Hematological Profile of the Youth National Soccer Teams

Soccer is one of the most widely played and complex sports in the world, where players need technical, tactical, and physical skills to succeed. Technical and tactical skills in soccer are highly dependent on the player’s physical capacity. The selection, development and professional guidance of young players is a priority for many top soccer clubs in order to maintain their sporting and financial status. The aim of the present study was to determine hema-tological profile of youth national soccer teams and to compare the values of fifteen hematological parameters be-tween 3 Serbian youth national teams (under 14, 15 and 16 years old), as well as between soccer players and non-athletes. 80 young soccer players and 30 non-athletes participated in the study. 15 hematologic parameters (WBC, RBC, HGB, HCT, PLT, MCV, MCH, MCHC, PDW, LYM %, MON %, GRAN %, LYM, MON, GRAN) were measured. In order to determine the significance of differences between the groups on a multivariate level a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was administered, and to test the differences between the groups on an univariate level a univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied. It was concluded that there is no significant difference in all the variables (WBC, Ly, Mo, Gr, PLT, HGB, HCT, etc), except RBC, probably due to age, androgen affection on erythropoesis, field positoning and diet. From a practical point of view, the clinician has to take into account not only age, but also training status of individuals when evaluating their blood tests.