Identification of Young Football Talent

In every sport and game there is a search and catch young individuals with the potential for achieving excellent results in future. In the early age, youngsters show suitability for training and ability to learn more successful basic trainings. The purpose of identifying is to predict with a high degree of probability whether or not a young athlete will be able successfully complete the training programme in a given event.

In highly competitive football performance, to produce a top footballer, identification of talent is of immense importance. Youth team management and recruitment of young players cannot be separated from one another. In this, the coach or trainer with the chief scout of the club is involved in his scouting network so that the supply of young players is both an effective and continuous one. The chief scout and his associates there must be established good relationship with the local schools, the teachers and parents directly for selecting the schoolboy footballers. The club which fails to recruit the best of the local schoolboy talent creates difficulties for itself. The high dignity of a professional football club must be presented to parents, head teachers, young players and public. It can stem from the correct handling of young players and affording them the time for their effective development.

It is intensified the search and selection for talented schoolboy footballers largely. The clubs should have a youth development policy. Nevertheless, unless the necessary staffs, highly trained coaches and trainers, careful selection, handling and development of young players, obviously will be a criminal waste of young football talent. The clubs should be very selective in the recruitment of young players, thereby ensuring a higher success rate.

Specialization in football can only begin when we have already prepared the young player's system - physical foundation, high mental capacity and consciously mastering the specific practical and theoretical knowledge of football. We need general preparation of the child which the whole process of laying the foundation for the development of the body's many-sided, physical capabilities, psychic consistency, as well as general movement ability. It is also difficult to determine the lower age limit for children's general preparation, but body preparation begins already in the kindergartens, especially in the physical education classes in primary school. This is the development of general motor abilities as well as the strengthening of the child's muscular system begins.

Generally from the age of 10 onwards we can begin to teach the young players those technical elements for which he has already acquired the physical basis that will enable him to carry them out effectively and correctly. We need to give correct consideration to the mental capacity of the 10-12 year old player, but, it is still too early to teach tactical and strategical knowledge at this age. General and special preparations for young football players start at the early age with informal ball play and physical movements. Around at the age of 10 children start to learn the fundamental skills- various types of kicks, ball receiving, dribbling, tackling, heading, goal-keeping techniques etc. They apply the skills in friendly and competitive matches. At this age, the inborn quality and partly developed pre-requisites of the game, possessed by the individuals to achieve the high performance in future, can be objectively spotted.

Now-a-days highly developed systematic scientific research works are needed for spotting and determining the combination of talent factors, and various parameters responsible for achieving the ultimate goal in competitive football. Football scientists, top coaches, trainers and physical educators need to dedicate in constructing variety of test batteries to trace out and spotting the talented young football players in the early age. Spotting of young talent is difficult task. It involves physical, psychological, physiological, social and total motor variables. These are the performance limiting factors responsible for talent identification.

In the densely populated Indian society, this is the great need for search and selection of young footballers in the school levels in order to develop their football-blooded innate tendency for future potential football craftsman. Mass recruitment program among the school going children should be planned by club's talent scouting team in hand with schools' heads, physical education teachers and close understanding with the parents and guardians. In talent scouting good cooperation from the parents, teachers and highly motivated students to participate in playing football are indispensable trends to the club's scouting team. This quadrate relationship between scouting team, parents, teachers, and young footballers should be maintained carefully to architect the artistic talent. Various basic test batteries can be applied on the youngsters to check their football potentiality.

The football standard of India in the recent past and present scenario, due to the poor performance at the international competitions, a great concern has been shown to develop a very concrete criterion for objective measurement, and selecting the youngster schoolboys earlier to draw out long term plans and training them in every performance limiting sphere like specific skills, motor abilities, psychological and physiological parameters. Such specific criterion would help the coaches, trainers, and physical educators to predict the hidden potentiality among the youngster schoolboys who would be the potential champion of tomorrow.

On this basis, talent identification and its development in the early young age has become an important area of research. In this global football world, scientists view to spot talented young players hardly on the fitness and performance areas as fundamental skills, motor abilities, psychological and physiological parameters. Hence, it is recommended that screening of potential talent for early identification at the younger age group has become a national urgency in Indian context. And unless such foundation for long term football development planning, we 'India' do hope to qualify in the 2010 World Cup might be ridiculous propaganda. Firstly, let's dream for Asian Champion!!!