TALENT DETECTION AND DEVELOPMENT IN SOCCER: A REVIEW

Soccer talent detection and development has become an extremely important issue for most clubs all over the world. The present article tries to review all published data in the period 1985-2012 related to these issues in order to gain a better understanding of the whole process of talent detection and development in soccer. A comprehensive search of computer databases (Ebsco, Medline/Pubmed, SportDiscus, Psychinfo, Teseo, InformaWorld, IngentaConnet, Ulrichs, Metapress, ScienceDirect, Doaj, Sage, Google Scholar, and Taylor & Francis) was conducted to identify relevant studies in English and Spanish on talent detection in soccer. Researchers seem to agree that physical, physiological, psychological, cognitive, and sociological factors are interconnected. Moreover, the amount of practice also plays an important role. Despite the traditional trend of selecting young players based on physical attributes and maturation, there is growing evidence that they should be selected based on several factors, like the ones previously mentioned, and others that include perceptual and tactical skills and abilities, and even genetics.