How Brazil’s Best Young Players Actually Grew Up
Less drilling, more playing, and a lot of futsal. What the research found when it asked them.
The Question Worth Asking
Everyone knows Brazil produces technical, creative players. Fewer people ask the obvious follow-up: what were those players actually doing when they were 7, 8, 9 years old?
It turns out researchers did ask. And the answer is not what most American parents would guess.
What the Study Found
In 2012, a team led by Paul Ford published a study in the Journal of Sports Sciences on 328 elite under-16 players at pro academies in seven countries: Brazil, England, France, Ghana, Mexico, Portugal and Sweden. Players filled in how many hours a year they had spent on coached practice, organized games, and informal play, all the way back through childhood.
The Brazilian players stood out. During childhood they did very little coached practice and very little organized competition. What they did instead was play: pickup soccer with other kids, and futsal. 44 of the 50 Brazilian players had played futsal as kids, averaging about 180 hours a year of it for three to four years.
The authors' takeaway was direct: a better approach may be for children to learn the game mainly through playing it.
Why Playing Beats Drilling at a Young Age
A drill tells a kid what to do. A game makes them figure it out. In a real game, nobody announces when the defender is coming, where the space is, or which teammate is open. Every touch is a decision.
Research backs that link. A 2023 study of 77 Brazilian professional women’s players (Machado and colleagues, Psychology of Sport and Exercise) found that more informal soccer play in childhood was associated with quicker decision-making on a video-based test, and that futsal practice was associated with better attacking decisions on and near the ball. Earlier work with English players found similar links between childhood play and decision-making.
Being straight about the limits: these studies rely on players remembering their own childhoods, and they show associations, not proof of cause. The Brazilian group in Ford’s study was 50 players from three academies. But the findings point the same direction, and they match how Brazil has produced players for generations.
The Problem in the U.S.
Most American kids don’t have a street game to walk out to. Soccer happens at scheduled practices, often with lines of kids waiting for their turn at a cone drill, then a weekend game on a big field where each kid might see the ball a handful of times.
Ford and his colleagues saw this coming. They noted that in countries without that informal play culture, the answer may be play that is scheduled and guided by coaches. That is the gap futsal fills: a small court, few players, constant decisions, and a kid who is involved in every single play.
What Parents Can Do
Put game time ahead of drill time. When you look at a program, ask how much of the session is spent actually playing.
Encourage free play. A ball in the backyard, a pickup game with siblings or neighbors, a few kids at the park. No coach, no scoreboard. It counts.
Make futsal part of the week. It is the closest thing an American kid has to the environment that shaped Brazil’s players.
Come Play
The best way to see it is to watch your kid in a game where they touch the ball every few seconds and have to make a decision every time.
First session is free.