Vägen till fotbollseliten : En undersökning av Sveriges ungdomslandslag i fotboll

Sammanfattning: Purpose & Questions The purpose of the study was to examine Swedish football youth national teams at the age of 15 to be able to identify how many later goes on to play professionally. In addition to this the study also aimed to examine the birth dates of the topical players to see if a relative age effect could have any impact. Question 1: How many players from the initial (15 years old) Swedish football youth national team born between 1992-2002 played professionally at the age of 20. Question 2: At which professional level did the actual players play at 20 years of age. Question 3: Which type of association did the players belong to at the age of 15. Question 4: Is the relative age effect occurring in Swedish football youth national teams. Method The study was carried out through a quantitative collection of historical data regarding Swedish football youth national teams. The data was collected from the Swedish football federations own digital website. In total 197 individuals from 11 different cohorts were examined regarding their date of birth and their club at 20 years of age as well as 15 years of age. Results The results from the study showed that a total of 53,8% of the players played professionally at the age of 20. Of the players examined a total of 62,9% played in a professional association at the age of 15. The results from the study also showed that there was a significant (x2 = 59,65) difference between the number of players born in the first quarter of the year in comparison to the last. Conclusion The study showed that the total number of players playing in the youth national teams and then playing professional at 20 years of age to be 53,6%. This can be compared to other nations where the percentages are often lower. However there seems to be elements of relative age effect regarding the selection of players possibly leading to potential and talent going to waste. Therefore better methods regarding talent identification without the influence of relative age effect should be researched in order to develop more high quality individuals in the long run.