Performance indicators as a resource for the selection of talented football players

Abstract

The evaluation of talent has gained a great impact due to the importance that can have both for football clubs and for the player's own families. However, this contrasts with the processes carried out today, based mainly on the expert's intuition to promote a football player category. In order to try to make an objective evaluation of the soccer player, one of the methods most used in previous studies has been the use of performance indicators, however, the reliability of the same has not been demonstrated. The research objective that has had this work has been to verify the reliability of the performance indicators. First, comparing the performance of a group of players nominated for the gold ball, and secondly comparing the performance of a group of players nominated five times in the last five years with another group of players who have never been nominated. The sample consisted of 103 soccer players. Data collection has been done from the WhoScored database. And the analysis of the same through the program SPSS v. 22.0. The results show that the performance of those players nominated and not nominated for the gold ball is similar, therefore, it is possible to conclude the poor reliability of the performance indicators most used in previous studies. Finally, as a prospective research, it is proposed to use other validated evaluation instruments that are responsible for measuring the tactical aspect of the soccer player.