Developing the Football Player: A Long-Term Path Too Often Ignored

As recalled by Fabio Capello and many other experts, Italian football is currently experiencing a period of difficulty in developing high-level professional players. One of the main reasons lies in the failure to respect certain fundamental principles that should guide the long-term growth of young athletes. Added to this is a structural issue within the school system: the lack of adequate physical education, both in terms of the number of hours and the quality of instruction. As a result, our children and adolescents are often less prepared athletically than their peers in other countries, where sport is an integral and well-structured part of the educational process.

The development of a young sporting talent’s abilities is a long and gradual process aimed at transforming them into a high-level football player. This pathway focuses on the athlete’s overall growth, with the goal of fostering and enhancing the technical, tactical, psychological, and physical skills necessary for excellence.

An important aspect concerns the time required to achieve this goal. Research shows that becoming an expert requires approximately 10,000 hours of practice over a period of about ten years. This journey is generally divided into three main stages.
The first stage (ages 6–9) introduces children to sport and focuses on enjoyment, a sense of responsibility, engagement, and curiosity. These objectives are achieved through the teaching of basic techniques, which represent the first step in developing confidence, coordination, and control of movement.
The second stage (ages 10–15) emphasizes technical development, specialization, consistent effort, and the ability to collaborate with teammates, thus fostering collective play and team spirit.
The third stage (ages 16–19) is aimed at refinement, mastery of skills, and the awareness that sport becomes a primary activity. Subsequently, the athlete must be able to maintain the level of performance achieved throughout their career.

The psychological qualities that distinguish top athletes include self-confidence, optimism, goal orientation, motivation, determination, concentration, willingness to learn, and sporting perfectionism. These abilities are not developed solely through training, but also through the environment in which the athlete grows up: family, coaches, and sports organizations all play a crucial role.
The social environment should encourage participation and support, place limited pressure on results, allow young athletes to experience the same educational, social, and emotional opportunities as their peers, reinforce confidence in their abilities, prevent sport from taking over their entire lives, promote responsibility and discipline, and provide opportunities to interact with elite athletes.

Ultimately, the development of talent results from the interaction of multiple factors: the personal qualities of the young athlete and the opportunities for growth provided by their sporting and social environment.