Talent Identification In Soccer: Performance vs Potential

This booklet helps coaches to seek out the best talent and select the right athletes. It describes some of the pitfalls of over-valuing certificates and under-valuing potential. The booklet acts as a good mindset framework for effective talent scouting. What you see today may not necessarily indicate accurately what you might see in the future. Unfortunately many sports development programs today are based on performance at a given test within a given environment. Those that are unable to make the cut are discarded as being unsuitable. That is why experts like Fred Engh (The Coach Who Became 'Best Man', 2015) discuss that a lot more time is required to understand the player and their abilities before a judgement can be made about their abilities. Worse still there are selection programs that look at the results of an 11 year all-star program and then use it to make recruitment decisions. This is a very wrongheaded approach that does not account for the intangibles that may have gone into producing those results. For example the athlete may have been sick during the events thus undermining their normally stellar results. It seems that the critical difference is that between identifying talent and selecting talent.