Iceland’s development pathway has been the focus of debate following the tiny nation’s showing at Euro 2016. But underpinning all the investment is an intangible thread, which recently came under attack from one of the world’s best players: their mindset. In light of the comments made by Cristiano Ronaldo and others about the Icelandic mindset, Jon Hoggard looks to unpick how the national team’s mentality has been formed by the country and shaped by recent investment. In qualifying for Euro 2016, Iceland became the…
Iceland
Steve Lawrence is a consultant to Cruyff Football and Ajax in the Netherlands. With a Masters in International Sports Management, Steve founded the Football Analytics Lab and is at the forefront of research into the topic of Relative Age Effects. In this article, Steve looks at the age profiles of the teams involved in Euro 2016 and how these may have impacted the competition. In Issue #10 of Player Development Project Magazine I wrote an article on Relative Age Effect, which introduced the idea…
PDP Editor Dave Wright provides his report from the 2015 Norwegian Coaching Convention in Oslo. Known as the Cupfinalseminaret, this is one of the largest gathering of coaches in Europe and an event PDP highly recommends. The Cupfinalseminaret 2015 got into full swing on Friday afternoon. After the opening ceremony where a number of domestic coaches were given awards for their service to Norwegian football, the main hall of the Ullevaal Business Centre was full of coaches who were waiting in anticipation for the arrival…