Talent in Top-Flight Football: Concept, Recruitment and Predictive Models for Identification

Abstract

Addressing the importance of understanding the concept of talent in football and how the lack of conceptual clarity can lead to biases and flaws in recruitment practices. The identification and development of talent are fundamental for talent management in high-performance football. We seek to reflect on the complexity and dynamics of this process, in order to contribute to the development of objective and predictive models for identifying talented young people in sports, using multi-sited ethnography. Talent detection can be influenced by factors beyond the technical and mental skills of young players, such as height and hand size. The club’s culture and the availability of financial resources are also important for the development of talented young footballers. Sports organizations are adopting an interdisciplinary model to minimize process failures. The detection and development of talent in football involve many factors beyond the technical and mental abilities of young people, and the definition of talent is a subjective and sometimes empty concept, which makes identifying talent even more challenging.

1. Introduction

The search for talented young people capable of becoming high-performance soccer players is a topic that has attracted the attention of many researchers. However, the precise definition of what constitutes a “talent” in childhood or youth has proven to be an increasingly complex and ambiguous challenge [1]. The lack of objective criteria for identifying these athletes has compromised the selection process carried out by professionals in the world of soccer.

Adamsen [2] points out that the concept of talent is an imprecise construction, an empty signifier. To overcome this ambiguity, it is necessary to create objective and predictive models for identifying soccer talent, taking into account which factors and attributes are relevant for future sporting success. This incessant search for young people with different profiles and potential, able to stand out from the rest and generate profits for the clubs in their talent management processes, has been the subject of great interest and research.

Over the years, the term “talent” has been used in the football world to describe players with exceptional ability. However, research carried out so far has been unable to define precisely what a talent is, demonstrating the complexity and ambiguity of this concept within the sport sciences.

This chapter is the result of an ethnographic research carried out between 2018 and 2021 in southern Brazil, analyzing the process of young aspiring soccer players and entrepreneurs. Our objective is to highlight the flaws in the identification and development of “talents” in the base categories, considering the very ambiguity of the term. To this end, we present empirical examples that show the conceptual fragility of talent management, which encompasses the identification and development of potential [2]. Based on our ethnographic research, we seek to reflect on the complexity and dynamics of this process and contribute to the development of objective and predictive models for identifying talented young people in sports.

2. Methodology

In this chapter, we present a multi-sited ethnography [3], which currently demarcates a large part of ethnographic studies, insofar as few researchers are restricted to a place or a community in their research. Multi-sited ethnography is not limited to the field, but the whole research process itself, the way to record what was noticed, at the time of data analysis, is to accompany all the interweaving of information and perceptions, the “following the threads” , adjusting the look to each specific situation, its particularities, and how each one ends up leaving its mark on the others. Through a process of adjustment, of reorganization of the events narrated by the interlocutor and reassembled by the researcher, the narrative gains meaning. To enrich the debate on the subject, we also used the concept of semiotic anthropology [2], which makes it possible to understand the symbolic load of certain terms with greater precision and depth, giving meaning to all the baggage that a given word carries in a group or specific field.

3. First approximations

During the ethnographic investigation that we carried out in the youth football categories [4], we faced a significant challenge: conceptualizing the term “talent”. During the study, we noticed that this term was often used ambiguously and that its meaning was difficult to define clearly and objectively. To overcome this difficulty, we held several conversations with football professionals, family members and fans involved in the process to obtain different perspectives and understandings about the expression in question.

In order to deepen our analysis and establish a more horizontal communication, we decided to study the language in depth, through semiotic anthropology [2], which allowed us to understand that the expression “talent” had a symbolic meaning that was not easily definable. We realized, then, that this expression was an empty signifier, a term that, although frequently used, did not have a precise definition, being in football something complex and multifaceted, and that its definition can vary according to the context in which it is used. In addition, the study of language and anthropological semiotics provided us with a greater understanding of the use of signs and meanings in the world of football and other areas of social life. It is also important to take into account your origin and linguistic nuances. According to Adamsen [2], the word talent has its roots in Latin and was originally a unit of measurement of weight and currency used in the Roman Empire. Later, the word began to be used in the artistic context to describe natural skills and aptitudes that allowed the creation of masterpieces. Over time, the concept of talent expanded to other contexts, including sports, business and education to refer to skills and aptitudes that allow success in different areas.

