Authors
Greg Doncaster, Daniel Medina, Franchek Drobnic, Antonio José Gómez-Díaz, Viswanath Unnithan
Publication date
2020/7/31
Journal
Frontiers in sports and active living
Volume
2
Pages
91
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Description
FC Barcelona is a multi-sport organization that adopts a talent identification approach that emphasizes the technical, psychological, and perceptual–cognitive attributes. It is unclear within this type of sporting selection model whether the relative age effect (RAE) exists. Consequently, the aim of the study was to evaluate the RAE across multiple sports and age groups at FC Barcelona. The birthdates of all players (n = 6,542) affiliated to each sport [male basketball (n = 1,013), male (n = 3,012) and female (n = 449) soccer, male futsal (n = 761), male handball (n = 999), and male indoor roller hockey (n = 308)] across all age groups from U10 to Senior were recorded. These were then categorized into quartiles from the start of the selection year (Q1 = Jan–Mar; Q2 = Apr–Jun; Q3 = Jul–Sep; Q4 = Oct–Dec) and analyzed for (a) each sport; (b) each age group, irrespective of the sport; and (c) each age group within each sport, using Chi-squared statistics and odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Birthdates across the entire club revealed a RAE (Q1 = 46.1%, Q2 = 27.1%, Q3 = 17.1%, and Q4 = 9.7%, χ2 = 29.8, P < 0.01), with OR in Q1, Q2, and Q3 representing a 4.76 (95% CIs: 1.96–11.57), 2.80 (1.12–7.03), and 1.77 (0.67–4.63) increased likelihood for selection when compared to Q4, respectively. Despite FC Barcelona's approach to talent identification and development, the RAE was still present within youth age groups (<18 years old). The current findings provide support that the RAE is more prevalent within regionally popular sports and reduces with increasing age; however, given the talent identification processes within FC …
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