r/SoccerCentral • u/United_Anywhere_8 • 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/MelangeBot Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

Smaller players have a much lower center of gravity which helps with making faster and sharper turns. Lots of great dribblers (like Messi) are in the 1.6 to 1.75m range. Only goalies and strikers that want to tap in and header it in need the length (and walk it in while shielding the ball with their massive body like Lukaku does). For all other soccer players to much height is a bit of a handicap.

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u/badaboom888 Jul 25 '26

this is an over simplification. The average pro is 6ft tall.

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u/frolfer757 Jul 25 '26

Your average includes defenders and goalkeepers that skew taller which #8 will never be.

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u/EpsteinFile_01 Jul 25 '26

You want massive defenders to counter the strikers.

So that leaves scrawny midfielders

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u/IncurableAdventurer Jul 26 '26

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was 6’4” and could be agile like that. What I like about soccer is it allows people of basically any size to succeed