This study investigated the presence of neuropsychological deficits associated with hitting the ball with one's head (heading) during soccer play. A neuro-cognitive test battery was administered to 60 male soccer players, high school, amateur and professional level, and 12 nonplaying control participants. The effects of currently reported heading behavior as well as that of estimated lifetime h...

Injuries have a great impact on professional soccer, due to their large influence on team performance and the considerable costs of rehabilitation for players. Existing studies in the literature provide just a preliminary understanding of which factors mostly affect injury risk, while an evaluation of the potential of statistical models in forecasting injuries is still missing. In this paper, w...

Injury prevention has a fundamental role in professional soccer due to the high cost of recovery for players and the strong influence of injuries on a club’s performance. In this paper we provide a predictive model to prevent injuries of soccer players using a multidimensional approach based on GPS measurements and machine learning. In an evolutive scenario, where a soccer club starts collectin...

Background. Insufficient movement patterns may expose athletes to injury, so it is vital to recognize and rectify these movement patterns. Objectives. The purpose of this study was to assess the fundamental movement patterns and determine the effect of a four-week FIFA+11 program on functional movement screen (FMS) scores of junior soccer players. Methods. A pre-test post-test quasi-exp...

The objectives of this study were to examine the consequences of an acute hamstring injury on performance and mechanical properties of sprint-running at the time of returning to sports and after the subsequent ~2 months of regular soccer training after return. 28 semi-professional male soccer players, 14 with a recent history of unilateral hamstring injury and 14 without prior injury, participa...

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between popular endurance field tests and physical match performance in elite male youth soccer players. Eighteen young male soccer players (age 14.4 ± 0.1 years, height 1.67 ± 4.8 cm, body mass 53.6 ± 1.8 kg) were randomly chosen among a population of elite-level soccer players. Players were observed during international championship ga...

Despite the impact and popularity of soccer, and the growing field of soccer-related scientific research, little attention has been devoted to the nutritional intake and eating habits of soccer players. Moreover, the few studies that have addressed this issue suggest that the nutritional intake of soccer players is inadequate, underscoring the need for better adherence to nutritional recommenda...

Background: Several studies have compared the physical, physiological and anthropometric characteristics according to age playing position in soccer. However, no researched comparison of emotional intelligence (EI) levels soccer players. Objective: The purpose this study was compare EI players their position. Methods: A total 550 male were divided into four groups age: under-17 (n = 135), under...

Excellent physical performance of soccer players is inevitable for the success of a team. Despite of this, a large-scale, quantitative analysis of the maximal speed of the players is missing due to the sensitive nature of trajectory datasets. We propose a novel method to derive the in-game speed profile of soccer players from event-based datasets, which are widely accessible. We show that eight...

Background. Beach soccer is one of the most well-known international sports in the world. The laws of the game were introduced by some associations and today they are covered by FIFA. There are also certain rules for the selection of beach soccer sand, but the specifications are too simple and rough. Thus, a wide range of sand types falls in the acceptable range of FIFA. Objectives. In this st...