Goalkeepers Live Longer than Field Players: A Retrospective Cohort Analysis Based on World-Class Football Players

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to study whether the position occupied by footballers on the pitch influences their life duration. It is known that various types of sporting activity (endurance, resistance, or mixed) may influence lifespan in different ways. However, there is a paucity of data regarding the role of different positions played in team sports such as football. Our research was based on elite international football players born before 1923 who took part in the first three football World Cups (n = 443) or played in the 1946/1947 season in the leading clubs of the main European leagues (n = 280). Goalkeepers were characterized by a 5–8-year longer life duration compared to their colleagues playing in other positions (World Cup: 82.0 ± 7.0 vs. 74.0 ± 8.0, p = 0.0047; European leagues: 83.0 ± 7.5 vs. 78.0 ± 8.0, p = 0.0023), with an absence of differences between defenders, midfielders, and forwards. Moreover, in both of the analyzed subgroups, the rate of survival until the 85th birthday was significantly higher among goalkeepers than among field players (p = 0.0102 and p = 0.0048, for both studied groups, respectively).

Football and Dementia: Understanding the Link

“…Subsequent analysis found the risk of neurodegenerative disease was highest in defenders where heading is a prominent skill; the risk was also linked with career length (44). Goalkeepers were found to live longer than outfield players and to have a lower risk of developing neurodegenerative disease, both effects being attributed to a lower cumulative exposure of goalkeepers to RHI (45). These dose-response findings in soccer are in accord with the correlation between career length and development of CTE in NFL players (32).…”

Football (Soccer) as a Probable Cause of Long-Term Neurological Impairment and Neurodegeneration: A Narrative Review of the Debate

“…An additional piece of supportive evidence came from the study performed by Russell et al, who found that the risk of neurodegenerative disease was lowest for goalkeepers [19]. Comparably, Śmigielski et al observed that goalkeepers had a five-to-eight-year longer lifespan amongst international football players born before 1923 who played in the first three World Cups or in the 1946/1947 season of the main European leagues [27].…”

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“…The Kruskal-Wallis One-way Analysis of Variance by Ranks was used to test the significance of differences between the mean scores of management practices in companies from three groups of countries, namely Germany, Poland and the USA (Kruskal-Wallis test) (Kruskal, and Wallis, 1952;Siegel, 1956;Rabiej, 2012;Śmigielski, www 2022;Śmigielski et al, 2020). The use of Kruskal-Wallis test was dictated by the fact that the assumptions of ANOVA analysis of variance with normal distribution of the variable were not met (in order to check the normality of distribution the Shapiro-Wilk test was used) (Rabiej, 2012;Śmigielski et al, 2020). The Kruskal-Wallis test examines the null hypothesis in which all samples are assumed to come from identical populations.…”

“…In order to assess differences in management practices in German, Polish and American enterprises, descriptive statistics were used, i.e. median and quartile deviation (Rabiej, 2012;Śmigielski, www 2022;Śmigielski et al, 2020). Calculations were performed using the Statistica programme (TIBCO Software Inc., 2017).…”