The indiscriminate use of the term “talent” leads to an arbitrary and subjective understanding of the concept, which makes talent management dysfunctional and undermines selection systems [2]. Still according to the author, the word “talent” presents a polysemy of meanings, ideas and references that are not easily defined, and its understanding depends on a discursive relationship. This is corroborated by the observations of Lewis and Heckman [5], which point to imprecision and lack of clarity in the definitions of the term. Several authors add that talent is not a directly observed concept, but rather inferred, which contributes to its imprecision and the existence of more than 100 different definitions for the term [6]. In other words, although the word exists, its meaning is not clear, which raises an ontological problem that questions the very existence of talent in today’s world.

Currently, the concept of talent has expanded to include a set of skills developed and improved over time. Talent is often associated with success in different areas of life such as sports, arts and business. This semantic evolution reflects the constant transformation of language and culture, as well as the different ways of understanding and valuing human capacity throughout history. According to several authors, a term with an indefinable meaning is one that has a multiplicity of meanings, each one applicable only to a particular world [7, 8].

Authors claim that talent is associated with a conception of success already achieved through conquests, and no longer with a starting point [9], which highlights the difficulty of defining it. It is important, therefore, that talent management consider these multiple dimensions of talent to identify and develop potential talent and avoid subjective biases in selection. Football talent is the result of a broad domain of the set of general motor skills, psychological attributes and cognitive components potentiated at high values [6].

The ambiguity of the term is evident, as it can refer both to a person’s attitude or ability and a talented performance, a behavior that goes beyond the ordinary [10].

A clear and consistent understanding of the concept of “talent” is essential for organizations to manage their human resources effectively and achieve success and market competitiveness. For a comprehensive and precise definition of the concept of talent, it is necessary to avoid simplistic approaches that could limit or underestimate its complexity. A narrow or vague definition could fail to consider important aspects of talent, such as its development and the influence of external factors. In addition, the dichotomous perspective that talent is innate or artificial can be problematic, as talent is the result of the interaction between biological, environmental and cultural factors [11]. Therefore, a robust definition of talent must account for these complexities and nuances, recognizing that talent is a combination of skills, knowledge, experience and opportunities, which can be developed and improved over time.

4. Talent management

For this research, we adopted sports talent management as the process of identifying, attracting, developing and retaining athletes with special skills and competencies in a given sport, seeking to maximize the potential of footballers and teams, with the scope of sporting and financial success.

Talent management is a practice that is increasingly present in modern organizations, which seek to identify, attract, develop and retain individuals with special skills and competencies that are valuable to the company. Several studies [12, 13, 14, 15] point out that talent management is an essential strategy for organizational success.

In a certain study [16], talent management can be defined as “a way of identifying, organizing and managing the innate talents and acquired skills of people, teams and/or organizations”. However, it is important to emphasize that the consideration of an individual as a talent depends on the organizational context in which the person is inserted. In an organization, an employee may be considered a talent for having skills that other employees do not have, but in another organization, that same person may not be considered a talent, since there are employees with superior skills [17].

5. The identification

Football is a world-popular sport that relies heavily on talented players to maintain its spectacular appeal [18]. Without these players, the sport would not be as attractive to fans and therefore would not have the same financial impact. That’s why clubs are investing more and more money in training talented youngsters through the youth ranks.

There is an informal collaborative network available to these entities, in addition to their own observers, who carry out this process, known as garimpo. The practice consists of recognizing, throughout the country, minors who demonstrate good sports potential and who can compose their base teams.

In Brazil, most talent identification and recruitment methods occur in the popular and middle classes [18, 19, 20]. This may be due to the fact that these social strata are more exposed to the eyes of technical analysts since boys from higher castes generally do not play in fields or terrains that are accessible and easy to maneuver by agents. In addition, there is the widespread idea that the lowest strata have the most talented people.

Another notion in relation to the identification process in the most deprived places is presented in the following study [21], where the researchers attribute this phenomenon to the dream of economic and social growth of disadvantaged young people, who see in football a chance for work and enrichment, but there is a context to be analyzed, as many of these children have the dream of becoming a player not only because they have a talent, but also due to different conditions, such as: financial difficulties, family pressure, housing, unemployment, low education, violence, among others [22, 23].

