Story Highlights Research at a UK university finds taller footballers more likely to succeed Study finds successful teams have taller and younger players Professor Alan Nevill recommends talent scouts seek tall recruits
Well, maybe only in UK. South America has a tradition of revealing short football genius. Messi: 1.69 m (5 ft 6<s style="display: none;">+</s><sup>1</sup><big>⁄</big><sub>2</sub> in) Pelé: 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) Romário: 1.69 m (5 ft 6<s style="display: none;">+</s><sup>1</sup><big>⁄</big><sub>2</sub> in) Maradona: 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
I don't agree with this either. What about Arshavin, Walcott, Lennon, Wright-Phillips, Fabregas, Deco, and Luca Toni (just kidding)?
Yeah, but there are some fantastic players. He's just too tall. Zlatan Ibrahimović Thierry Henry Emmanuel Adebayor (I had to add him) Apart from that, who else?
The tone of the article seems to compare tall, thin players (Zlatan, Henry, etc) with short, stocky players (me). Of course, tall players will be better in this case. The other issue that I have with this study is that it just compares "player data." It doesn't separate out keepers, defenders, midfielders, and attacking players. Assuming most teams play a 4-4-2, that's two fairly sizable defenders, a big keeper, at least one of the forwards tends to be a bigger player. Assuming that your central midfielders and outside backs are average size or bigger (and most are), that greatly limits your available small players. Also, it only looks at England, where the physical style of play encourages bigger players. So I guess size matters when it comes to British football. I'd say that its less of an issue in other European countries, and definitely in South America.
