An investigation of talent identification processes in the youth academies of professional soccer clubs for male foundation phase players (5-11 years old)

Talent Identification (TID) is a large field within professional soccer, helping clubs find the best young ‘talent’ to support with future success for their club. Soccer clubs can sign players as young as 8 years old into their academy system, providing player development activities such as training and fixtures to help the player improve their overall game. However, TID processes within professional soccer academies hasn’t been assessed in detail, in particular within the youngest ages (5-11 years old). Our aim was to survey practitioners working within professional soccer academies that support with the identification of players between 5-11 years old, with 19 practitioners responding to the survey. Results highlighted that 1) players may be selected / not selected at a young age due to the month of the academic / cohort year they were born in (Relative Age Effect), 2) coaches will tend make decisions on what they see in training / fixtures, leaning on their experiences rather than using any testing procedures to provide any additional data to support their selection decisions, and 3) results from the survey indicate a lean towards a later recruitment age .