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From Junior to Elite in Soccer: Exploring the Relative Age Effect and Talent Selection in Spanish Youth National Teams

The implications of relative age grouping in sport are known as the Relative Age Effect (RAE). This study has the twofold purpose of analyzing RAE in Spanish youth national soccer teams and examining the prediction value of being selected for national youth teams to be a professional. The sample was...

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Autores principales: García-Rubio, Javier, García-Vallejo, Andrés, Arenas-Pareja, María de los Ángeles, López-Sierra, Pablo, Ibáñez, Sergio J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9600190/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36291479
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children9101543
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author García-Rubio, Javier
García-Vallejo, Andrés
Arenas-Pareja, María de los Ángeles
López-Sierra, Pablo
Ibáñez, Sergio J.
author_facet García-Rubio, Javier
García-Vallejo, Andrés
Arenas-Pareja, María de los Ángeles
López-Sierra, Pablo
Ibáñez, Sergio J.
author_sort García-Rubio, Javier
collection PubMed
description The implications of relative age grouping in sport are known as the Relative Age Effect (RAE). This study has the twofold purpose of analyzing RAE in Spanish youth national soccer teams and examining the prediction value of being selected for national youth teams to be a professional. The sample was composed of 548 players divided into five groups. A descriptive analysis of distribution and participation, frequencies, mean and standard deviation, crosstabs, Sankey charts, coefficient correlation and Cohen’s effect size criteria and two regression analyses were performed. Results established that the RAE is present in U’17 to U’21 Spanish youth national teams. Talent detection and selection programs are more reliable the closer they are to adulthood, reaching a success rate of almost 100% at the U’21 stage. The selection of players for such programs should be delayed as much as possible, thus, preventing younger players from dropping out and those selected from thinking they have already reached their goal. To this end, they should focus on long-term improvement, not short-term performance. In addition, factors such as the RAE or the maturity level of the athletes should be monitored.
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spelling pubmed-96001902022-10-27 From Junior to Elite in Soccer: Exploring the Relative Age Effect and Talent Selection in Spanish Youth National Teams García-Rubio, Javier García-Vallejo, Andrés Arenas-Pareja, María de los Ángeles López-Sierra, Pablo Ibáñez, Sergio J. Children (Basel) Article The implications of relative age grouping in sport are known as the Relative Age Effect (RAE). This study has the twofold purpose of analyzing RAE in Spanish youth national soccer teams and examining the prediction value of being selected for national youth teams to be a professional. The sample was composed of 548 players divided into five groups. A descriptive analysis of distribution and participation, frequencies, mean and standard deviation, crosstabs, Sankey charts, coefficient correlation and Cohen’s effect size criteria and two regression analyses were performed. Results established that the RAE is present in U’17 to U’21 Spanish youth national teams. Talent detection and selection programs are more reliable the closer they are to adulthood, reaching a success rate of almost 100% at the U’21 stage. The selection of players for such programs should be delayed as much as possible, thus, preventing younger players from dropping out and those selected from thinking they have already reached their goal. To this end, they should focus on long-term improvement, not short-term performance. In addition, factors such as the RAE or the maturity level of the athletes should be monitored. MDPI 2022-10-10 /pmc/articles/PMC9600190/ /pubmed/36291479 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children9101543 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
García-Rubio, Javier
García-Vallejo, Andrés
Arenas-Pareja, María de los Ángeles
López-Sierra, Pablo
Ibáñez, Sergio J.
From Junior to Elite in Soccer: Exploring the Relative Age Effect and Talent Selection in Spanish Youth National Teams
title From Junior to Elite in Soccer: Exploring the Relative Age Effect and Talent Selection in Spanish Youth National Teams
title_full From Junior to Elite in Soccer: Exploring the Relative Age Effect and Talent Selection in Spanish Youth National Teams
title_fullStr From Junior to Elite in Soccer: Exploring the Relative Age Effect and Talent Selection in Spanish Youth National Teams
title_full_unstemmed From Junior to Elite in Soccer: Exploring the Relative Age Effect and Talent Selection in Spanish Youth National Teams
title_short From Junior to Elite in Soccer: Exploring the Relative Age Effect and Talent Selection in Spanish Youth National Teams
title_sort from junior to elite in soccer: exploring the relative age effect and talent selection in spanish youth national teams
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9600190/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36291479
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children9101543
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