Effect of relative age on South American U-17 and U-20 players

Abstract

Objective: Therefore, the aim of the study was to analyze the distribution of the year of birth of the players from the under-17 and under-20 categories of the South American team's football. Methods: The sample comprised 132 players of Under-17 teams from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay, with each team evaluated its 22 players. The Under-20 were 138 athletes, 23 in each selection of teams from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. Athletes analyzed participated in the South American championship held in Paraguay in 2015. The study subjects were divided according to their year of birth, and then grouped into three-month periods being 1ºQDT young people born from January to April, 2ºQDT young people born from May to August and 3ºQDT young people born from September to December. For comparison the distribution presented in four-month period, the non-parametric analysis of the chi-square test was used, and the significance level was 5% d. All analyzes were performed using SPSS 20.0. Results and Discussion: In a pooled analysis of the selections, it was observed that 50.8% and 47.1% of the players of Under-17 and Under-20 categories were born in 1ºQDT, followed by 2ºQDT and 3ºQDT. Statistically significant differences were observed between the 1ºQDT and 2ºQDT (p = 0.007) in the category under 17; QDT between the 2nd and the 3rd QDT (p = 0.003) in the sub-category 20; and between the 3rd and 1ºQDT both the Under-17 (p = 0.000) as the Under-20 (p = 0.000). Conclusion: The fact that a large number of athletes selected were born in 1ºQDT may be due to earlier ripening, which increases the outstanding possibilities due to increases in body constitution issues.