4 ms·

Paraphrasing: "high meat consumption + low income = better soccer players". This will be biased in favour of Brazil, but it seems like a plausible idea that mo

Paraphrasing: "high meat consumption + low income = better soccer players". This will be biased in favour of Brazil, but it seems like a plausible idea that more meat can be correlated to better athletic development

golemiprague 4y ago
Brazil are good at soccer simply because they are the biggest country where soccer is the main sport so it will be hard to control for that trying to find other reasons. It will be more interesting to look at small countries with relative success like Uruguay or Holland.
- smcl 4y ago
  Population is something that as a Scot mystifies me. We have a population similar to Croatia, yet they’ve been an incredible force in international football while we have languished in mediocrity, missing out on most major tournaments in the last 30 years. At a club level there’s no contest - our domestic leagues are usually ranked higher in the UEFA coefficient than Croatia’s and traditionally we’ve had greater success in Europe. We are at a slight disadvantage re our restricted ability to field emigre players (ie had Eduardo Da Silva signed for, say, Dundee United rather than Dynamo Zagreb he would not have been eligible for Scotland so easily) but I do not believe this has impacted us significantly. Though we are losing players to Ireland due to stupid self-inflicted eligibility rules at schools level - James McCarthy and Aiden McGeady opting to play for Ireland still saddens me to this day. I've heard talk of poorer countries turning out better players because at a crucial age (14-18) when you're choosing to commit to professional football you're basically choosing between rolling the dice at a professional career in football, or a more realistic longer term career through learning a trade or heading to university. And in this situation, it could be that the risk/reward is higher in somewhere like Croatia, Brazil or Argentina. But this doesn't explain why other small high-income countries like Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland are routinely competing at a higher level than we are. If I was a director at the Scottish Football Association I’d be closely studying what these countries are doing differently because there’s something we are desperately missing. I have my thoughts, but I'm just another armchair analyst with no power so it makes little sense to share them :)
  - 32MHz 4y ago
    Where do the best Scottish players go to play club football? In the nations you listed, the best of the best end up in Barca, RM, Bayern, etc… They then return with best practices and an aura that influences the entire team. If Scottish club football is the pinnacle for Scottish players then this may be a factor?
    - smcl 4y ago
      The best Scottish players go south and play in the Premier League in England or the Championship. But England can be very sink-or-swim in my opinion, Billy Gilmour was (and IMO is) a promising youngster who has basically been told he's got no future at Chelsea even though he's very talented. There's been a potentially promising recent trend recently of a few Scottish youngsters being sought out in Italy - Aaron Hickey had signed for Bologna a year back and a great season, Liam Henderson is a regular at Empoli and Lewis Ferguson left Aberdeen for (coincidentally) Bologna this season. I say it's a trend because it's so recent and so unlikely, previously if a Scot played in Italy they were truly a superstar. We're talking Joe Jordan, Denis Law and Graeme Souness. Personally I hope Gilmour ends up in Serie A or La Liga. That said, you may have a point. Many Scots boys grow up idolising Celtic or Rangers. It could be that many get signed for their boyhood club and choose to remain there, even if a club who is better for their long-term development is interested.
  - borroka 4y ago
    The relative success of one country vs another is multifactorial, mysterious, and I would have a lot to say about it, or better, to speculate about, but for now I will simply say that Scotland is a small country, therefore with a limited number of candidates for international-level football, and is losing part of their talent pool to the sport of rugby. Most of the backs and some flankers would definitely be good candidates for top-level football. Croatia has basketball, but the talent pools for basketball and football do not overlap. Then, we are talking here about national teams. At the club level, the performance of teams from Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland is far from that of teams from the most, football-wise, prestigious countries.
fredsir 4y ago
Or simply that a diet not meeting the nutritional needs can be correlated to worse athletic performance. And since meat is dense in nutrition, and since places with less meat available sometimes is low income, I think it’s plausible.
virtualritz 4y ago
Yeah, that's probably why the gladiators were basically vegetarians. ;) https://www.bbc.com/news/education-29723384 https://www.bbc.com/news/education-29723384
- hrnn 4y ago
  At least the Gladiators that lost!
- LunaSea 4y ago
  Correction twenty out of twenty-two gladiators that died in one particular place ate mostly but not exclusively plants. Two other did not follow said died because they didn't come from the same area. That's a drastically different conclusion
  - virtualritz 4y ago
    How do we know they didn't follow the diet because they didn't come from the same area? Maybe they were special otherwise? Super stars? I.e. this may well be coincidence. At a sample size of two any conclusion is a tad hard to support. There is overwhelming evidence for meat being consumed rarely in most western cultures until very recently. Excavations of food pits mostly.[1] The link I posted is just one example. [1] My brother is an archeologist. I take his word for this.
    - LunaSea 4y ago
      Well I hope that his evidence is stronger than your overstatement of the link you posted.
katamarimambo 4y ago
Footballers in Brazil mostly come from a poorer background where red meat is not that much available. Rice, beans, various kinds of flour are what they will eat everyday; eggs are probably the most consumed protein alongside those staple dishes

