By Wayne Goldsmith
Three important messages:
At 11, 12, 13, 14 our ability to predict senior talent is nowhere near as good as we think it is.
Worshipping early physical talent is one of the great mistakes in junior sport.
Our job is to elevate kids - not shatter them.
This is my first video post in a little while. I’ve been travelling and doing some other things, but we’re back to regular scheduled programming.
This morning I was enjoying a lovely cup of coffee, catching up on the FIFA World Cup 2026 updates from overnight.
I was listening to a young player being interviewed. He was talking about the joy of being in his national team, the joy of playing, what it meant to be at a World Cup. It was all going along beautifully.
And then I heard something that almost made me throw my coffee against the wall.
Judging kids we can’t yet judge:
The young player said that at 12 years of age he tried to get into two junior football academies. And he was told by both - in his words - that he was not good enough. That he was never going to make it to the top.
Not good enough. Not talented enough. At twelve.
Now, I’m no football expert. I played as a very young kid and my kids have played, but I won’t pretend to be an authority on the game.
I do, however, know something about developing young athletes.
And for a parent, a coach, an administrator, an academy manager - for anyone - to look into the eyes of a 12 year old child and tell them they’re not good enough is a disgrace. It is appalling.
Are some 12 year olds bigger, stronger, faster and more advanced than others? Of course they are. No doubt about it.
But that does not mean every other 12 year old isn’t good enough.
Here’s the thing we forget:
At 12, our ability to accurately predict senior sporting talent is nowhere near as good as most people think.
What we’re often seeing at that age isn’t talent at all. It’s early development. A growth spurt that came sooner. A bit more training. A birthday that fell in the right month.
We do not know, at 12, who is capable of making it to the top. We simply don’t.
So when you look at a child who has posters of star players on their wall, who might sleep with their football, who lies there dreaming of representing their country - and you tell them “you’re not good enough” - you’re not making an expert assessment.
You’re shattering a dream based on a guess.
And I’ll tell you whose dreams should be shattered. The dreams of the coaches and the people who said it to that child.
If this is the kind of coaching you believe in, there's a new piece every week.
The actual job:
Our job is to elevate kids.
Our job is to lift them, to have them believe in themselves, to believe that anything is possible.
Our job as coaches is to inspire their hearts, their minds and their spirits - to know they’re capable of extraordinary things.
So when are we going to stop this? When are we going to stop judging 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 year olds by their physical prowess?
We have got to stop worshipping physical talent. It is overrated, and in most cases it’s a poor indicator of ultimate success.
I’m so glad this kid is at the World Cup.
I hope he scores a hundred thousand goals.
I hope he’s greater than Ronaldo and Messi.
And I hope he looks back at the people who told him he wasn’t good enough and shows them exactly what they got wrong.
Summary:
I’m fuming this morning, honestly. I’d have thought that by now we were all smarter. That no one, anywhere in the world, in any sport, was still telling 12 year old kids they’re not good enough.
Let’s hope it’s an isolated incident. And let’s all do better.
Because our job has never been to decide who won’t make it.
Our job is to help every kid believe that they might.
Three Practical Applications For Your Coaching:
Never pass judgement on a 12 year old’s ceiling. Catch yourself any time you’re about to write off a young athlete’s future. You are not predicting talent - you’re guessing, and the research says you’ll often be wrong. Coach the child in front of you, not the senior athlete you think you can or can’t see.
Separate “early” from “good”. When a young athlete looks a cut above, ask honestly: is this genuine ability, or just earlier development? The kid who’s ahead at 12 is often just ahead for now. Keep developing the ones who haven’t caught up yet - because many of them will.
Make “elevate every kid” your daily test. Every single day, ask yourself: how did I lift, support and inspire every athlete I coached today - not just the talented ones? That’s the job. The rest is noise.
Thanks for reading, listening and watching.
Wayne
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