Football’s traditional understanding of what points to a potential star of the future is evolving, with psychological and social skills of equal importance to technical and physical attributes.
That is the view of The FA’s head of Talent ID, Richard Allen, who is responsible for overseeing the talent identification process across all England men and women’s national sides as well as helping to develop and deliver the FA's Talent ID Education Programme.
“People are starting to recognise at the very top level that the defining factor might not be technical, physical or tactical, but that it might be social or psychological,” Allen explains.
“Yes young players have to be tactically, technically and physically sound, but you want to them to be good learners so that they can pick up things quickly – especially in England where, at the top level, you can have two days before a game and have to pick up tactical things really quickly.
“They also have to be able to adapt to things like pitch conditions and the tactical challenges. And then they have to be able to make tactical decisions under pressure. All of these are psychological skills," added Allen.
The topic will be discussed in further detail at the 2015 FA Talent ID Conference, which takes place on Friday 4 December at St. George’s Park.
One of the guest presenters, Dr Sean Warren – a talent identification research and development consultant – will present the latest research on the importance of social skills for players.
“Sean's slot focuses on how can we watch a game as a talent reporter or a scout and make sense of some of the interactions that take place on the pitch," explains Allen.
“What is the job of the scout? Is it just to watch the game or is it to get there an hour before, watch the preparation, watch their interactions with friends, parents and their coach?
“And what he is doing is developing an app which the scouts can use to map some of these things.”
This is the second time The FA have ever hosted a conference event dedicated to Talent ID, but Allen believes last year’s success combined with the numbers already confirmed for this year show that there is a place for it in The FA’s event calendar.
“It is quite unusual to get people from Talent ID in one room. We had over 300 people attend last year, which was a miracle because normally we’re quite understated and like to do our own thing.
“We can be wary of sharing and cooperating together, so to get that number of people in the same room was quite powerful and showed that there is a hunger for it. They want to be educated, they want to be involved, they want information and to make themselves better.
“And so this conference is here to share best practice, give them the opportunity to speak and listen to some industry leading people and to think outside of the box when it comes to player recruitment.”
Read more about the 2015 FA Talent ID conference here.
