Relative Age Effect on Five European Professional Soccer Leagues

Abstract

The influence that the birth month of an athlete can have on a high-performance level in sports is known as Relative Age Effect (RAE). Based on this, athletes born in the first quarter of the year have more chances of reaching the elite than therest. RAE’s presence was studied in five European leagues of the highest level in male category, in the 2016-2017 season.A total of 2538 birth dates were analysed and the observed distributions in each quarter were compared with those expected by the chi square statistical test. The results showed statistically significant differences regarding the expected distribution in the total sample (p < 0.01), and in the leagues BBVA (p < 0.01), Ligue 1 (p < 0.01), Serie A (p < 0.01) andBundesliga (p < 0.01). However, there were no significant differences in the Premier League (p > 0.05). Therefore, it can be concluded that the birth quarter is an important variable to reach the highest level in soccer.