Talent pathways in Brazil and Spain

Football is a very simple game, but that doesn’t mean everyone plays it the same way. In this Research Brief, Dr Machado presents a study into how promising youngsters are trained in Spain and Brazil. The research revealed some striking differences, and suggest what the two powerhouses (and other countries, too) could potentially learn from each other.

• Football is a global game, and cultural differences matter at all levels of the sport.

• International exchanges on talent development can bring benefits for everyone involved.

• Making systemic changes to your national development pyramid takes planning and a commitment to educating key stakeholders (e.g., coaches and directors).

• Greater use of futsal as a training tool can increase variety and allow players to train indoors in poor weather.

Part 1: Introduction: Côté’s model
Talent development is not a linear process, and the amount and type of practice young players accumulate on their way through the ranks can have a significant impact on their progression up the pyramid. To begin the presentation, Dr Machado talks us through Jean Côté’s renowned developmental model of participation in sport, which provides a useful framework for examining that impact. You can find out more about the model here.

Part 2: National differences
The key distinction within Côté’s model is that between “deliberate play” (playing for pleasure) and “deliberate practice” (playing to improve performance). In most countries, play predominates until about the age of ten, although players also engage in increasing amounts of practice from a very early age. Research carried out in Brazil around 2010 suggested the pattern there was different: youngsters engaged in limited organised practice before the age of ten, after which organised training quickly became dominant. This may be a result of the popularity of futsal in Brazil. 

Part 3: Aims and methodology
The study aimed to compare the different football-related activities young Brazilian and Spanish players engaged in, to ascertain how young elite players trained, and to examine what the differences revealed about the two countries’ talent pathways. To answer these questions, the researchers asked players in their late teens to fill in a questionnaire about their experiences of sport growing up and rising through the football pyramid. They also asked how much time they had spent engaging in futsal and other sports, to assess how early they had specialised in football. 

Part 4: Practice v. play
The results of the study revealed a number of differences between Spain and Brazil. For example, children in Brazil start formal practice relatively late, and then make a quick transition to 11-a-side matches; in Spain, the transition is much more gradual. Moreover, Brazilian youth players spend more time involved in the game than their Spanish counterparts: promising 15-year-olds in Brazil often train four to five times a week, while their Spanish counterparts generally train around three times a week. 

Part 5: Specialised sampling v. early engagement
These variations are linked to a difference in approach. In Brazil, youngsters are encouraged to engage in “specialised sampling” by playing both football and futsal from an early age. In Spain, players tend to start playing earlier than Brazilians, and focus primarily on football rather than futsal. Despite these differences, the research suggests that while Brazilian players accumulate a higher overall training volume than their Spanish counterparts, the types of activities in their training sessions remain quite similar.

Part 6: Conclusions
To round off the session, Dr Machado summarises the overall findings of the research and considers what they might mean for talent development. For instance, Spain (and other countries) might enhance its football pyramid through greater use of futsal, while Brazil could consider adopting Spain’s more gradual approach to introducing players to 11v11 football. FIFA and other governing bodies can facilitate systemic changes of this kind by encouraging consistent benchmarking and investing in coach education programmes that promote the integration of alternative methodologies (including futsal) in player development.

Paper citation 
Machado, G., González-Víllora, S., Pastor-Vicedo, J. C., Teoldo, I., 2024, “Mapping talent pathways: A comparative study of developmental activities and practice structure in Brazilian and Spanish U-18 elite youth male soccer players”, International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 19(5), pp. 2006-2015.

Read the full paper here.