Of all the millions of children who start out kicking a ball from a young age there is only a tiny chance of them becoming a professional footballer. Despite that small chance for all, is the probability weighted more greatly depending on when that aspiring footballer is born?
In England a standard school year goes from September to August and a child joins school in the year which they turn 5 but this can be a wide range birth months from those born in September who will be 4 years and 11 months when they step in to their first day Vs a child born in August who could be 364 days younger than the oldest in their year.
How much of an impact does that make on a potential footballers chance on making the grade to become a professional? We took a look at the Date of Births of the current crop to understand more.
We split the year into 4 quarters, September to November (the older children of the year), December to February, March to May & June to August (the youngest children of the year)
The route of many young professionals is to join an academy at a young age, then to be trained by these academies and eventually moving to a team in the top leagues, if they haven’t already been brought through this team’s academy.
If this age difference in a child’s primitive years didn’t have an impact then you would expect the months of birth for professional players to be split equally. However, it appears through the data that you are likely to have a better chance of becoming a footballer if you are born in the first 6 months of the school year. Or more drastically, less of a chance if you are one of the youngest of the year.
The chart below shows all professional players for the 19/20 season from the Premier League, Championship, League One & League Two.
Out of the 2340 players recorded in this study 671 were born between September and November which makes up 28% of the total. On the other side only 19% make up the younger quarter of the school year.
The stats above however shows all professional players of all nationalities which means that, given the vast spectrum of nationalities on show in the Premier League and Football League, many of the players would have gone through other education systems. For instance the France school year enrollment runs from January to December.
Looking at only English players in the top 4 leagues shows that these figures are even more drastic. 30% of English players plying their trade as professional footballers were born at the start of the school year however only 18% were born in the last three months.
The reasons for these figures could be for a number of reasons but the most obvious is that during the junior years of playing football teams are split into age groups based on school years. This means that from the age of under 6 up to under 18’s it is likely that a player born in September has a physical edge over a player born in August.
All players remember that one player who developed quicker than others being able to kick the ball from one goal to the next on a mini field, or able to kick the ball out of reach of a goalkeeper into the top half of a full size goal. This physical advantage gives a player a chance to shine when being observed by scouts and earlier access to professional training.
It’s not all doom and gloom for a younger player though. When analysing birth dates for Premier League players purely there is much less of a trend. This shows that if the quality is there then it will find it’s way to a higher stage.
If you look at the development of English football through the 90s through to today it is a vast difference as it tries to keep up with world football and the English Premier Leagues influence from foreign players. Through the 90s English football was focussed on physicality and if you were a scout looking for this trait then it would likely be someone who would be physically better than the other players in their year. Nowadays however speed, agility and awareness are more of a factor and therefore coaches are more likely to give a smaller child who is good on a ball that initial chance.
In order to fully equal the balance through the school years young players should rotate who they play against. Sometimes they should be the oldest & sometimes the oldest to give them the time to develop their skills and get equal touches on the ball. We could be missing out on some of the worlds best footballers just because of the month they were born.
And England’s last two captains…..Wayne Rooney (October) & Harry Kane…….(July) – maybe the tide is already turning
take part in our challenges
Maestro Football Challenges is a web app which enables coaches and individuals to take part in drills and challenges and record their scores and compare with players across the world. Take a look at our most recent challenges below or view drills here.
Chip the ball into the skills net from a short distance to show your accuracy skills.
Keep up a ball for 10 yards and then place it in the net. 3 balls to complete and the best score / fastest time wins.
Record your maximum speed and compare with other players across the world.
Closest to the pin wins in this passing accuracy challenge.
Test your dribbling and speed and also your close control in this dribbling drill.