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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Elite Sports and Performance Enhancement
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1583880
This article is part of the Research Topic 40 Years of Relative Age Effects in Sport: Lessons from the Past and Directions for the Future View all 17 articles
The relative age effect and the relationship between biological maturity and athletic performance in Austrian elite youth soccer players
Provisionally accepted- 1 University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- 2 Center for Sports Science and University Sports, University of Vienna, Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- 3 Department of Sport and Human Movement Science, Vienna, Austria
- 4 Sportklub Rapid, Vienna, Austria
- 5 Centre for Sport Science and University Sports, Vienna, Austria
Purpose: Publications from recent years suggest that the biological developmental stage of underage athletes has a significant impact on their athletic performance. This scientific study is the first quantitative attempt in Austria to investigate the impact of the relative age effect and biological maturity on the physical performance of young elite soccer players.Methods: Birth data from a total of 98 male players in the U13 to U18 age groups of a first-division Austrian soccer club were collected. By measuring height, sitting height and body mass, the individual biological age was calculated using the Mirwald equation. The athletes underwent a standardized battery of tests, which included assessments of speed, strength and endurance.Results: The results indicate a significant effect of the relative age effect on player selection in the U14 and U15 teams (p < .05), which diminishes with increasing player age. Compared to typical Austrian adolescents of similar age, U13, U14 and U15 players demonstrate a higher level of biological maturity (p < .05). Correlational analyses revealed that the maturity offset, reflecting the time before or after the greatest individual growth spurt, was positively related to eccentric hamstring strength (r = 0.82) and vertical jumping ability (r = 0.61) and positively related to sprint performance over 5, 10 and 20m (0.62 < r < 0.69; all p ≤ .001).Conclusion: Biological maturity and the associated anthropometric adaptations are decisive for athletic performance. The study supports the notion that biologically more mature players achieve better athletic performance than less mature players, especially before the onset of puberty.
Keywords: European football, Youth athletes, biological age, talent identification, Physical Fitness, maturation
Received: 26 Feb 2025; Accepted: 02 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wenger and Csapo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Robert Csapo, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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