Author(s): EVANS, D., FORD, P., WILLIAMS, M.A., GREGSON, W., MORGANS, R., ANDREW, M., Institution: MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY, Country: UNITED KINGDOM, Abstract-ID: 2637

INTRODUCTION:
The process of identifying talented youth football players and developing them into experts in adulthood is central to national federations and is influences by many factors. This process is underpinned by several environmental factors including when players are born (i.e., birthdate) and where they are born (i.e., birthplace), and the amount and types of football-specific activities (e.g., coach-led practice) engaged in during their developmental pathway. National federations can only identify, develop, and select from a pool of players that are born within the country, thus these environmental factors play an important role in the process. Therefore, the aim of the study was to examine the key environmental factors associated with talent identification and development of youth international football players.
METHODS:
Participants were male youth football players (U13-U19) from regional (n = 147) and international (n = 90) squads of a single European national federation during the 2025-26 season. All players completed a Participant History Questionnaire (Ford et al., 2010) capturing birthdate, birthplace, developmental milestones (e.g., when they started playing football), and accumulated hours in football-specific activities (practice, play, competition) across their developmental pathway thus far. To date, data has been analysed descriptively to examine the distribution of players’ birthplaces across population categories and geographic regions, as well as accumulated hours in football-specific activities across development.
RESULTS:
Initial descriptive analysis indicated that 26.9% of youth international players were born in Q1, compared to 17.3% born in Q2, with 28.1% Q3, and 27.7% in Q4. Of the total sample, 146 (61.6%) were born within the country, 87 (36.7%) were born in neighbouring nations, and 4 (2%) outside of Europe. Players typically began engaging in football at around 4.7 years of age. Prior to entering the National Federation pathway at age 12, players accumulated 2205.7 ± 324.6 hours of play, 1010.4 ± 214.9 hours of coach-led practice, and 532.0 ± 86.3 hours of competition. Further analyses will investigate whether these developmental patterns differ between regional and international players.
CONCLUSION:
Preliminary findings provide an overview of the environmental factors associated with the identification and development of youth football players within a single national federation. As geographic, cultural, and infrastructural contexts vary substantially across nations, further analyses will be presented to better understand how these factors relate to progression to international level.