In noting that none of the “next generation” Premier League stars were born between May and 30 August, Martin Goodwin (Letters, 6 October) identifies the phenomenon often described as the relative age effect (RAE), and discussed most notably in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers.
Put simply, the school year in the northern hemisphere starts in autumn. When organised sport is introduced at about the age of eight, many hildren born earlier in the year will be bigger, stronger and faster than their younger classmates. They get picked for the school team, receive more coaching, take part in more competitive games, get selected for regional teams. By the time they reach an age where the physical difference has evened out, they are better players, and it is difficult for others to close the gap. Many potentially great players born at the wrong time of year are lost to elite sport. It’s certainly the sole explanation for my own failure to play for Tottenham Hotspur.
Paul Dennehy
London
• This small development gap that kids with summer birthdays experience is amplified by the children’s young age when they’re put into academies. The Guardian reported on this in 2011Tottenham have done very well nurturing this left-behind summer talent, with Danny Rose (2 July), Kyle Walker (28 May), and Harry Kane (28 July) all now in the England setup.
Natan Misak
Pune, Maharashtra, India
• The FA has given the East Lancashire Football Alliance permission to run a pilot scheme to study the relative age effect. Our junior league has three years to assess the initiatives we have in place to try to balance “birth bias”. Your Next Generation part two (5 October), identifying “the best talents in the world born in 1999” reflects the RAE too. In continental Europe most football is organised on the calendar year, unlike the UK which adopts the school year. Of the 20 young prospects, nine were born from January to April, seven from May to August, and only four from September to December.
Many sports are now also looking at bio-banding to try to encourage talented children born at the wrong end of the year to progress.
Peter Thornton
Vice-chairman, East Lancashire Football Alliance (ELFA)
• The English National Football Archive has examined the dates of birth of 35,255 players in the English Football League and the Premier League from 1888 to date. Of these, 19,747 were born in the first half of the school year, that is 1 September to 8 February; and 15,508 were born in the remaining six months, meaning that the figure for the first half exceeds that for the second half by 27%. ENFA has also examined the birth counties of these players. We can report that players from the north-east born between September and February are far more likely to play professional football than those from the south-west born between March and August.
Tony Brown
Nottingham
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