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      Youth-to-senior transition in women’s and girls’ football: Towards a better understanding of relative age effects and gender-specific considerations

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          Abstract

          This study aimed to evaluate youth-to-senior transition and the relative age effect in Italian female football national teams. Birthdate data of 774 female players selected for Under 17 (N = 416), 19 (N = 265) and National Senior team (N = 93) were analysed. The youth-to-senior transition rate was determined by the number of youth players competing in the Senior National team (and vice versa), whilst birth quarter (Q) distributions with a chi-square goodness-of-fit test. Only 17.4% of youth players were able to be selected for the Senior National team, whereas 31.2% of the players reached the high-senior level without being selected for youth age groups. Data revealed a skewed birth date distribution in Under 17 and 19 teams (on average, Q1 = 35.6% vs Q4 = 18.5%) but not in the Senior National team. Youth players born in Q1 were two times more likely to be selected than in Q4. In Under 17, goalkeepers, defenders, and midfielders of Q1 players were overrepresented. However, Q4 players recorded higher conversion rates than Q1 (Q1 = 16.4% vs. Q4 = 25.0%). National youth experience may not be a prerequisite for being selected at the senior level. Moreover, this confers a higher probability of playing in the National Senior team than players not selected in youth rosters.

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          Selection, de-selection and progression in German football talent promotion.

          This study explored to which extent the development of German professional football players is based on early talent identification (TID) and long-term nurture in talent promotion (TP) programmes or on their emergence in the course of repeated procedures of player selection and de-selection in these programmes through childhood and youth. The annual turnover of squad members in national junior teams (2001-2013) and youth elite academies was calculated; national U-team members were followed up with regard to nominations through subsequent seasons and to their success level eventually achieved at senior age; and all current Bundesliga players were analysed retrospectively regarding their earlier involvement in TID/TP programmes. Analyses revealed that the mean annual turnover of squad members was 24.5% (youth academies) and 41.0% (national U-teams), respectively. At any age, the probability of persisting in the programme three years later was <50%. Among current Bundesliga players, the age of recruitment into the TID/TP programme was widely evenly distributed across childhood and youth, respectively. Accordingly, the number of (future) Bundesliga players who were involved in TID/TP was built up continuously through all age categories. The observations suggest that the collective of professional players emerged from repeated procedures of selection and de-selection through childhood and youth rather than from early selection and long-term continuous nurture in TID/TP programmes. The findings are discussed with regard to the uncertainty of TID and of interventions applied to the selected players, and they are related to the individualistic and collectivistic approach in TP.
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            Relative Age Effects Across and Within Female Sport Contexts: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

            Subtle differences in chronological age within sport (bi-) annual-age groupings can contribute to immediate participation and long-term attainment discrepancies; known as the relative age effect. Voluminous studies have examined relative age effects in male sport; however, their prevalence and context-specific magnitude in female sport remain undetermined.
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              Gender differences in the relative age effect among US olympic development program youth soccer players.

              A large body of research has shown that a disproportionate number of elite youth male soccer players competing in age-segmented competition are born early in the selection year. The advantage of being born early in a cohort has been termed the "relative age effect". Although there has been an exponential growth in women's soccer, few studies have examined the relative age effect in female youth soccer. This study compared the relative age effect of 1,344 female and male youth soccer players considered by the US Olympic Development Program (ODP), in 2001, to be the most talented soccer players born in 1984. The birth dates were taken from the women's state and regional ODP, and national team rosters, and were analysed using basic descriptive statistics and chi-square tests. Results revealed only a marginal relative age effect for female ODP regional and national team players and no relative age effect for female ODP state team players. In comparison, a strong relative age effect was found in male state, regional and national team players. The results suggest that there are gender differences in the relative age effect of 17-year-old elite female and male soccer players. The gender differences may be explained by a complex interaction of biological and maturational differences with socialization influences.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Formal analysisRole: MethodologyRole: ResourcesRole: SupervisionRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Data curationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS One
                plos
                PLOS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1932-6203
                4 May 2023
                2023
                : 18
                : 5
                : e0283781
                Affiliations
                [1 ] Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
                [2 ] NeuroMuscularFunction Research Group, School of Exercise & Sport Sciences, SUISM University, Turin, Italy
                [3 ] Faculty of Health Sciences and Social Care, Molde University College, Molde, Norway
                [4 ] CeRiSM (Sport Mountain and Health Research Centre), University of Verona, Verona, Italy
                [5 ] School of Exercise & Sport Sciences (SUISM), University of Turin, Turin, Italy
                [6 ] Centre for Life and Sport Sciences (CLaSS), Faculty of Health, Education, and Life Sciences, Birmingham City University, Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom
                Instituto Politécnico de Santarém: Instituto Politecnico de Santarem, PORTUGAL
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8422-5132
                Article
                PONE-D-23-05725
                10.1371/journal.pone.0283781
                10159103
                37141307
                d0b337a3-fb3c-49e0-b885-83b71c119b87
                © 2023 Brustio et al

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 27 February 2023
                : 16 March 2023
                Page count
                Figures: 2, Tables: 1, Pages: 12
                Funding
                Funded by: Molde University College
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme
                Award ID: 696295
                Award Recipient :
                The authors PRB, GB, MV and ALK received no specific funding for this work. The author RM received funding from Molde University College that pays his postdoctoral position under the umbrella of the European Joint Programming Initiative “A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life” (JPI HDHL) and of the ERA-NET Cofund ERA-HDHL (GA N° 696295 of the EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme).
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