Player Performance Model, comparison between youth professional (U-21) and professional first team football players: Different external load or not?

Abstract

During last years the use of new technologies, become crucial to define physical performance, tactics, and technique in football. The physical performance during matches is detected, using video-analysis or GPS system. The aim of this study was to compare external load performance from matches between young professional players (U-21) and professional players from European leagues. Data from U-21 was collected using K-Sport 10 Hz GPS (K-Sport Universal, Italy) using as a sample of three Italian youth teams. Data from professional players are taken from video-analysis gathered from the literature. Were analysed 10 games for each youth teams from Italian Primavera Championship 2016/2017. For every game was used one 10 Hz GPS (K-Sport Universal, Italy) for each player, except goalkeeper and were recorded only data from players that perform all the game.