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Prevalence of Relative Age Effect in Russian Soccer: The Role of Chronological Age and Performance

The relative age effect (RAE) has been well studied in adolescent and adult soccer players; however, less information has been available about children engaged in regular soccer training and the role of performance. Thus, the aim of the present study was to examine the prevalence of RAE in children...

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Autores principales: Bezuglov, Eduard Nikolayevich, Nikolaidis, Pantelis Theodoros, Khaitin, Vladimir, Usmanova, Elvira, Luibushkina, Anastasiya, Repetiuk, Alexey, Waśkiewicz, Zbigniew, Gerasimuk, Dagmara, Rosemann, Thomas, Knechtle, Beat
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6861900/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31652677
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16214055
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author Bezuglov, Eduard Nikolayevich
Nikolaidis, Pantelis Theodoros
Khaitin, Vladimir
Usmanova, Elvira
Luibushkina, Anastasiya
Repetiuk, Alexey
Waśkiewicz, Zbigniew
Gerasimuk, Dagmara
Rosemann, Thomas
Knechtle, Beat
author_facet Bezuglov, Eduard Nikolayevich
Nikolaidis, Pantelis Theodoros
Khaitin, Vladimir
Usmanova, Elvira
Luibushkina, Anastasiya
Repetiuk, Alexey
Waśkiewicz, Zbigniew
Gerasimuk, Dagmara
Rosemann, Thomas
Knechtle, Beat
author_sort Bezuglov, Eduard Nikolayevich
collection PubMed
description The relative age effect (RAE) has been well studied in adolescent and adult soccer players; however, less information has been available about children engaged in regular soccer training and the role of performance. Thus, the aim of the present study was to examine the prevalence of RAE in children and adolescent soccer players, as well as the role of age and performance. Russian soccer players (n = 10,446) of various ages, playing positions and performance levels were examined for their date of birth. It was observed that RAE was widespread in Russian soccer teams of all age groups. RAE was most pronounced in children teams of the top tier Russian soccer academies and junior Russia national teams, where the proportions of soccer players born in the first quarter were 43.9% and 39.8%, respectively, whereas those born in the fourth quarter of the year were 7.7% and 6.3%, respectively. In top tier soccer academies, RAE did not vary by age group. In the middle tier soccer academies, RAE was less pronounced. It was still prevalent in the junior teams of the top tier clubs of the Russian Premier League, where 14.3% of the soccer players were born in the fourth quarter of the year compared to 42.9% born in the first quarter of the year. RAE can be observed in the top tier Russian adult teams as well, although it is less pronounced there. In summary, RAE is highly prevalent in Russian children and junior soccer and is associated with the level of competitiveness. At the same time, the proportion of players born in the fourth quarter of the year is higher in adult teams than in junior and youth teams, which is most likely due to the wider selection of players, not limited by their age and place of residence. In junior teams, RAE results in a bias towards selection of players who are more physically mature, whereas children who may be more talented but are less developed due to their younger chronological age tend to be overlooked.
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spelling pubmed-68619002019-12-05 Prevalence of Relative Age Effect in Russian Soccer: The Role of Chronological Age and Performance Bezuglov, Eduard Nikolayevich Nikolaidis, Pantelis Theodoros Khaitin, Vladimir Usmanova, Elvira Luibushkina, Anastasiya Repetiuk, Alexey Waśkiewicz, Zbigniew Gerasimuk, Dagmara Rosemann, Thomas Knechtle, Beat Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The relative age effect (RAE) has been well studied in adolescent and adult soccer players; however, less information has been available about children engaged in regular soccer training and the role of performance. Thus, the aim of the present study was to examine the prevalence of RAE in children and adolescent soccer players, as well as the role of age and performance. Russian soccer players (n = 10,446) of various ages, playing positions and performance levels were examined for their date of birth. It was observed that RAE was widespread in Russian soccer teams of all age groups. RAE was most pronounced in children teams of the top tier Russian soccer academies and junior Russia national teams, where the proportions of soccer players born in the first quarter were 43.9% and 39.8%, respectively, whereas those born in the fourth quarter of the year were 7.7% and 6.3%, respectively. In top tier soccer academies, RAE did not vary by age group. In the middle tier soccer academies, RAE was less pronounced. It was still prevalent in the junior teams of the top tier clubs of the Russian Premier League, where 14.3% of the soccer players were born in the fourth quarter of the year compared to 42.9% born in the first quarter of the year. RAE can be observed in the top tier Russian adult teams as well, although it is less pronounced there. In summary, RAE is highly prevalent in Russian children and junior soccer and is associated with the level of competitiveness. At the same time, the proportion of players born in the fourth quarter of the year is higher in adult teams than in junior and youth teams, which is most likely due to the wider selection of players, not limited by their age and place of residence. In junior teams, RAE results in a bias towards selection of players who are more physically mature, whereas children who may be more talented but are less developed due to their younger chronological age tend to be overlooked. MDPI 2019-10-23 2019-11 /pmc/articles/PMC6861900/ /pubmed/31652677 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16214055 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bezuglov, Eduard Nikolayevich
Nikolaidis, Pantelis Theodoros
Khaitin, Vladimir
Usmanova, Elvira
Luibushkina, Anastasiya
Repetiuk, Alexey
Waśkiewicz, Zbigniew
Gerasimuk, Dagmara
Rosemann, Thomas
Knechtle, Beat
Prevalence of Relative Age Effect in Russian Soccer: The Role of Chronological Age and Performance
title Prevalence of Relative Age Effect in Russian Soccer: The Role of Chronological Age and Performance
title_full Prevalence of Relative Age Effect in Russian Soccer: The Role of Chronological Age and Performance
title_fullStr Prevalence of Relative Age Effect in Russian Soccer: The Role of Chronological Age and Performance
title_full_unstemmed Prevalence of Relative Age Effect in Russian Soccer: The Role of Chronological Age and Performance
title_short Prevalence of Relative Age Effect in Russian Soccer: The Role of Chronological Age and Performance
title_sort prevalence of relative age effect in russian soccer: the role of chronological age and performance
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6861900/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31652677
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16214055
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