ABSTRACT
The past two decades have seen a rapid rise in research exploring talent identification and development in youth soccer. Unfortunately, there are important limitations to the evidentiary foundations of the literature and practice in this area. In this chapter, there is a central focus on the need for clear and consistent language in how stakeholders (e.g., researchers and practitioners) talk about current issues in youth development in sport, particularly within youth soccer. Although the focus of this chapter is on three key areas (i.e., how we define talent, how we consider competition levels, and how we measure early specialisation), the larger rationale for clarity and standardisation is the same for issues outside the scope of this chapter. The chapter concludes with some recommendations for future work in this area and considerations for practitioners.
