Barriers and Opportunities for Age-specific National Football Team Coaches’ Impact on the Development of Their National Team Players
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/sjsep.v8i.156769Keywords:
Talent Development, Coach-athlete Relationship, CollaborationAbstract
The aim of this study was to study coach-athlete relationships in age-specific national teams, from the coach’s perspective. The coach-athlete relationship has been found to be important in the talent development process. Even though much is known about this relationship in the team and club context in football, there is less knowledge about its importance in age-specific national teams. This study focuses on the coaches’ relationships with their male or female players in the Norwegian age-specific national teams. Seven age-specific national team coaches (six men and one woman, mean age of 44.9 years) representing both male and female national teams were interviewed. The main findings are that the coaches’ relationships ranged from being superficial or transitory among the U15-U17 players to more existential and personal for the U18-U21 players. The coaches also described a change from working with regional coaches (coaches employed by the regional football federation) for the U15-U17 players to working with development coaches in professional clubs for the U18-U21 players. The main intention from the Norwegian football federation, of introducing an international reference for the players, seems to be met, while the coaches also acted as advisors or discussion partners for the players regarding their development and club transitions.
References
Baker, J., Schorer, J. & Wattie, N. (2018) Compromising Talent: Issues in Identifying and Selecting Talent in Sport. Quest, 70(1), 48-63. https://doi.org/10.1080/00336297.2017.1333438
Baxter, P., & S. Jack. (2008). Qualitative case study methodology: Study design and implementation for novice researchers. Qualitative Report, 13(4), 544-559. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2008.1573
Bergström, M., Okkenhaug, I., Høigaard, R. & Sæther, S.A. (2024). Aldersbestemte landslagsspillere i håndball sin opplevelse av eget utviklingsmiljø. Scandinavian Sport Studies Forum, 15, 131-152. https://doi.org/10.24834/sssf.15.131
Braun, V. & Clarke, V. (2022). Thematic analysis: A practical guide. Sage.
Brinkmann, S., & Kvale, S. (2018). Doing interviews. SAGE Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529716665
Collins, D., Bailey, R., Ford, P. A., Macnamara, Á., Toms, M. & Pearce, G. (2012). Three worlds: New directions in participant development in sport and physical activity. Sport, Education and Society, 17(2), 225-243. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2011.607951
Cowley, E. S., Olenick, A. A., McNulty, K. L., & Ross, E. Z. (2021). "Invisible sportswomen": The sex data gap in sport and exercise science research. Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, 29(2), 146-151. https://doi.org/10.1123/wspaj.2021-0028
Cronin, C. (2023). Care in sport coaching; different perspectives and alternative voices. Sports Coaching Review, 12(1), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1080/21640629.2022.2164836
da Silva, S. M., Felton, L., Dias, C. S., & Fonseca, A. (2025). Mental toughness in elite adolescent football players: Exploring the role of motivational climate and coach-athlete relationships. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 20(4), 1386-1394. https://doi.org/10.1177/17479541251320543
Dohlsten, J., Barker-Ruchti, N. & Lindgren, E.-C. (2018). Caring as sustainable coaching in elite athletics: benefits and challenges. Sports Coaching Review, 9(1), 48-70. https://doi.org/10.1080/21640629.2018.1558896
Gilbert, W. D., & Trudel, P. (2004). Role of the coach: How model youth team sport coaches frame their roles. The sport psychologist, 18(1), 21-43.
