Characteristics of Professional and Non-Professional Football Players – An Eight-Year Follow-Up of Three Age Cohorts

Identifi cation of the most talented youth players is regarded as a key part of the talent development process in football. Th e basis for the criteria is naturally aff ected by the characteristics of the early-detected talented players. Nonetheless, earlier research has found limited evidenced for diff erent criteria in this process. Th is study has examined whether professional and non-professional football players showed diff erences in player and coach characteristics as talented youth-level players eight years earlier. A total of 103 players selected for Norwegian youth national teams (age cohorts 1991–1993) participated in this study. Based on player and coach characteristics, the results showed that non-professional players had the most playing time and felt more successful in comparison to the professional players. Th e professional players, however, reported higher ambitions and a higher number of weekly-organized training sessions. No diff erences between the professional and non-professional players showed in terms of their relationship to their coaches were found. Th e study concludes that we need more research on identifi cation criteria to be able to predict which abilities and skills should be sought in the identifi cation process for youth-level players. As in earlier research, this study also found a poor relationship between youth performance and senior performance.