SYSTEMATIC REVIEW Talent Identification and Development in Male Football: A Systematic Review Hugo Sarmento 1,2 • M. Teresa Anguera 3 • Antonino Pereira 4 • Duarte Arau ´jo 5 Published online: 3 January 2018 Ó Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract Background Expertise has been extensively studied in several sports over recent years. The specificities of how excellence is achieved in Association Football, a sport practiced worldwide, are being repeatedly investigated by many researchers through a variety of approaches and scientific disciplines. Objective The aim of this review was to identify and synthesise the most significant literature addressing talent identification and development in football. We identified the most frequently researched topics and characterised their methodologies. Methods A systematic review of Web of Science TM Core Collection and Scopus databases was performed according to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) guidelines. The following keywords were used: ‘‘football’’ and ‘‘soccer’’. Each word was associated with the terms ‘‘talent’’, ‘‘expert*’’, ‘‘elite’’, ‘‘elite athlete’’, ‘‘identification’’, ‘‘career transition’’ or ‘‘career progression’’. The selection was for the original articles in English containing relevant data about talent development/identification on male footballers. Results The search returned 2944 records. After screening against set criteria, a total of 70 manuscripts were fully reviewed. The quality of the evidence reviewed was gen- erally excellent. The most common topics of analysis were (1) task constraints: (a) specificity and volume of practice; (2) performers’ constraints: (a) psychological factors; (b) technical and tactical skills; (c) anthropometric and physiological factors; (3) environmental constraints: (a) relative age effect; (b) socio-cultural influences; and (4) multidimensional analysis. Results indicate that the most successful players present technical, tactical, anthropo- metric, physiological and psychological advantages that change non-linearly with age, maturational status and playing positions. These findings should be carefully con- sidered by those involved in the identification and devel- opment of football players. Conclusion This review highlights the need for coaches and scouts to consider the players’ technical and tactical skills combined with their anthropometric and physiologi- cal characteristics scaled to age. Moreover, research addressing the psychological and environmental aspects that influence talent identification and development in football is currently lacking. The limitations detected in the Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-017-0851-7) contains supple- mentary material, which is available to authorized users. & Hugo Sarmento hugo.sarmento@uc.pt M. Teresa Anguera mtanguera@gmail.com Antonino Pereira a.pereira@esev.ipv.pt Duarte Arau ´jo daraujo@fmh.ulisboa.pt 1 Research Unit for Sport and Physical Activity (CIDAF), Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal 2 Spertlab, Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal 3 Faculty of Psychology, Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain 4 Centro de Estudos em Educac ¸a ˜o, Tecnologias e Sau ´de (CI&DETS), Escola Superior de Educac ¸a ˜o, Instituto Polite ´cnico de Viseu, Viseu, Portugal 5 CIPER, Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Spertlab, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal 123 Sports Med (2018) 48:907–931 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-017-0851-7