Pedro (Pedri) Gonzalez, is another victim of a deficient model of player development. Like what happened to Ansu Fati, his transition from the Academy to the professional level was poorly designed. requirements of the professional competitive level. The transition model was inadequately designed considering the player’s current limitations, his biological maturation, and his soccer and physiological developmental stage (see the report).
The recurrence of these situations like in the case of Fati, Pedri, and Haaland (you can see their reports on my web page https://www.spandrelanalytics.com/blog ) clearly show that there is not adequate knowledge on how to handle the still ongoing player’s process of development. That their biological growth might be incomplete; that the change to a professional level implies many social, psychological, and game-related changes, and that the player needs time to learn and guidance to adjust to them. That the transition to higher loads of training and competition requires a particular body structure with a minimum physiological capacity. Accelerating those processes is very dangerous and many times career-ending stressors.
We are experiencing a trend and a new type of sports epidemic. The unnecessary generation of injuries is produced by the economical institutional need. However, it is a bad business perspective since this strategy is decreasing the opportunity that those damaged players can provide to their clubs. Young players are promoted too soon to capitalize on their perceived but badly evaluated capabilities without considering that many performance areas should be methodologically and strategically integrated to be able to make a rational-smart decision.
Starting with a promotion to the first team only based on past performance at the youth level, Pedri’s body structure, technical capacity, and physical condition were clearly not ready for the Accelerating
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