Football promises
Nº98 MAY 2026
For every Eusébio, Ronaldo or Vitinha, there are lots of talented young players set to become future stars that end up in the amateur leagues or on the unemployment line. Why? Is it because they don't work hard enough? They don't have the right attitude? They’re constrained by injuries or by decisions made by managers and coaches? Or are they primarily victims of the bottleneck that allows only a selected few in every generation to reach the dizzying heights of the sport of kings?
Based on interviews with promising Portuguese players (past and present), technicians and experts, this book shows how luck shapes their fate in football and reveals phenomena like the effect of relative age, which favours young people born between January and March. As for the Portuguese football team, for example, for every 24 that are selected, 10,000 are left out. This is a true portrait of what it takes to reach the top.
For every Eusébio, Ronaldo or Vitinha, there are lots of talented young players set to become future stars that end up in the amateur leagues or on the unemployment line. Why? Is it because they don't work hard enough? They don't have the right attitude? They’re constrained by injuries or by decisions made by managers and coaches? Or are they primarily victims of the bottleneck that allows only a selected few in every generation to reach the dizzying heights of the sport of kings?
Based on interviews with promising Portuguese players (past and present), technicians and experts, this book shows how luck shapes their fate in football and reveals phenomena like the effect of relative age, which favours young people born between January and March. As for the Portuguese football team, for example, for every 24 that are selected, 10,000 are left out. This is a true portrait of what it takes to reach the top.
More details
Dimensions
7 × 130 × 200 mm
ISBN
978-989-9243-96-5
Book available only in Portuguese
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