Selected, Deselected, and Reselected: A Case Study Analysis of Attributes Associated With Player Reselection Following Closure of a Youth Soccer Academy

Abstract

Considering the perceived benefit of early recruitment and the time and resources spent developing youth players, individuals released from talent development programmes are often re-recruited by rival academies. However, due to the contractual nature of many talent development programmes, limited empirical data exists on players deselected from (or reselected to) youth soccer academies. Adopting a novel case study approach, differences in skill, psychological, and physical attributes associated with reselection following closure of a junior-elite soccer academy were explored. Overall subjective coach ratings for skill, psychological, and physical abilities; subjective coach ratings for skill and psychological attributes; and physical fitness test performance of 79 junior-elite soccer players (U11–U17) were assessed as part of regular scheduled testing and monitoring practices prior to the academy closure. Reselection status was monitored and recorded for all players in the 6 months following the academy closure and was classified as a persistence/progression (“Reselected”) or attrition (“Deselected”) in playing level. Of the 79 released players, a total of 60 players (76%) were re-signed to a junior-elite academy within 6 months. Differences were observed for overall ratings of skill, psychological, and physical abilities in favor of the “Reselected” player group. “Reselected” players were also rated higher by coaches for all attributes categorized as skill and psychological, as well as performing better at all physical fitness tests. However, “Reselected” players were lesser in stature and body mass and less mature than “Deselected” players. Our findings suggest that reselection is not a product of anthropometric criteria and, therefore, a pathway for selection remains open for later maturing players. We also inform upon desirable qualities associated with player reselection and provide a case study approach of a unique, yet highly relevant, scenario for talent identification and development in youth soccer.

The Effect of Age, Biological Maturation and Birth Quartile in the Kinanthropometric and Physical Fitness Differences between Male and Female Adolescent Volleyball Players

“…For this reason, several investigations have recently emerged addressing the relative age effect (RAE), understood as the tendency to overrepresent players born in the first months of the year in the selection process [ 17 ]. The RAE has been contrasted on several occasions in high-level adolescent players in team sports [ 12 , 18 , 19 ] and seems to be more evident around the APHV [ 11 ], obtaining better results for those players born in the first months of the year. However, in sports such as volleyball, it seems that the relationship of RAE with performance and chances of selection remain unclear, possibly due to the specific characteristics of the sport [ 20 ].…”

Investigating Player Selection within UK Academy Soccer: The Application of Objective and Subjective Assessments in Detecting Talent

“…Previous reports (Bidaurrazaga-Letona et al, 2019;Dugdale et al, 2021;Emmonds, Till, Jones, Mellis, & Pears, 2016;Towlson, Cope, Perry, Court, & Levett, 2019) have demonstrated maturational influence within physical performance, whereby a higher maturational age will typically exhibit superior physical abilities. Consequentially, without accounting for maturation, raw physical performance scores will provide misleading perceptions of player abilities that may result in questionable (de)selection outcomes.…”

“…The utility of subjective assessments for player (de)selection, via coach intuition, is commonplace within soccer (Bergkamp, Frencken, Niessen, Meijer, & den Hartigh, 2022;Dugdale, McRobert, & Unnithan, 2021;Larkin, O'Connor, & O'Connor, 2017;Roberts, McRobert, Lewis, & Reeves, 2019;Sieghartsleitner, Zuber, Zibung, & Conzelmann, 2019;Unnithan et al, 2012). Coach intuition extends from experience, knowledge, temporal factors and self-efficacy working with each player (Roberts et al, 2021).…”

“…However, several implications have been associated with subjective observations, including; i) maturational selection bias (Dugdale et al, 2021;Sieghartsleitner et al, 2019); ii) poor between-coach agreement regarding perceived player abilities (Dugdale et al, 2020) and; iii) contention regarding a coaches subjective abilities to undertake psychometric evaluations (Sieghartsleitner et al, 2019). Therefore, the addition of objective evidence has been proposed to enhance selection outcome and overcome subjective downfalls.…”

What Variables Allow the Differentiation between More and Less Successful Adolescent Volleyball Players?

“…In this sense, it has been observed that for girls, age at which the APHV occurs is usually between 11 and 14 years old, while for boys it usually occurs between 13 and 16 years old (Malina and Bouchard, 1991). Previous studies have observed that differences caused by maturation are most notable around the APHV, and have a tendency to equalize as subjects move adulthood (Dugdale et al, 2021b;Figueiredo et al, 2011;Malina and Bouchard, 1991). In the present study, girls in both age categories had passed the APHV, which could help explain the absence of differences in terms of the maturation of MS and LS players.…”