What Every Athlete Can Learn from Football’s Scientific Revolution
By MYRA Center for Athlete Development: Sophie Herzog, Øyvind Sandbakk and Trond Nystad
Football, the world’s most popular sport, is undergoing a scientific transformation. From data analytics and individualized training plans to advanced recovery protocols, more data are integrated, reshaping not only how the game is analyzed and played, but also how players are developed. This shift is particularly visible in elite men’s football, where performance science has become deeply embedded.
At the same time, the rapid rise of women’s football brings its own momentum. As the Women’s UEFA European Football Championships capture attention in Switzerland and across Europe this summer, it’s clear that the women’s game is evolving fast – but that is still building its identity and structures. This presents a big opportunity: to grow a sport that integrates cutting-edge science while also placing early and equal emphasis on athlete-centered, human development.
The game between the Netherlands and France at the 2025 Women's European Championship took place in Basel in front of 34,133 fans.
At MYRA, we operate at the intersection of the science and best practices applied in elite (endurance) athlete development. We’ve seen how long-term planning, diagnostics, and personalized approaches can help athletes reach their full potential. As the world’s most visible sport, football can shape a future that reflects the best of both innovation and care – being a role model for the sport community. Still, we believe that football can also draw valuable lessons from other sports, for example by further prioritizing athlete literacy and ownership alongside team success.
Lessons Learned in the Professionalization of Football
For years, the complexity of football made it difficult to isolate or pinpoint evidence-based performance principles. In contrast, endurance sports became early testing grounds for training principles, performance diagnostics and long-term athlete development. Concepts such as training periodization, VO2max and lactate testing, and load monitoring were pioneered in sports like cycling and cross-country skiing. Football is now catching up. A technological and scientific “revolution” is underway, transforming how clubs and federations approach everything from individual training load management, talent identification to recovery and tactical decisions. Some key developments include:
Data analytics and Individualized player development:
Wearables and AI-driven analytics have been a game-changer. Furthermore, data analysts have become core staff members, translating performance data into actionable insights. Coaches are now fed with detailed information on the opponent’s game style, player profiles, game data, and much more. This allows for the creation of highly specific game plans and individualized training strategies tailored to the respective season phase (or match preparation), a player’s unique profile and training status, their specific position on the field, their recent training and match load, and their injury history.
Data is also used for scouting, helping clubs select complementary players’ where skills and physical attributes are strategically matched to create a stronger, more cohesive team.Injury prevention:
Monitoring training loads and wellness metrics (including menstrual cycle tracking for women) has been shown to help reduce injuries[i]. Preventive strategies based on real-time feedback are now a cornerstone of elite performance.
Multi-disciplinary integration:
Top clubs leverage knowledge and experience from athletic coaches, sports scientists, nutritionists, data/video analysts and other experts in a coordinated way, supporting the coaching staff in its decision-making.Optimized nutrition and recovery:
Nutrition periodization and recovery planning are no longer optional. Top clubs are embedding these practices into their daily operations.
While football has financial and structural advantages, the underlying principles – coordinated collaboration, diagnostics, data literacy, individualized load management, and performance and recovery optimization – are universal. These are the same tools endurance sports have used for decades to push the limits of human performance.
Furthermore, at MYRA, we’ve seen that self-driven, curious athletes who actively seek out science-and best-practice based insights from other top performers - sometimes also outside their own sport - can gain a competitive edge. In recent years, some of the most forward-thinking football teams have proven the power of this approach. But for many athletes in other disciplines, access to this kind of knowledge is limited. Their networks often remain within their sport, and their budgets rarely allow for the multidisciplinary support seen in professional football. That’s where athlete development centers like MYRA can help - connecting individuals and teams with the science, systems, and expert networks they need to level up through cross-sport learning.
The Next Frontier: Empowering the Player
While the advances in the professionalization of football have undeniably elevated the game, they also raise an important question: who ultimately benefits from this knowledge and structure? Much of the current innovation is still driven from the top down – by clubs and federations – with limited emphasis on empowering the players themselves. In this model, the players themselves are often recipients – not drivers – of the process. This is where football can still grow. The next frontier must be a cultural shift – toward enabling athlete ownership and literacy – not at the cost, but for the benefit of the team’s success.
