What makes a great footballer : Nature or Nurture?

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fbloke

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As a side debate to the Jose thread Damocles and I have had a couple of posts on the subject of what makes a great footballer.

I thought it would be interesting to discuss that very question.

I am a football fan of course, but for the record I need to make the following clear.

I hold FA level's 1 and 2 coaching badges and am due to be put through the UEFA coaching badges, starting in summer, on behalf of Middlesbrough FC - I am developing some programmes for kids on the autistic spectrum for which Boro are providing part-funding.

I have also worked on coaching programmes for 2 Boro affiliates, Wallsend Boys Club and Newcastle FC.

I mention that not to brag but to give as clear a picture as to my level of insight on this as possible.

I know others on BM are FA qualified coaches, referees etc so I am far from unique with my exposure to the development of young players.

I spend about 16 hours a week in coaching sessions or at games watching football and I firmly believe that the best footballers are born with a level of ability that cannot be coached or developed.

All players can be developed and made better (or worse if the coach is a poor one) that goes without saying and a good work ethic is of paramount importance for ANY player to make the most of his or her abilities.

Players can be drilled in all aspects of football and practice does make perfect - with he understanding that I have less natural ability than many,many others and so I cannot be taught to be as good as Messi - so my 'perfect' takes me only so far.

That said a player can also waste a talent if not motivated to train and maintain, George Best could be held up as one such example.

As a romantic in these things I firmly believe that great footballers are born, gifted and cannot be matched by a player who is purely taught or developed.

I am not sure if everyone sees it the same way but I cannot explain why Pele or Cruyff could do and react in the way they did on the football pitch if it wasn't innate ability, imagination and vision that made them do it.

Yes they could be drilled in tactics and techniques but they definitely had a gift that surpassed all teaching, they were special, they were great.
 
a player with next to no talent but unshakeable self belief can make it - there are loads of examples but vinny jones springs to mind

a player with bags of talent but no self belief will struggle

talent alone is not enough
 
both.

I've seen kids with just that extra level of natural ability, awareness, touch and technique that I honestly believe cannot be coached.

However I do think it is of paramount importance for kids to be nurtured through in a suitable environment. It is important that whilst they adapt to their growing bodies and the growing physicality of the game that they do not get their natural ability squandered by not being allowed to play due to inept coaching or because they're getting kicked out of games refereed by biased coaches of opposition teams etc.

I think it's also important that respect should be gained in the classroom and transferred to the pitch. I think academies and schools could play a very important part in changing the mentality of football if they prevent the aggressive and foul language and actions towards other coaches, players and referees.

You can't implement changes from the top, you have to do it from the ground up, though I just get the feeling that academies will become more elitist in difficult economic times and many young kids won't get the opportunity because of this.

I think it's a fascinating subject though and often think I took the wrong option going into reffing rather than coaching, I'd love to work with academies and helping young kids to have the opportunity to develop their talents.
 
Well obviously you can't make a local sunday league decent player under a Premiership player through great office even if you did coach him 10 hours a day for 7 days a week for 10 years.

You either have 'it' or you don't in terms of ever being a professional but within the select group of people with the ability, some make it, some don't, which can be down to coaching and all the best players need good coaching of sort, although saying that...

apart from your obvious stuff you learn as a young kid like getting on the half turn, just basics and general training improvement of playing football day in day out so improvement of finishing/passing...developing each side of game, you can't actually teach what Messi does. No coach has ever give Messi that ability to do it. Only thing a coach can do to someone like Messi is give them the confidence to express themselves. So it does depend, good coaching is vital but you can't become a footballer through just practise, you need the natural ability.
 
Well it'd be different for each player, I think. You've got the types of player who don't have any startling natural ability or flawless technique, yet still make it at the highest echelons of the game due to hard work and perseverance - Roy Keane being an example. Then again, perhaps a case for a strong mentality and mental attributes being 'nature' could be made.

You also have cases like Garrincha; players going against the physical odds (he had fucked up legs) and defying nature to make it as elite sportspeople, and in his case, one of the greatest players of his generation.

As for what makes the best type of player - ideally you'd have a player with immense natural ability who has instinctive qualities that you can't coach, but who also has been coached in such a way as to instil in them a professionalism and discipline that can be taught, but is not easy to learn.

Tis late and I'm talking bollocks, but good thread.
 
Interesting question. I know someone who works very closely with the Arsenal youth squad and apparently Wenger's theory is that you should've learned all the technique you need by the time you're 16. So that's nature to a large degree plus some nurture.

Then he concentrates on pace, power, vision, tactical awareness, movement, etc.

I also have a friend who once played in a team with the former Everton favourite Mike Lyons and he said that he wasn't that much better than anyone else technically but what marked him out was his work-rate (physical) and (mental) determination to win every ball.
 
It's definitely both, but nature is the most important to make a great player.

In the same way that good authors have a brain which is creative and strong with language, good mathemeticians are logical and thorough, good footballers have the attributes which make them what they are. Look at David Silva. What makes him a class apart is his vision and decision making skills.

You can get fit and learn technique, no doubt about that, but great players are born with all the right attributes...agility, speed of thought, balance. They hone those through nuture.
 
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