Relative Age Effect in Top European Football Leagues
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37134/jsspj.vol13.1.1.2024Keywords:
RAE, Early born, Elite Professional Football, EuropeAbstract
Relative age effect (RAE) known as the birth date effect phenomena that widely used in identifying the individual talents and skills which early born have greater advantages compare to later born individuals. The main objective of this study is to investigate the relationship of RAE between European football leagues team rankings. For this study it involved a total of 946 football players (n=946) from every top four European football league which included the English Premier League (EPL) (United Kingdom), Serie A (Italy), La Liga (Spain) and Bundesliga (Germany). The secondary data were collected from every football league official website and categorized into four different quartiles (Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4). The cut-off date started at 1st of January for Italy, Spain, Germany and England according to the equality principles that was established by FIFA. Then, the Chi-square (χ2) test assisted for birth month distribution into four different quartiles in order to gain frequencies in each quartile. Result showed the presence of RAE in all top four European football leagues. Moreover, there were overrepresented players in Q1 in every league ranking team especially among top four teams. To conclude, the top four European football leagues had prevalence in RAE which the early born mostly overrepresented in every top four European Leagues, and suggests that early born footballers are also associated with high ranking in those leagues. Thus, it is possible to associate high team ranking and success with RAE in elite professional football.
Downloads
References
Altimari, J., Altimari, L., Bortolotti, H., Junior, A., Gabardo, J., Buzzachera, C., Frisselli, A., & Moraes, A. (2021). The relative age effect on anthropometry, body composition, biological maturation and motor performance in young Brazilian soccer players. Journal of Human Kinetics, 77, 147-157. https://doi.org/10.2478/hukin-2021-0017
Arslan, Y. (2020). The relative age effect in Turkish professional soccer. European Journal of Human Movement, 44. https://doi.org/10.21134/eurjhm.2020.44.560
Bezuglov, E., Morgans, R., Butovskiy, M., Emanov, A., Shagiakhmetova, L., Pirmakhanov, B., Waśkiewicz, Z., & Lazarev, A. (2023). The relative age effect is widespread among European adult professional soccer players but does not affect their market value. PLOS ONE, 18(3), e0283390. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0283390
Bjerke, Ø., Lorås, H., & Vorland Pedersen, A. (2020). Variations in the constituent year effect in junior world championships in Alpine skiing: A window into relative development effects? PLOS ONE, 15(4), e0231384. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231384
Cumming, S. P., Searle, C., Hemsley, J. K., Haswell, F., Edwards, H., Scott, S., Gross, A., Ryan, D., Lewis, J., White, P., Cain, A., Mitchell, S. B., & Malina, R. M. (2018). Biological maturation, relative age and self-regulation in male professional Academy soccer players: A test of the underdog hypothesis. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 39, 147-153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2018.08.007
De la Rubia, A., Lorenzo-Calvo, J., & Lorenzo, A. (2020). Does the relative age effect influence short-term performance and sport career in team sports? A qualitative systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01947
Delorme, N., Boiché, J., & Raspaud, M. (2009). The relative age effect in elite sport. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 80(2), 336-344. https://doi.org/10.1080/02701367.2009.10599568
Doyle, J. R., & Bottomley, P. A. (2018). Relative age effect in elite soccer: More early-born players, but no better valued, and no paragon clubs or countries. PLOS ONE, 13(2), e0192209. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192209
Ek, S., Wollmer, P., Karlsson, M. K., Peterson, T., Thorsson, O., Olsson, M. C., S. Malmborg, J., & Dencker, M. (2020). Relative age effect of sport Academy adolescents, a physiological evaluation. Sports, 8(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports8010005
Fonseca, F. S., Figueiredo, L. S., Gantois, P., De Lima-Junior, D., & Fortes, L. S. (2019). Relative age effect is modulated by playing position but is not related to competitive success in elite under-19 handball athletes. Sports, 7(4), 91. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports7040091
Foureaux Koppensteiner, M. (2017). Relative age, class assignment, and academic performance: Evidence from Brazilian primary schools. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 120(1), 296-325. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjoe.12215
Gil, S. M., Badiola, A., Bidaurrazaga-Letona, I., Zabala-Lili, J., Gravina, L., Santos-Concejero, J., Lekue, J. A., & Granados, C. (2014). Relationship between the relative age effect and anthropometry, maturity and performance in young soccer players. Journal of Sports Sciences, 32(5), 479-486. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2013.832355
Gyimesi, A., & Kehl, D. (2021). Relative age effect on the market value of elite European football players: A balanced sample approach. European Sport Management Quarterly, 23(2), 544-560. https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2021.1894206
Işın, A. I. (2021). The relative age effect in successful national football teams. Kinesiologia Slovenica, 27(2). https://doi.org/10.52165/kinsi.27.2.40-51
Jasni, N. R. S., Tengku Kamalden, T. F., Jakiwa, J., & Wazir, M. R. W. N. (2022). Systematic Review: Mechanism of Relative Age Effect in Sport. SPED, 37, 1032-1039.
