ABSTRACT
The interest in and the popularity of football (soccer in the U.S.) are subject to many discussions about how to improve and develop the game. Consequently, football as a sport is a reflection of surrounding societies and vice versa. Therefore, the pervasive expansion of data-driven and interactive technologies witnessed in other areas of society has also influenced football environments. This case study explores how data-driven and interactive technologies are merged into a football training system and how this training methodology involves gamification to engage players and to spark learning curves and football development while creating a fun environment. Although there are accessibility challenges for football clubs to tackle concerning the use of such training systems and that this training methodology cannot stand alone, this study concludes that the gamified training experiences provide relevance in many areas of football development. The interactive methodology, which among other things captures a data-driven approach to quantify technical precision and speed as it relates to tactical, mental, physical, social, communicative, creative, leadership, and managerial sides of football, helps to motivate players’ training commitment while its flexible design-options integrate good opportunities to spark the progression of football learning curves and thus talent development. As such, the interactive training methodology can also assist in talent identification, to identify players’ development areas, and to inspire working processes in terms of the transferability of specific competencies to full-size games.