It is not always a simple task to spot potential talent. To a large extent, the difficulty lies in the interpretation process by the professionals involved [24]. Normally, the technical observers of clubs—people in charge of watching games, in different locations to try to identify players with the potential to become professionals—are former players who played in the entity itself, who do not have scientific knowledge or adequate training. Therefore, the detection and selection of talents for football is often based solely on experience and also on intuition [25].

With regard to the identification of talents in football, perhaps this is the element that presents the least standardized criteria. The methodological choices are more defined by the traditions and cultures of the clubs than by determining scientific criteria. Traditions end up determining which types of talent are recruited and regionalities help define which talent is being sought. Therefore, based on a definition of what is valued, sought after and needed, scouts go to the field to observe and select players. Although there is no clear standardization in Brazilian football, the most used components in the analysis and selection of talents are: anthropometric measurements, physical, technical-motor skills, tactical learning capacity, performance readiness, social and emotional factors [26].

At this point, we find one of the main obstacles in identifying talent in football. To better understand this theme, we can use the study by Pelegrini and collaborators [27], in which a total of 7500 children of both sexes, aged between 7 and 10 years old, were evaluated. The vast majority of these children, 96%, did not reach satisfactory levels of physical and motor fitness consistent with their age.

The study carried out by Luguetti and Böhme [28], with 3145 boys and girls between 7 and 16 years old, aimed to measure physical fitness indicators related to health and sport. In general, the results were greater than 50% of classification as “poor”. Along the same lines, the study by Seibel, Torres and Ignácio [29], when evaluating 54 children between 7 and 10 years of age, found that the vast majority did not reach the levels considered ideal in the aptitude and sporting potential scales, evidencing the low index of physical and motor development of students.

The questions, therefore, dwell on how to identify whether that boy who is running after the ball has the talent to become a soccer player, can he be transformed into a soccer player? Is that easy dribbling applied to the opponent a virtue, a product of a gift, or is it more like the rival’s fragility? These are questions that a good coach must ask himself at all times. Well, there is no way to obtain these answers in a first analysis. This quality needs to be put to the test. And the ideal place is in the training centers. However, this generates a higher cost for the club. In this way, the observer needs to further refine his talent in detecting in order to generate less expenses for his association.

Discovering whether a boy has the talent to become a star or a star without much effort would be the glory of many pickups. While that does not happen, the way is to bet on the process of mistakes and successes. The detection of potential talent is certainly at the forefront of the training structure. After all, for the production of the final artifact, it is necessary to have the human body of the young man. Therefore, there is no way to develop the training process without the appropriate raw material. In this sense, the material must be identified so that this development produces interesting sporting and, consequently, economic results.

In a tangle of subjectivations, the search for objective aspects in this field becomes the biggest challenge. In this sense, the problem of talent selection lies in the definition of exact criteria that allow a premature and safe prognosis of performance capacity [30]. Without setting parameters for profiles of characteristics and skills differentiated on the playing field, the work of detecting talent would be limited to mining for jewels and approaching training centers.

Some studies, such as Monteiro [25], point to the possibility of scrutinizing the body of talent through the evaluation of physical characteristics, technical and tactical skills and behavior on the field to help in the constitution of a primary concept to lead them to spaces formative. Many believe that talent is a social construction, coated with football capital. Along the same lines, another study explains that sports talent is related to the development process, which involves genetic and environmental components, and their interaction [30]. A talented athlete is one who has above-average skills in a specific group, identified through skills already developed in a particular sporting environment [19].

According to another study, sports talent is a process that depends on the temporal relationships between genetic dispositions, age, performance requirements and training yield and psychological qualities, conceived from structures of anatomical and physiological characteristics, capacities and other qualities of personality, with a high probability of reaching a high sporting level through training [31]. It is concluded that the concept of talent permeates a hybrid of genetic potential related to inherited psychomotor skills combined with motor development in favorable environmental and social conditions and that the innate, rare, unique and exclusive bodily predisposition of each player whose talent is fundamental. For sporting success. Furthermore, talent as reification, as the materialization of the gift, makes it become something concrete [32].

Young people selected for training can be chosen through technical evaluations carried out by professionals, but there are other ways of accessing training centers, such as football schools, videos of highlights, selections and direct indications for tests in the main team [33]. However, none of these forms guarantee success in talent detection, since the notion of talent is polyhedral and has many specificities to be considered.

