Players’ understanding of talent identification in early specialization youth football

Abstract

Despite research illustrating the socially constructed and subjective nature of talent identification in football, little research has explored how players make sense of ‘being talented’ and how this shapes their identity experiences. Five football academy players aged 11 years participated in five focus group interviews. Thematic and interactional qualitative analyses were performed to examine the content and function of participants’ talk. Findings described how players constructed being scouted as authentically choosing, or being chosen by, a club, which worked to protect or enhance participants’ talented identities and self-worth. Talent was regarded as dynamic, but players’ perceived expectation to continuously improve implied a potentially problematic view of development as linear. Evidence of early socialization into the academy culture indicated that while effort was seen as virtuous, it was used to judge performance in comparison to peers, suggesting that effort had become a rhetorical device that reflected conformity, rather than player motivation.

Notes

1. Allison, ‘FA’s Coach Education Programme’, 2.

2. Elite Player Performance Plan, Premier League Youth Development.

3. Christensen, ‘“An eye for talent”’, 365–82.

4. Williams and Reilly, ‘Talent Identification in Soccer’, 658.

5. Brown and Potrac, ‘“You’ve not Made the Grade, Son”’, 143–59; and Christensen and Sørensen, ‘Sport or School?’, 1–18.

6. Christensen, ‘“An eye for talent”’, 365–82; Miller, Cronin, and Baker, ‘Nurture, Nature’, 642–62; and Tranckle and Cushion, ‘Rethinking Giftedness and Talent’, 265–82.

7. e.g. Brown and Potrac, ‘“You’ve not Made the Grade, Son”’, 143–59; Cushion and Jones, ‘Power, Discourse, and Symbolic Violence’, 142–61; Cushion and Jones, ‘Bourdieusian Analysis of Cultural Reproduction’, 276–98; Mills et al., ‘Development of Academy Players’, 1593–604; and Mitchell et al., ‘Exploring Athletic Identity’, 1294–9.

8. Côté, ‘The Influence of the Family’, 395–417.

9. Cushion and Jones, ‘Power, Discourse, and Symbolic Violence’, 155.

10. Ibid.

11. Brewer, Van Raalte, and Linder, ‘Athletic Identity’, 237–54.

12. Mitchell et al., ‘Exploring Athletic Identity’, 1294–9.

13. Mills et al., ‘Development of Academy Players’, 1593–604.

14. Christensen and Sørensen, ‘Sport or School?’, 11.

15. Brown and Potrac, ‘“You’ve not Made the Grade, Son”’, 143–59.

16. Jones, Glintmeyer, and McKenzie, ‘Slim Bodies, Eating Disorders’, 377–91.

17. Brown and Potrac, ‘“You’ve not Made the Grade, Son”’, 143–59.

18. Burkitt, Social Selves, 4.

19. Ibid., 192.

20. e.g. Christensen, ‘“An eye for talent”’, 365–82; and Miller, Cronin, and Baker, ‘Nurture, Nature’, 642–62.

21. Csikszentmihalyi, Rathunde, and Whalen, Talented Teenagers, 23.

22. Christensen, ‘“An eye for talent”’, 365–82.

23. Piggott, ‘Listening to Young People’, 415–33; and Pitchford et al., ‘Children in Football’, 43–60.

24. Academies are independently audited and categorized from one to four, with one being the highest rating, based on factors including training facilities, coaching programmes and welfare provision (Elite Player Performance Plan, Premier League Youth Development).

25. Côté, ‘The Influence of the Family’, 395–417.

26. Eder and Fingerson, ‘Interviewing Children and Adolescents’, 181–202.

27. Hill, ‘Children’s Voices’, 69–89.

28. Gibson, ‘Conducting Focus Groups with Children’, 473–83; and Morgan et al., ‘Hearing Children’s Voices’, 5–20.

29. Ryba, ‘Researching Children in Sport’, 334–48.

30. Gibson, ‘Conducting Focus Groups with Children’, 473–83.

31. Morgan et al., ‘Hearing Children’s Voices’, 5–20.

32. O’Kane, ‘Development of Participatory Techniques’, 136–59.

33. Burkitt, Social Selves.

34. Wilkinson, ‘Focus Groups Health Research’, 329–48; and Wilkinson, ‘Analysing Interaction’, 50–62.

35. Clarke, Caddick, and Frost, ‘Pluralistic Data Analysis’, 368–81.

36. Clarke et al., ‘Analytical Pluralism’, 182–201.

37. Braun and Clarke, ‘Using Thematic Analysis’, 77–101.

38. Drew, ‘Precision and Exaggeration in Interaction’, 917–38.

39. Grove, Fish, and Eklund, ‘Changes in Athletic Identity’, 75–81.

40. Burkitt, Social Selves.

41. Roderick, The Work of Professional Football.

42. Goffman, Presentation of Self.

43. Lerner, ‘Collaborative Turn Sequences’, 225–56.

44. Festinger, ‘A Theory of Social’, 117–40.

45. Boissicat et al., ‘Perceived Scholastic Competence’, 603–14.

46. Brown and Potrac, ‘“You’ve not Made the Grade, Son”’, 143–59.

47. Clarke, Harwood, and Cushion, Parent–Child Relationship, 125–43.

48. Burkitt, Social Selves, 54.

49. Christensen, ‘“An eye for talent”’, 365–82; Christensen and Sørensen, ‘Sport or School?’, 1–18; Cushion and Jones, ‘Power, Discourse, and Symbolic Violence’, 142–61; Cushion and Jones, ‘Bourdieusian Analysis of Cultural Reproduction’; Miller, Cronin and Baker, ‘Nurture, Nature’, 642–62; and Mills et al., ‘Development of Academy Players’, 1593–604.

50. Mills et al., ‘Development of Academy Players’, 1593–604.

51. Cushion and Jones, ‘Power, Discourse, and Symbolic Violence’, 142–61; and Cushion and Jones, ‘Bourdieusian Analysis of Cultural Reproduction’.

52. Dweck, Mindset.

53. Ames, ‘Achievement Goals’, 161–76.

54. Foucault, Discipline and Punish.

55. See Manley, Palmer, and Roderick, ‘Disciplinary Power’.

56. Sæther and Mehus, ‘“You’re not born with talent”’, 1–8.

57. Foucault, Discipline and Punish.

58. Miller, Cronin, and Baker, ‘Nurture, Nature’, 642–62.

59. Burkitt, Social Selves.

60. Ibid.; see Goffman, Presentation of Self.

61. Ibid.

62. See Christensen, ‘“An eye for talent”’, 365–82; and Miller, Cronin, and Baker, ‘Nurture, Nature’, 642–62.

63. e.g. Dweck, Mindset.

64. Ames, ‘Achievement Goals’, 161–76; and Nicholls, ‘The Competitive Ethos’.

65. Vazou, Ntoumanis, and Duda, Peer Motivational Climate, 497–516.

66. e.g. Toering et al., Self-regulation and Performance, 1509–17.

67. Tranckle and Cushion, ‘Rethinking Giftedness and Talent’, 265–82.

68. Brown and Potrac, ‘“You’ve not Made the Grade, Son”’, 143–59.

69. Maybin, Children’s Voices.

70. Potter and Hepburn, ‘Qualitative Interviews in Psychology’, 281–307.

71. Jones, Glintmeyer, and McKenzie, ‘Slim Bodies, Eating Disorders’, 377–91.