Identifying talent in football players

Identifying the elements that define a talented football player has been and is still the subject of numerous scientific papers. However, in terms of the role played by the coach in identifying and developing player talent, very few studies have been found. Based on these premises, the paper presented here aims to establish, from an empirical perspective, the elements that condition and define a talented footballer player based on the opinion of the coach. Using a non-experimental, descriptive, empirical research design, an evaluation questionnaire was prepared and sent to a total of 890 coaches and trainers affiliated to the Football Federation of Andalusia. The results obtained classify the traits of talented football players into the following factors: physical-environmental conditioning factors, interpersonal relations, personality factors, teamwork competencies, decision-making, tactical -technical abilities, and expectations of success.