The relative age effect in youth soccer across Europe

Abstract

The potential asymmetries in the birth-date distributions of youth soccer players across ten European countries (2175 age citations) were considered. First, we examined the birth-dates of players representing national youth teams in international competitions. Second, the birth-dates of players representing professional club teams in international youth tournaments were analysed. Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests were used to assess differences between observed and expected birth-date distributions. Regression analyses were employed to examine the relationship between month of birth and number of players in the different samples. The results showed an over-representation of players born in the first quarter of the selection year (from January to March) for all the national youth selections at the under-15 (U-15), U-16, U-17 and U-18 age categories, as well as for the UEFA U-16 tournaments and Meridian Cup. Players with a greater relative age are more likely to be identified as ''talented'' because of the likely physical advantages they have over their ''younger'' peers. Some options for reducing the relative age effect are offered.

A eficiência do comportamento tático e a data de nascimento influenciam a performance tática de jogadores de futebol da categoria sub-11?

“…Generally, players born on the last months of the year have more chances to show a less advanced maturity state than those born on the beginning of the year [5][6] . Some studies demonstrate di erences on the players' physical capacities of those born in di erent periods of the year, since besides being larger and having higher body mass, older players present better results on velocity and agility tests 10,23 .…”

“…It happens because younger athletes are stimulated to nd solutions to the constrains imposed by the game through tactical dimensions rather than physical advantages 6 . ese results showed that there are particularities between di erent youth categories when compared with similar study carried out by T et al 3 , wich evaluated players between 13 to 18 years of age, related to the in uence of the tactical principles, since there were di erent principles that showed higher in uence on the development in each category.…”

“…According to T et al 4 , it was veri ed a positive association between the defensive tactical performance and the players born on the rst semester of the year. Several studies in youth categories [6][7] veri ed a higher frequency of players born on the rst semester of the year than on the second semester.…”

“…is advantage of the players born on the rst months of the year, compared with those born on the end of the year, is known as the relative age e ect (RAE) 6,8 .…”

Returns to education in professional football

“…Helsen et al (2000), Helsen et al (2005) and Edgar and O'Donoghue (2005) find the RAE in competitive sports that involve young athletes and especially in soccer it is a well documented phenomenon (Barnsley et al, 1992;Mujika et al, 2009;Vaeyens et al, 2005). Musch and Grondin (2001) However, a more detailed analysis, as provided in Figure 2, does show empirical evidence for the RAE in American football.…”