6. The formation

Taking into account that the talented player is a social construction, shaped by different hands, bets and intentions, which equip him with adequate football capital, the frequent failures in producing promising players at the base who do not make it to the first team can be attributed either to detection and selection regarding formation [18]. According to a study, those who meet certain requirements in the child (under-15) and youth (under-17) categories are not always the ones who stand out in the higher categories and even in the professional [19]. According to the author, this is quite common in youth teams, as the concept of talent often focuses only on maturation and does not take into account specific skills related to soccer. Thus, what is very common are exceptional athletes in the base categories that do not correspond to expectations in professional athletes. In view of this, the question arises: the high investments in the base categories are aimed at supplying the main team and selling or forming winning base teams, promoting their young coaches or even supporting bets—since football is a collective sport? For such a complex question, there is no simple answer. We will not get these answers easily if we do not delve into the formative complexities and take into account each sporting context. The idea is to shed light on these uncertainties so that they are duly considered on how the training of young talents has developed over the years in Brazil.

In identification, objectively determining the existence of talent destined for soccer becomes challenging while the biological maturation process is not closed [34]. Because there is always doubt about the residual to be developed by teachers of the basic categories. As a means of illustrating, we will bring two cases of young people of similar ages who participated in youth categories in Porto Alegre¹ [4]. Aspiring footballers were in the process of becoming goalkeepers. The two started their journeys very early. When they got close to 14 and 15 years old, the technical ability attribute became insufficient. Although the two had prestigious performances in the initial categories, stature came to be fundamentally considered by talent developers. The two young men were not the tallest in their groups, but they were recognized for their technical and mental abilities. Thus, one of them, from a more economically affluent family, had a medical intervention with the use of hormones to enhance his growth in height; while the other was only dismissed because of the scientific-biological probability of exceeding 1.80 meters being very low. The importance of physical appearance in the world of football, especially for goalkeepers, can lead to extreme solutions. Although height appears to be an advantage in some positions, it is not the only determining factor for success in football. There are many examples of goalkeepers who stood out in the sport thanks to their technical ability, agility, speed and tactical intelligence, such as the Mexican Guilhermo Ochoa, the Englishman Jordan Pickford, and the Swiss Yann Sommer².

In Boehl’s research [4], a young man, after being identified as a possible talent by an observer of a big club in Porto Alegre, due to his stature and technical ability [11], was integrated into the youth team of the club. However, another attribute, the palmar dimension, emerged and the smaller diameter of the young man’s hand became an obstacle to his permanence in the development team. Despite the young man’s talent having been well evaluated by field professionals, such as coach Bernardo, who claimed to be a great admirer of the young athlete’s potential [4], his career withdrawal was justified by the size of his hand. In this sense, Brazil is a notable barn of talent for football [18], but many talents do not reach their full development for several reasons.

Possibly, height, as a symbolic component, as the training process progresses, may be the first attribute to be considered for certain positions in football. In other sporting cultures, however, this factor may not carry the same symbolic weight. Despite this, common sense has shown a certain globalization in this preference, which can transform the connotative talent, since it remains a vague concept in the face of subjectivities [2].

Young people who are selected to be trained are usually chosen through the technical evaluation of professionals, but there are other ways of accessing training centers, such as football schools, videos of highlights, selections and direct indications for tests in the main team [33]. However, none of these forms guarantee success in talent detection, since the notion of talent is polyhedral and has many specificities to be considered.

To interpret a talent, as this continues to be refined in the youth categories [18], it is necessary to take into account the football context of the sports association, that is, to know the culture of the club, before analyzing the characteristics of the player. There are assumptions that guide the search for talent, taking into account the physical, cognitive and anthropometric aspects that are relevant in certain situations. When you have access to training centers, it is often more grounded with family commitment, which has social and economic conditions—here it could be understood as some of the important components for the formation of football capital—which spare no efforts to ensure that their offspring is receiving training, than with the entry of young people who carry elements that suggest they have greater aptitude. It may appear that the young people who are attending the training spaces would not be the ones with the most sporting skills, that is, the most gift, but the ones who are more persistent or who have more ballast, in this case economic and/or family support.