Lago-Fuentes, C., Rey, E., Padrón-Cabo, A., Prieto-Troncoso, J., & Garcia-Núñez, J. (2020). The relative age effect in professional Futsal players. Journal of Human Kinetics, 72(1), 173-183. https://doi.org/10.2478/hukin-2019-0105
Lupo, C., Boccia, G., Ungureanu, A. N., Frati, R., Marocco, R., & Brustio, P. R. (2019). The beginning of senior career in team sport is affected by relative age effect. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01465
Maciel, L. F., Flach, M. C., Nascimento, R. K., Dallegrave, E. J., Nascimento, J. V., & Folle, A. (2021). Relative age effect on basketball: Implications for the selection of successful players (Efecto de la edad relativa en el baloncesto: implicaciones para la selección de jugadores exitosos). Retos, 42, 266-275. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v42i0.83847
Nolan, J. E., & Howell, G. (2010). Hockey success and birth date: The relative age effect revisited. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 45(4), 507-512. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690210371560
Peña-González, I., Javaloyes, A., Sarabia, J. M., & Moya-Ramón, M. (2020). Relative age-related differences between different competitive levels and field positions in young soccer players. Research in Sports Medicine, 29(3), 254-264. https://doi.org/10.1080/15438627.2020.1853540
Rong, L., & L Low, J. (2020). Relative age effects among Malaysian athletes in 29th Sea Games Kuala Lumpur 2017. Malaysian Journal of Movement, Health & Exercise, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.15282/mohe.v9i1.410
Práxedes, A., Moreno, A., García-González, L., Pizarro, D., & Del Villar, F. (2017). The relative age effect on soccer players in formative stages with different sport expertise levels. Journal of Human Kinetics, 60(1), 167-173. https://doi.org/10.1515/hukin-2017-0100
Sierra-Díaz, M., González-Víllora, S., Pastor-Vicedo, J., & Serra-Olivares, J. (2017). Soccer and relative age effect: A walk among elite players and young players. Sports, 5(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports5010005
Steingröver, C., Wattie, N., Baker, J., & Schorer, J. (2016). Does relative age affect career length in North American professional sports? Sports Medicine - Open, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40798-016-0042-3
Torres-Unda, J., Zarrazquin, I., Gil, J., Ruiz, F., Irazusta, A., Kortajarena, M., Seco, J., & Irazusta, J. (2012). Anthropometric, physiological and maturational characteristics in selected elite and non-elite male adolescent basketball players. Journal of Sports Sciences, 31(2), 196-203. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2012.725133
Yagüe, J. M., de la Rubia, A., Sánchez-Molina, J., Maroto-Izquierdo, S., & Molinero, O. (2018). The Relative Age Effect in the 10 Best Leagues of Male Professional Football of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 17(3), 409. https://doi.org/10.21134/eurjhm.2020.44.539
Yagüe, J. M., Molinero, O., Alba, J. Á., & Redondo, J. C. (2020). Evidence for the relative age effect in the Spanish professional soccer league. Journal of Human Kinetics, 73(1), 209-218. https://doi.org/10.2478/hukeauxkin-2019-0145
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Nurul Nabilah Arbain, Mohd Zulkhairi Mohd Azam, Maisarah Mohd Saleh, Nurul Diyana Sanuddin, Norlaila Azura Kosni, Nur Atikah Mohamed Kassim
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