Ownership of development:
Like elite endurance athletes, footballers can be encouraged to take a high degree of ownership over their development and actively participate in planning, execution, and adjustment of their training – not just following orders but understanding the why. Further fostering this culture of autonomy could give footballers a deeper awareness and accountability for their own careers – on, and later off the pitch.Maximizing Training and Development Beyond Team Sessions:
While team training is central, elite footballers know that development doesn’t stop there. Data on some of the world’s best players (to be published) report training volumes, including individual training and self-organized play, of around 25 hours per week already from a young age, showing that individual commitment plays a critical role. Also at senior level, most professionals follow tailored programs that include injury prevention, athletic training, conditioning, technical refinement, tactical study, recovery, mobility, mental preparation, and more. A mindset of purposeful daily investment – not sacrifice – is what separates the good from the great.Data for the player:
Just as endurance athletes use digital platforms to document their training and wellness metrics, footballers should own and maintain their data. A personal training and testing diary as well as health data can reveal trends and ensure continuity across coaching changes or club transfers. This can be crucial to avoid underperformance or injuries by providing a consistent performance baseline. Ideally, this data collection should start early and follow a player throughout their career. On a system level, this longitudinal data could also be invaluable and provide scientific insights into successful player development by allowing coaches and scientists to learn from both success stories and failures. It would also directly benefit clubs, enabling them to learn from a new player’s history to better adapt training in the future.Long-term support and athlete literacy:
In contrast to the short-term focus of many club managers and the financial priorities of agents, what many players truly need is long-term, independent guidance. The most successful Norwegian footballers in recent years were guided by highly competent parents who actively supported and advised them – ensuring thoughtful career decisions. But this kind of guidance is rare and replicating this kind of support is challenging in practice. In many environments, agents dominate the space around the player. As a result, basic but critical skills like athlete literacy, self-reflection, or financial understanding are often underdeveloped. This presents an opportunity for women’s football: if these foundational skills are consciously built into the development process early on, we could see the emergence of more self-aware, empowered players. Over time, this could foster a new kind of leadership in the sport – rooted not just in performance, but in self-efficacy, maturity, and long-term thinking.
Conclusion
Football's evolution is more than tactics, technology and what happens on the pitch. The sport has undertaken a remarkable journey to becoming a leader in sports analytics and professional structures. But lasting success requires more than systems – it depends on the ability to combine data-driven insights with human interaction that lead to optimal athlete development and – of course – team success.
This is where we believe football can continue to learn, and knowledge can be shared across sports. The principles of athlete empowerment, long-term thinking and athlete ownership can complement football’s high-performance environments. When athletes are given the tools to understand themselves, manage their data, and actively shape their careers, they have more control over their own performance and development.
The potential for development is especially strong in women’s football. With a younger sports culture still in formation, the women’s game faces not only the challenge of advancing – but of choosing how it wants to grow. If foundational skills like athlete literacy, self-reflection, and long-term thinking are consciously built into their development from the start, we could see the rise of more self-aware, empowered players. Rather than replicating the structures of the men’s game, women’s football has a rare opportunity to shape a sporting culture that is both scientifically grounded, and truly athlete centered.
At MYRA Center for Athlete Development, we are committed to advancing athlete development - also by bridging insights across sports. Our team brings together diverse backgrounds: from professional football and cross-country skiing, to coaching World and Olympic champions, to leading research and applied high-performance environments. We understand both the demands of elite sport and the science that supports long-term success.
We are always eager to explore cross-sport collaborations - with athletes, coaches, clubs, or organizations who value open exchange and new ideas. Whether it's sharing knowledge, refining training approaches, or building more athlete-centered systems, we believe that collaboration across sports can benefit everyone involved.
If you’re interested in learning more or exploring potential partnerships, we’d love to hear from you.
References
[i] Barlow A, Blodgett JM, Williams S, Pedlar CR, Bruinvels G. Injury Incidence, Severity, and Type Across the Menstrual Cycle in Female Footballers: A Prospective Three Season Cohort Study. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2024 Jun 1;56(6):1151-1158. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000003391. Epub 2024 Jan 11. PMID: 38227488.