During the training process, it is important to note that places in the best centers are limited, which means that not all talents will be selected, even if this is not a reflection of their abilities. In addition, for those seeking opportunities in more distant centers, it is necessary to invest in financial resources to travel there, which can prevent talented young people from having their skills recognized and developed. These young people can be excluded from the improvement process, which results in stagnation and loss of potential. Exposure to about five thousand hours of specialized training, fundamental for the formation of talent, is crucial and the lack of it can harm the development of a future star [18]. Excluding these youngsters from the improvement process could prevent Brazil from producing its best players and achieving significant results in the future. As the high-performance training process is long, continuous and interdependent, the late detection of talent can limit the time available for the maximum development of motor skills [24].

To avoid failures in the evaluation processes in the detection and selection of talents, as well as during the training stage, sports organizations have been abandoning empirical standards and adopting more interdisciplinary models, which integrate several scientific areas, such as physiology, nutrition and psychology, with the objective of improving the performance of athletes and teams [35]. However, the adoption of scientific discourse is not enough if conservative sponsorship practices continue to be maintained.

Off-field behavior is considered by managers and coaches to be a key factor in choosing players, often above technical, physical or psychomotor skills [36]. This shows that sports training is influenced by off-field factors, which can be decisive for the continuity of athletes in the process. Therefore, a more comprehensive view is necessary, which considers not only physical aspects but also behavioral, psychological and social aspects.

With regard to biological and bone maturation, there are several strategies available to verify whether a player’s chronological age matches his biological age. Talent selection occurs in a period of the inconstancy of the variables that make up performance, and early maturation may provide some advantages in relation to physical strength [37]. However, the selection of players based only on height and physical development can cause those with more advanced technical, tactical and psychological skills to be neglected at the expense of taller and stronger ones, which can harm the training process and, consequently, the discovery of talents.

It is important to remember that early maturation can provide a momentary advantage in terms of strength, but that does not mean these players are better at every aspect of the game. Furthermore, the weaker players can end up being disadvantaged, as they are often passed over by the stronger ones, who are routinely used by coaches. It is essential to have a broader vision in the detection and selection of talents, taking into account not only the physical aspects but also the technical, tactical and psychological skills of the players. Only in this way will it be possible to avoid the loss of many talents and ensure that technical quality is valued in the training process.

The complexity of information to be verified is immense. What is sought here is to show that selection is often based on elements that do not match the promotion of talent. In reality, directors are more focused in the titles of the competitions than in the development of talents. Therefore, the clubs use more “mature” boys to reinforce their teams to win youth championship titles—the media controversially agrees with this, because sometimes they criticize, without any theoretical support, the formation of athletes and sometimes they demonize teams and technicians that lost the competition. When they understand that the main actor is the player, not the coach, not the team, they will learn about training in football.

In the selection and development of football talents, it is important to consider the specific skills of the sport, that is, the technical and tactical qualities that a football player must possess [38]. Often, the concept of talent is based only on maturation, without taking into account the essential skills for football. If young people need years of training and education to develop their footballing capital, it is crucial that exposure time is adequate for those who have the potential to become professionals, not just those who receive prestige for winning an under-12 championship, for example. It is important to remember that teachers who are dismissed at the door of the under-14 s due to their advanced maturation stage may have given little value to technical and tactical skills. If there is not a complete incorporation of football capital in the aspirant, which includes theoretical and practical knowledge about football, as well as a strategy to transform the football gift into a profession, the desired excellence will not be achieved, despite the investment and dedicated efforts.

7. “Killing a lion a Day”

The empirical field of research addresses the expression “killing a lion a day”, which metaphorically means facing major challenges and overcoming obstacles daily, in a persevering and determined way [4]. Just as killing a lion is a difficult task that requires courage, facing and solving complex and difficult problems also requires willpower and persistence. This expression is often used to describe the work or study routine of someone who faces many daily challenges and needs to stay motivated to overcome them.

In the case of talent development in football, it is not an easy task to get into training centers. This requires many strategies, as well as having some potential to consider. The door is narrow, and only the most talented, distinguished, or sponsored have access to it. Although the difficulty in reaching this goal can be compared to passing the medical entrance exam at a prestigious university, for example, the problem is not in overcoming this step. Unlike entering university, where most freshmen complete their course, the football player in training never knows what the future holds [4]. Competition for places in the youth teams is extremely fierce, and every week new tests appear, representing a potential threat to those who are already there and do not have a better footballing capital.

