carlitos10
BRONZE
Pretty enlightening study with a european perspective backed by statistics and solutions many of the federations, including Belgium and France have deployed over the last several years.
http://uefa.to/2exNCr5 -- From Page 17 - 23
The most encouraging part is what the French Federation has done to expand their talent detection program until the age of 17. In many cases, late bloomers were previously excluded from academy/1st tier selection if they didn't stand out before that age.
“We estimate that, between 13 and 17, youngsters are in a development stage in which the physiological differences can be as wide as four years for boys of the same age,” he explains. The French federation requires its talent spotters to select a number of players in the July–December category; it is a form of positive discrimination and the final search for talents among a pool of 17-year-olds is focused exclusively on those born in the second half of the year. “We exclude those born between January and July because we feel they’ve already had the opportunity to show what they can do, so we have a repeat test for boys from the end of the year,” says Blaquart, who notes that the France team who won the European Under-17 Championship in 2015 featured “four players from this final test. They’d been overlooked by the system, which makes it satisfying.”
http://uefa.to/2exNCr5 -- From Page 17 - 23
The most encouraging part is what the French Federation has done to expand their talent detection program until the age of 17. In many cases, late bloomers were previously excluded from academy/1st tier selection if they didn't stand out before that age.
“We estimate that, between 13 and 17, youngsters are in a development stage in which the physiological differences can be as wide as four years for boys of the same age,” he explains. The French federation requires its talent spotters to select a number of players in the July–December category; it is a form of positive discrimination and the final search for talents among a pool of 17-year-olds is focused exclusively on those born in the second half of the year. “We exclude those born between January and July because we feel they’ve already had the opportunity to show what they can do, so we have a repeat test for boys from the end of the year,” says Blaquart, who notes that the France team who won the European Under-17 Championship in 2015 featured “four players from this final test. They’d been overlooked by the system, which makes it satisfying.”