Hansen, P.Ø, Chroni, S., Åsrum Skille, E., & Abrahamsen, F. E. (2021). Leading and organising national teams: functions of institutional leadership. Sports Coaching Review, 10(3), 274–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/21640629.2021.1896213
Karayel, E., Adilogullari, I. & Senel, E. (2024). The role of transformational leadership in the associations between coach-athlete relationship and team resilience: A study on elite football players. BMC Psychology, 12, 514. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-02043-7
Kilger, M. & Börjesson, M. (2015). Searching for talent: The construction of legitimate selection in sports. Scandinavian Sport Studies Forum, 6. http://sportstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/085-105_vol_6_2015_kilger-borjesson.pdf
López de Subijana, C., Martin, L. J., Ramos, J., & Côté, J. (2021). How coach leadership is related to the coach-athlete relationship in elite sport. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 16(6), 1239-1246. https://doi.org/10.1177/17479541211021523
Malterud, K., Siersma, V. D., & Guassora, A. D. (2016). Sample size in qualitative interview studies: Guided by information power. Qualitative Health Research, 26, 1753-1760. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732315617444
Mathorne, O., Stambulova, N., Book, R., Storm, L. K. & Henriksen, K. (2021). Shared features of successful interorganizational collaboration to promote local talent development environments in Denmark. Scandinavian Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 3, 2-12. https://doi.org/10.7146/sjsep.v3i.121379
Nesse, M., Fusche Moe, V. & Sæther, S.A. (2020). Unified approaches on talent development in football. Differences and similarities among representatives from the football federation and professional football clubs. Cogent Social Sciences, 1(6), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2020.1785216
Newland, A., Cronin, C., Cook, G., & Whitehead, A. (2023). Developing coaches’ knowledge of the athlete–coach relationship through formal coach education: The perceptions of football association coach developers. International Sport Coaching Journal, 11(3), 341-355. https://doi.org/10.1123/iscj.2022-0108
Norman, L., & Simpson, R. (2022). Gendered microaggressions towards the “only” women coaches in high-performance sport. Sports Coaching Review, 12(3), 302-322. https://doi.org/10.1080/21640629.2021.2021031
Olesen, J. S., Nielsen, J. C. & Søndergaard, D. M. (2020). Disassembling and reassembling a sports talent. Culture Unbound, 12(2), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.20200526a
Piggott, L., Rosvold, M. & Sæther, S.A. (2026) Sociocultural processes and outcomes in the integration of a women's team into a men's football club in Scandinavia. European Sport Management Quarterly,1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2026.2648228
Ponterotto, J. G. (2005). Qualitative research in counseling psychology: A primer on research paradigms and philosophy of science. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52(2), 126-136. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.52.2.126
Røsten, S., Sæther, S.A., Aspvik, N.P & Bjørndal, C.T. (2023). Embedded, embodied, enculturated, and enabling processes: The identification and evaluation of sporting talent by ice hockey coaches in Norwegian youth international teams. International Sport Coaching Journal, 11(1), 113-123. https://doi.org/10.1123/iscj.2022-0058
Storm, L. K., Henriksen, K., Larsen, C. H., & Christensen, M. K. (2014). Influential relationships as contexts of learning and becoming elite: Athletes’ retrospective interpretations. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 9(6), 1341-1356. https://doi.org/10.1260/1747-9541.9.6.1341
Sweeney, L., MacNamara, Á. & Taylor, J. (2023) International selection and competition in youth sport: pin the tail on the donkey or targeted intervention? Frontiers of Sports and Active Living, 5, 1298909. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2023.1298909
Sæther, S.A., Banne, H. Larsen, C.H., Storm, L.K., Schlawe, A. & Henriksen, K. (2025). Features of Successful Talent-Development Environments in Norwegian Professional Women’s Football. Case Studies in Sport and Exercise Psychology, 9(1), 39-49. https://doi.org/10.1123/cssep.2022-0026
Taylor, J., Collins, D. & Cruickshank, A. (2022). Too Many Cooks, Not Enough Gourmets: Examining Provision and Use of Feed-back for the Developing Athlete. The Sport Psychologist, 36(2), 89-100. https://doi.org/10.1123/tsp.2021-0037
Till, K. & Baker, J. (2020). Challenges and [Possible] Solutions to Optimizing Talent Identification and Development in Sport. Frontiers in Psychology, 11(664), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00664
Tracy, S. J. (2010). Qualitative quality: Eight “big-tent” criteria for excellent qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry, 16, 837-851. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800410383121
Vella, S. A., Oades, L. G., & Crowe, T. P. (2012). The relationship between coach leadership, the coach–athlete relationship, team success, and the positive developmental experiences of adolescent soccer players. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 18(5), 549–561. https://doi.org/10.1080/17408989.2012.726976
Zhao, C., & Jowett, S. (2023). Before supporting athletes, evaluate your coach–athlete relationship: Exploring the link between coach leadership and coach–athlete relationship. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 18(3), 633-641. https://doi.org/10.1177/17479541221148113
