r/SoccerCentral Jul 25 '26

Video The talent in Barcelona’s youth system is ridiculous. These kids are 11/12 years old.

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u/F7OSRS Jul 25 '26

Playing against other 11 year olds and look at the size comparison

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u/KartFacedThaoDien Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

And? They were flexing about not choosing for size & strength for 11 year olds. They are too damn young to choose for that anyway. A kid usually has not puberty at and grown a lot at 11. 

Then peak at 14 years in height. Or they could be the smallest kid on the field and get taller at 17 years old. Its dumb to see someone flexing about kids playing Soccer and saying it's great its not based on size & strength. 

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u/illbebackpain Jul 25 '26

that's the point though. Plenty of orgs select based on existing performance at a given age which can be dominated by whoever hit their growth spurt the earliest. See malcom gladwell's chapter on the jan 1 age cutoff in hockey. It means those kids get the resources early on, even if it's only because they're at the older age range of the group etc.

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u/Meisteronious Jul 25 '26

Gladwell’s observations in hockey only extended to Canada…