National youth team football players between the conflicting priorities of sports success and vocational training

Zibung, Marc; Conzelmann, Achim (2014). National youth team football players between the conflicting priorities of sports success and vocational training. European Journal for Sport and Society, 11(2), pp. 127-150. Waxmann

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In view of the risks involved in relying on a professional career in football as a way of making a future living, most players on Swiss National Youth Football Teams pursue some form of vocational training at the same time. This paper investigates the question under what conditions a successful football career is possible when faced with such a dual burden. In order to examine the development process as holistically as possible, a person-oriented approach was chosen. 159 former Swiss National Youth Team players were retrospectively interviewed about their careers, and the data were analysed using the LICUR method (Bergman, Magnusson, & El-Khouri, 2003). This involves identifying certain patterns in the relevant variables of sports career, vocational career and family support, and then comparing these with the performance at the age of peak performance. Through this, it was possible to identify promising patterns of development. It turns out that the critical transition, at the age of about 15–16 years, is characterised overall by stability. The most successful patterns display above-average family support accompanied by above-average professional talent promotion in the clubs. In this constellation, the football players who are later successful pursue vocational training courses leading to low levels of educational qualification.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Sport Science (ISPW)
07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Sport Science (ISPW) > Sport Psychology and Research Methods

UniBE Contributor:

Zibung, Marc Raphael, Conzelmann, Achim

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology
700 Arts > 790 Sports, games & entertainment

ISSN:

1613-8171

Publisher:

Waxmann

Language:

English

Submitter:

Marc Raphael Zibung

Date Deposited:

12 May 2014 13:54

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:29

Related URLs:

Uncontrolled Keywords:

football careers, talent research, person-orientation, LICUR method

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.43576

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/43576

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