Training characteristics of professional development activities in elite football players: a systematic review

To systematically review the literature to investigate the developmental training characteristics associated with progression in professional football.

Systematic review.

Comprehensive search of three electronic databases: Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus up to August 2025. Studies were included if they reported empirical data on milestone events, accumulated training hours, training structure, subjective perceptions, and multi-sport participation among players of varying competitive skill levels.

Forty-two studies met inclusion criteria. Findings indicated that higher-level players typically initiated football involvement and reached professional academies at significantly younger ages than lower-level counterparts. In terms of training structure, successful career trajectories commonly followed a specific pattern where informal play predominated during childhood, progressively giving way to intensive coach-led practice throughout adolescence. Elite female players distinctively utilized mixed-gender activities to compensate for limited structured opportunities. Regarding perceptual factors, elite players reported markedly higher perceptions of effort and challenge during training activities. Furthermore, they demonstrated superior decision-making accuracy and pattern-recognition skills compared with non-elite athletes. Finally, data showed that most elite players engaged broadly in multiple sports during childhood, particularly invasion team games, before specializing.

This review provides evidence that football-specific activities, particularly accumulated hours and subjective perceptions, play a critical role in shaping professional pathways. However, inconsistent effects regarding milestones and limited female-specific evidence caution against overgeneralization. Future research is required to prioritize longitudinal designs, gender-comparative analyses, and cross-cultural perspectives to refine recommendations for the optimization of athlete development systems.

Open Science Framework (DOI: 10.17605/OSFIO/QNKSF).