Aren’t Playing in the World Cup? Check your Birth Month
There was an article in the New York Times this past weekend that pointed out an interesting anomaly: world class football players are much more likely to have been born in the first few months of the year than in the later months. As someone who was born in June, I quickly latched onto this fact as the only explanation why I will be blogging about the World Cup and not playing in it. Always better to blame one’s parents then oneself.
The Times goes on to offer up this possible explanation as to why the earlier birthdate footballers might be better.
Since youth sports are organized by age bracket, teams inevitably have a cutoff birth date. In the European youth soccer leagues, the cutoff date is Dec. 31. So when a coach is assessing two players in the same age bracket, one who happened to have been born in January and the other in December, the player born in January is likely to be bigger, stronger, more mature. Guess which player the coach is more likely to pick? He may be mistaking maturity for ability, but he is making his selection nonetheless. And once chosen, those January-born players are the ones who, year after year, receive the training, the deliberate practice and the feedback — to say nothing of the accompanying self-esteem — that will turn them into elites.
I decided to put this to test with the World Cup Blog Readers XI. Of the 12 players selected for out team, 4 were born in January-March, 5 were born in April-June, 3 were born July-September, and only John Terry was born October-December.
I’m not sure what any of this really means, but it is worth pointing out that four of the world’s best players were born in my birth month so unfortunately that is one fewer thing I can blame on my parents. I’m still bitter that my birthday was never celebrated at school, however.
Here’s the month-by-month breakdown:
January
Gianluigi Buffon
February
Rafael Marquez
March
Alessandro Nesta
Ronaldinho
April
Carlos Puyol
June
Frank Lampard
Lionel Messi
Juan Roman Riquelme
Kaka
August
Thierry Henry
September
Andriy Shevchenko
December
John Terry
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Comments
By Mina | May 10th, 2006 at 6:58 pm 
This is weird!
Pele and Maradona were both born in October! my month 
Posted from 
New Zealand
By Trent | May 10th, 2006 at 7:24 pm Thanks, Bob. This will be excuse no. 237 on my list of reasons I won’t be playing in Germany this June. If my parents weren’t such poor planners, I’d be known as El Trento to this day.
By wendall | May 10th, 2006 at 8:20 pm Well, I WAS born in February so I guess I just suck. Even with all the cards stacked in my favour I pissed away celestial talent.
But I still blame my parents…
Posted from 
United States
By scaryice | May 10th, 2006 at 10:13 pm It’s obviously because of the Dec. 31 cutoff for youth teams. Over and over, the USA youth teams have more players born in the first few months. This comes up over and over again on Bigsoccer.
Posted from United States
By Denis | May 10th, 2006 at 10:28 pm I was born on June 1st!! Im in the cataogory with Messi, Kaka and puyol!!! What a confidence booster, this jsut made my day and possibly a better soccer player. You know guys, just remember this Name Denis Susac, this will be the next best player in the world..playing for the Croatian National team, and of course winning the world cup. Not in 2006 but I will join them in 2010!!
Posted from United States
By Pedro P | May 11th, 2006 at 3:54 am You could also make some sort of survey with the astrological signs of the players… I’m sure a pettern should be found…
Posted from 
Netherlands
By rogi32 | May 11th, 2006 at 5:28 am its widely recognized that the best football players are born under astrological water signs: cancer, pisces and scorpio: cancer (beckenbauer, zidane), scorpio (pele, maradona), pisces (Ronaldinho)
my own personal astrological theory 
Posted from 
Germany
By rogi32 | May 11th, 2006 at 5:28 am the best football players are born under astrological WATER signs: cancer, pisces and scorpio: cancer (beckenbauer, zidane), scorpio (pele, maradona), pisces (Ronaldinho)
my own personal astrological theory
Posted from Germany
By Pedro P | May 11th, 2006 at 7:47 am I thought Pele was Libra and that Ronaldinho was Aries.
To see so many Scorpios doesn’t surprise, cos they’re very competitive and determined. Apart from Maradona, I can tell you Scolari, Figo and Maniche (maybe even more in POR’s side) are “November’s children”…
Posted from Netherlands
By Jen | May 11th, 2006 at 9:55 am Makes sense to me…when I was younger, the cut-off for youth leagues was in the summer, and as a July baby I was always one of the youngest (and smallest!) on the team.
Posted from 
Canada
By rogi32 | May 11th, 2006 at 10:08 am Pedro,
Ive thought about this previousley a bit. Did you realize that most strikers are Aries born? Perhaps Im wrong, but check it out. Perhaps you also know that Water signs are the most passionate and emotional of all. thats perfect for creativity and passing. Egoist Aries should only play up forward
Posted from Germany
By Pedro P | May 11th, 2006 at 10:03 pm Rogi32, I´d love to see your face if I´d tell you I´m Aries…
But I´m not…
Water signs… Emotional definatelly. Passionate, not so sure…
POR´s best #10 (Rui Costa, not playing for the seleccao anymore) is actually Aries… They can be creative as well. Your point is proven, though, if you compare him with Zidane. And I do remember now Simao Sabrosa is also Scorpio, so POR is comming up with a “venomus” combo…
But what you say makes perfect sense. An Aries striker is one that (in principle, cos you might get a softy Aries as well) shows no mercy and will always be thinking of nothing but scoring NOW!!!
You do realize everybody is going to think what the hell are we talking about, in a football blog…
BTW, I guess nothing should be better than a Taurus, or Capricorn, defender…
By Send Some Candy to Martin Demichelis ASAP - FIFA World Cup 2006 - World Cup 2006 Blog | May 16th, 2006 at 3:00 pm [...] It wasn’t until recently that I learned that I was hampered from the very beginning because of my June birth date. Now I feel better about my shortcomings. Demichelis should too. He was born in December, a tough, tough birth month if you harbor professional football dreams. [...]
Posted from United States
By Natasha | July 5th, 2006 at 7:39 am 
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