Skeletal and chronological age relationship in young soccer players prior to the growth spurt

Skeletal and chronological age relationship in young soccer players prior to the growth spurt

Artemii Lazarev¹, Eduard Bezuglov², Anton Emanov², Andrei Burlakov³, Georgiy Malyakin², Elizaveta Kapralova², Vyacheslav Kolesnichenko², Ryland Morgans²

¹ Mount Sinai Hospital, Chicago, IL, USA

² Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russian Federation

³ Russian Football Union, Moscow, Russian Federation

Purpose: to correlate the relationship between skeletal and chronological age in soccer players from elite and sub-elite youth soccer academies and to assess any differences between competition standards prior to the growth spurt.

Methods and study design: this cross-sectional study involved 51 elite (age 139±5.8 months, height 152.2±12.8 cm, weight 41.0±12.8 kg, BMI 17.6±3.7 km/m2) and 103 sub-elite (age 140±6.8 months, height 150.2±14.2 cm, weight 39.9±12.5 kg, BMI 17.5±3.8 km/m2) youth soccer academy players. Anthropometric measurements (height, weight, body mass index), somatic maturity status (Khamis-Roche formula), and skeletal age (BAUSport™ Sonic Bone ultrasound device) were performed. A comparison of skeletal and chronological ages across both groups, elite and sub-elite, were conducted.

Results: chronological age (p=0.67), weight (p=0.16) and height (p=0.31) were comparable across both groups. Skeletal age in both elite and sub-elite groups was significantly higher than chronological age (146±11.7 months, p=0.037 and 142±12.1 months, p=0.042 respectively). Moreover, skeletal age was significantly higher in elite than sub-elite players (p=0.031). The somatic maturity status was higher in the elite group of soccer players when compared with the sub-elite group (80.4±2.7 % and 81.6±2.5 %, respectively, p=0.014).

Conclusions: the skeletal age of young soccer players from elite and sub-elite youth academies is significantly higher than chronological age prior to the growth spurt.

Significance: It can be concluded that the selection process in elite and sub-elite youth soccer continues to be based on maturation status not only during the period of the growth spurt, but also prior. This is somewhat unsurprising, considering the previously proven influence of somatic maturity status on a number of physical qualities and sport-specific skills.