Selection of young soccer players in terms of anthropometric and physiological factors.

Abstract

These results indicate that around the time of puberty, parameters associated with physical maturity such as height, size, speed, VO(2max), or chronological age are important to determine the success of a soccer player. At older ages, other factors such as agility seem to be more important. Nevertheless, players born in the 1st semester of the year are also more frequent in the older teams. These findings should be taken into account by trainers and coaches, in order to avoid biasing their selection choices.