

How a Soccer Star is Made - wallflower
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06Soccer-t.html?hp=&pagewanted=all

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pmccool
I found the very subjective attitude to selecting talent interesting. I
imagine this is because soccer is a sport that doesn't really lend itself to
collecting metrics. Nor is it a sport where physical attributes are decisive.

The case of the 5-year-old was also interesting. It makes me wonder: how young
is too young to meaningfully identify ability?

~~~
ulvund
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS6nS8W0bOU>

'Young Messi' was definitely a talent

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BobbyH
This awesome article highlights a problem I studied in college economics
called the "inappropriability of labor".

The problem is that because slavery is illegal, investments in training will
be significantly reduced. For example, if I was your slave, you might invest
$50k in training me because you'd be sure that a better-trained-me would make
you more money. But if I was your employee, you wouldn't invest $50k in me
because I could leave at any time.

This is also why your cheap employer doesn't send you to that professional
development conference you want to attend.

This Dutch club got around this problem by selling soccer contracts. One thing
the article did not mention is that to adopt this model in the US, a US
training organization would have to have some method of making money by
selling contracts or the like.

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splat
Fascinating. I can't help but think of _Ender's Game_.

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ugh
You should watch the video. A great way to illustrate an article like that.

