Long-Term Player Development in Football: Coaching Practices, Pathways, and Holistic Development

Developing a football player is a long game. From a child’s first experience with a ball, through academy systems, and into the demanding transition to senior competition, the journey spans years of physical, technical, tactical, and psychosocial growth. Yet despite football and futsal’s global reach, the science of how coaches best support players through each stage of this journey remains incomplete — and the stakes of getting it wrong are high, from premature dropout and burnout to the waste of talent that never reaches its potential.Research in long-term player development has accelerated in recent years, challenging longstanding assumptions about early specialization, talent selection, and what “good” youth coaching actually looks like. New questions have emerged around the physiological, genetic, and neuroscientific underpinnings of long-term athlete development, the psychosocial demands placed on young players in professional academy environments, the effectiveness of different coaching approaches across developmental stages, the wellbeing of players navigating the youth-to-senior transition, and how family, culture, and context shape development outcomes.This Research Topic invites contributions that examine the full arc of player development in football and futsal — from foundational grassroots participation to elite academy pathways and the critical transition into senior competition. We are particularly interested in research that places the coach and coaching practice at the centre, alongside studies addressing the physiological, genetic, and neuroscientific aspects of long-term athlete development and their connections to talent identification and skill acquisition.Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:- Coaching methods and pedagogical approaches across youth developmental stages- Long-term athlete development (LTAD) frameworks applied to football and futsal- Physiological, genetic, and neuroscientific aspects of long-term athlete development- Talent identification and skill acquisition across developmental stages- Psychosocial skill development in youth football and futsal players and academies- Wellbeing, stress, and safeguarding of young players in professional academy settings- The youth-to-senior transition: barriers, facilitators, and coaching support strategies- Relative age effects, bio-banding, and their implications for coaching practice- Family, parental involvement, and environmental influences on player development- Early childhood football and futsal participation and foundational movement development- Coach education and professional development for working with young players- Player autonomy, self-regulation, and intrinsic motivation in youth coaching- Dropout, burnout, and retention in youth football and futsal- Diversity, inclusion, and equal access in football and futsal development pathways- Technology and data-informed approaches to individual player developmentWe welcome Original Research, Reviews, Systematic Reviews, Perspectives, and Opinion articles from researchers, coach educators, and practitioners working across all levels of youth and developmental football and futsal. Topic editors: CAMILA BICALHO, ANDREA PESCA, Daniel Alvarez Pires, Gislane Melo, Varley Teoldo Da Costa, Bruno Costa Teixeira Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/82348/long-term-player-development-in-football-coaching-practices-pathways-and-holistic-development