Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Department of Socioeconomic and Spatial Statistics, Statistics Netherlands, The Hague, The Netherlands.
J Sports Sci. 2021 Mar;39(5):576-582. doi: 10.1080/02640414.2020.1835237. Epub 2020 Oct 21.
Earlier research shows that wide regional variations exist in the success of athletes' talent development but is divided with respect to the role of urbanity: both low and high urbanity have been identified as settings that contribute to the presence of talent hotspots. In this article, we intend to provide more insight into the role of urbanity in talent development in Dutch football. We used public data on the regional background of male elite players (N = 825) and combined this with public data on municipal characteristics from Statistics Netherlands and other sources: urbanity, football participation, instructional resources and population composition effects (migration background and income of inhabitants). Linear regression analysis showed that football participation, the proportion of non-western migrants and median income predict "talent yield", i.e., the proportion of young people that reach an elite level in a municipality. Urbanity does not have an independent influence when the proportion of non-western migrants in the municipality is taken into account. The presence of instructional resources does not have an independent influence. The results suggest that characteristics of the built environment, such as indoor and outdoor play opportunities, may be less influential in talent development than previously assumed.
早期研究表明，运动员人才发展的成功率存在广泛的地域差异，但对于城市性的作用存在分歧：低城市性和高城市性都被认为是有助于人才热点存在的环境。在本文中，我们旨在更深入地了解城市性在荷兰足球人才发展中的作用。我们使用了关于男性精英球员的区域背景的公共数据（N=825），并将其与来自荷兰统计局和其他来源的关于城市特征的公共数据相结合：城市化水平、足球参与度、教学资源和人口构成效应（移民背景和居民收入）。线性回归分析表明，足球参与度、非西方移民的比例和居民收入中位数预测了“人才产出”，即一个城市中达到精英水平的年轻人的比例。当考虑到城市中非西方移民的比例时，城市化水平没有独立的影响。教学资源的存在也没有独立的影响。研究结果表明，与之前的假设相比，建筑环境的特征，如室内和室外游戏机会，对人才发展的影响可能较小。
