ABSTRACT
That soccer is unarguably the world’s most popular sport can be judged from the estimated 352.6 million television audience of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Matches. Many authors have shown the importance for clubs and national teams of detecting and recruiting talented players in order to develop their full potential. Identifying talents at an early age is far from being a mechanistic process (Reilly et al., 2000), as the selection of young elite soccer players requires the analysis of several factors (Maguire and Pearton, 2000). Strong inter-individual variations of these parameters are observed in childhood and adolescence. However, sports governing bodies neglect this significant point and generally gather together youngsters of a chronological age within the same 12-month period.
