Whereas personality traits are conceptualized as being relatively stable across time and situations ( Aidman and Schofield, 2004), psychological skills are less stable, meaning that they can change according to the situation or context. Psychological skills encompass structured and prepared behaviors and thinking used by athletes to control their personal psychological state ( Eccles and Riley, 2014). Personality traits are defined as a predisposition to behave in a certain way ( Pervin, 1996). Psychological characteristics within this article are seen as an umbrella term for personality traits as well as psychological skills. ![]() For example, in recent years scouting sheets assessing technical skills (e.g., dribbling, shooting, passing) have been revised to include such psychological characteristics and youth academies ask their coaches to assess the players’ psychological characteristics regularly ( Musculus and Lobinger, 2015). This is, among others, a reason why academies have started to include psychological characteristics in their general evaluation of players. Furthermore, in Germany, professional youth academy licensing requires clubs to focus on the psychological development of players ( Lobinger et al., 2009). Psychological characteristics have been integrated in models of talent identification and development (e.g., the soccer-specific reviews of Morris, 2000 and Williams and Reilly, 2000) and research has identified psychological characteristics “as significant predictor of success” in sports ( Vaeyens et al., 2008, p. Within professional youth soccer academies, it is the coaches’ task to promote the physical and technical skill development as well as personality development of talented players, which reflects the belief that personality also plays a crucial role in players’ future success ( Giacobbi et al., 2002). In soccer, one of the most prominent sports worldwide, coaches are part of a highly professional talent identification and development system ( Mills et al., 2012 Lobinger, 2015). Psychological Characteristics of Talented Soccer Players Sport psychologists should assist clubs and coaches in improving the diagnostics of psychological characteristics as well as in embedding psychological diagnostics and interventions in the talent development process. Further, we argue that assessing psychological characteristics should combine self ratings of players and external ratings of coaches in talent development. As the quality of the assessment of psychological characteristics is crucial, we provide recommendations on how to ensure the central diagnostic standards: objectivity, reliability, and validity in talent assessment. ![]() As we believe that expert coaches’ assessments could be a valid predictor of a player’s current performance and future success, we provide recommendations on how to improve coaches’ assessment of psychological characteristics. While soccer clubs often ask their coaches to assess their players on self-designed, unevaluated scouting sheets, research widely neglects expert coaches’ and clubs’ perspectives on relevant performance characteristics. ![]() However, with regard to the assessment of psychological characteristics of talented soccer players, a gap between research and practice is apparent. In research, general and sport specific standardized self-report questionnaires have been applied in psychological diagnostics of sports talent. Psychological characteristics, including personality traits and psychological skills, have been shown to be relevant predictors of soccer performance. Department of Performance Psychology, Institute of Psychology, German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
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