudes of agerelated biases in a variety of measures of performance
Summary
The identification of talented soccer players is a key challenge for both researchers and practitioners. The difficulty in identification can be attributed to the many factors that can influence the development of young players, including their anthropometric, physiological, technical, tactical, or psychological characteristics, as well as environmental and sociological influences (Hoare and Warr, 2000; Unnithan et al, 2012; Suppiah et al, 2015; Larkin and O’Connor, 2017). Past research has examined objective and subjective diagnostics that assess performance factors that might discriminate between skilled and less-skilled players. Coaches may attempt to evaluate the “coachability” of a player and to take that into account when making a holistic judgment of that player’s level of talent (Larkin and O’Connor, 2017)
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