Thus, team coaches usually advise young players to do their best in training, following the football saying “kill a lion a day”, so that they are not surprised with bad news. However, little is said about the process of “discarding” players in the base categories, which is still surrounded by uncertainties. Science has been more interested in understanding detection, selection, and training procedures than dismissals. Some primary causes can explain the dismissal of athletes in training, but it would be naive to list them without an adequate context and scientific deepening.

While a player’s talent is the most valuable resource in football, there is a huge disparity in power in the development process. According to Pelé Law n° 9.615 of March 24, 1998, youth contracts can be terminated unilaterally, without the obligation to pay any compensation to the young player. However, if the initiative comes from the athlete, he must compensate his “trainer”. With the legislation in their favor, clubs recruit and dismiss young talents without the slightest embarrassment. This situation leaves the player in a position of emotional vulnerability, which prevents him from fully developing, as he is always subject to being discarded. It is like he has to “kill a lion a day”. The athlete is considered as something easily replaced, and that can be exchanged at any time for another more talented or with greater potential, not giving much importance to the individual [39].

In the collective imagination, soccer players emerge from poverty and financial despair, and soccer in Brazil offers them a chance for social and financial ascension. Clubs use this dream for their own ends, often making the only option to get out of poverty to be a footballer. However, this means that players are subjected to all sorts of abuse and manipulation by the clubs that control them. In case of failure, these “jewels” can be easily discarded by clubs that only seek victory and profit, often ignoring their basic rights [18]. This results in a lack of proper stoning and often trauma for players who are poorly formed or poorly selected and are discarded. In addition, a football career often competes with school training, which can lead to problems in the future for those who were unable to complete their education [39].

Football clubs use different methods to release young players. Some prefer to communicate the decision in person in a meeting with parents or legal representatives, while others opt for a phone call or publication of lists with the names of players who will remain. Before digital technology, the list was posted in the locker room, now it is published by apps. Some clubs strive to relocate the released player to less prestigious partner clubs, while others do not care about the fate of the player who lent them some symbolic capital for a period [4]. It is possible that, depending on the process, some talent is wasted and is no longer incorporated into the Brazilian football training system. The “discarded” player needs to persist in his dream and look for a club suited to his gift/talent, usually with the help of specialists, friends or former colleagues [18].

Big clubs often select players based on stature and physical development rather than technical, tactical and psychological skills, which can lead to the exclusion of players with later development. However, early maturation does not mean that a player is better at all aspects of the game. It is important to consider football-specific skills when selecting and developing talent, ensuring exposure time is adequate for players with the potential to become professionals. The complete incorporation of football capital is crucial to achieving excellence, including theoretical and practical knowledge about football, as well as a strategy to transform football gift into a profession.

8. Discussion and conclusions

The lack of understanding about the concept of talent in the world of football, which leads to biases and flaws in recruitment practices, making talent management dysfunctional. The research highlights that the identification of talents in football is a complex process that involves not only the technical evaluation but also the culture of the club, the relevant physical, cognitive and anthropometric valences, in addition to the availability of financial resources. It is important that sports organizations adopt an interdisciplinary model that integrates different scientific areas that support the performance of athletes. However, the lack of conceptual clarity in talent management needs to be addressed to make it more effective.

The main objectives of talent management in football are to identify, attract, develop and retain individuals with special skills and competencies that are of great value to the organization. Although talent management involves several steps, talent identification and development are considered the most important factors. Therefore, attention should be focused on these aspects to get an effective talent management system. Investing in youth teams may aim to form winning teams, supply the main team or support bets, but it is important to take into account the complexity of the process of training young players and the particularities of each sporting context.

The text highlights the importance of understanding the concept of talent before discussing it, and the lack of conceptual clarity must be addressed to make talent management more effective. The detection and development of talent in football involve many factors beyond the technical and mental abilities of young players, and the definition of talent is a subjective and sometimes empty concept, which makes identifying talented young people even more challenging. It is important to adopt a scientific and interdisciplinary discourse to minimize failures in talent development processes, but conservative sponsorship practices still persist and can prevent talented young people from having their skills recognized and developed.