Soccer is the No. 1 sport in the world and is widely accepted by the populace in Germany. Therefore, how to select football players scientifically and reasonably has become an important topic. This study completed by the Sports Training Science Team from the Department of Physical Education, Bayreuth University, Germany, aims to reveal the effectiveness of the mid-term prognosis of football talents in general motor tests and the football performance score obtained from the experiment. The motor diagnostic analysis has been conducted for talent screening and selection programs before, including gymnastics, skiing and tennis. However, compared with most other sports, the predictive value for soccer regarding such early testing is still uncertain. The subjects of this study were Grade 2 U9 children (N = 2 965) who participated in the Fulda Movement Check (FMC) in Germany. FMC is a screening method to test the basic athletic ability of the subjects. It consists of two anthropometric parameters and eight general items of the German Motor Test (GMT6-18) with the addition of a ball throw test. The test data was collected from all children who participated in the test in Fulda, Germany from 2011 to 2014, and the football competition performance of the children who chose football (N=316) up to the end of the 2016-2017 season (September 30, 2017)was recorded. The players were then assigned individually to four different competition levels on the basis of their performance. The prognostic validity of the motor tests was determined by using the methods of ANOVA, odds ratio, and a discriminant analysis. And the test results were compared with the football performance of the children in their U12~U15 ages. Finally, the prognostic relevance of the 9 general motor tests was confirmed. |