The Anthropometric and Physiological Characteristics of Young Algerian Soccer Players

Objective: The aim of this paper was to describe the anthropometric and physiological characteristics of young soccer players (U13) which were associated with their being successful or not as soccer players, and also to determine standard levels in the light of a test battery and indicators to select and guide the young talents as a scientific means to facilitate the selection. Method: A total of 390 soccer players age (U13). From 14 Algerian soccer clubs were enrolled and subjected to standard anthropometric, fitness (speed 20m, CMJ, skills-related performance testing. The testing battery will be described as will the process for converting test data into standardized scores. Data will be presented to show the strengths and weaknesses of some players. Result: After analysing the results based on the standard criteria for the proposed tests as well as the overall performance variable. And the ability of each youth to be selected according to their potential, and therefore it was stressed that the proposed criteria, which are scientific support for the field observation, should be emphasized to facilitate this process for Algerian soccer players. The findings from this study indicate that marked improvements and parameters associated with physical maturity such as height, weight, speed, VO2max, or chronological age are important to determine the success of a soccer player. At older ages, other factors such as agility seem to be more important. Nevertheless, players born in the 1st semester of the year are also more frequent in the older teams. These findings should be taken into account by trainers and coaches in order to avoid biasing their selection choices.