golemiprague 4y ago

Brazil are good at soccer simply because they are the biggest country where soccer is the main sport so it will be hard to control for that trying to find other reasons. It will be more interesting to look at small countries with relative success like Uruguay or Holland.

smcl 4y ago
Population is something that as a Scot mystifies me. We have a population similar to Croatia, yet they’ve been an incredible force in international football while we have languished in mediocrity, missing out on most major tournaments in the last 30 years. At a club level there’s no contest - our domestic leagues are usually ranked higher in the UEFA coefficient than Croatia’s and traditionally we’ve had greater success in Europe. We are at a slight disadvantage re our restricted ability to field emigre players (ie had Eduardo Da Silva signed for, say, Dundee United rather than Dynamo Zagreb he would not have been eligible for Scotland so easily) but I do not believe this has impacted us significantly. Though we are losing players to Ireland due to stupid self-inflicted eligibility rules at schools level - James McCarthy and Aiden McGeady opting to play for Ireland still saddens me to this day. I've heard talk of poorer countries turning out better players because at a crucial age (14-18) when you're choosing to commit to professional football you're basically choosing between rolling the dice at a professional career in football, or a more realistic longer term career through learning a trade or heading to university. And in this situation, it could be that the risk/reward is higher in somewhere like Croatia, Brazil or Argentina. But this doesn't explain why other small high-income countries like Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland are routinely competing at a higher level than we are. If I was a director at the Scottish Football Association I’d be closely studying what these countries are doing differently because there’s something we are desperately missing. I have my thoughts, but I'm just another armchair analyst with no power so it makes little sense to share them :)
- 32MHz 4y ago
  Where do the best Scottish players go to play club football? In the nations you listed, the best of the best end up in Barca, RM, Bayern, etc… They then return with best practices and an aura that influences the entire team. If Scottish club football is the pinnacle for Scottish players then this may be a factor?
  - smcl 4y ago
    The best Scottish players go south and play in the Premier League in England or the Championship. But England can be very sink-or-swim in my opinion, Billy Gilmour was (and IMO is) a promising youngster who has basically been told he's got no future at Chelsea even though he's very talented. There's been a potentially promising recent trend recently of a few Scottish youngsters being sought out in Italy - Aaron Hickey had signed for Bologna a year back and a great season, Liam Henderson is a regular at Empoli and Lewis Ferguson left Aberdeen for (coincidentally) Bologna this season. I say it's a trend because it's so recent and so unlikely, previously if a Scot played in Italy they were truly a superstar. We're talking Joe Jordan, Denis Law and Graeme Souness. Personally I hope Gilmour ends up in Serie A or La Liga. That said, you may have a point. Many Scots boys grow up idolising Celtic or Rangers. It could be that many get signed for their boyhood club and choose to remain there, even if a club who is better for their long-term development is interested.
- borroka 4y ago
  The relative success of one country vs another is multifactorial, mysterious, and I would have a lot to say about it, or better, to speculate about, but for now I will simply say that Scotland is a small country, therefore with a limited number of candidates for international-level football, and is losing part of their talent pool to the sport of rugby. Most of the backs and some flankers would definitely be good candidates for top-level football. Croatia has basketball, but the talent pools for basketball and football do not overlap. Then, we are talking here about national teams. At the club level, the performance of teams from Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland is far from that of teams from the most, football-wise, prestigious countries.

fredsir 4y ago

Or simply that a diet not meeting the nutritional needs can be correlated to worse athletic performance. And since meat is dense in nutrition, and since places with less meat available sometimes is low income, I think it’s plausible.

virtualritz 4y ago

Yeah, that's probably why the gladiators were basically vegetarians. ;) https://www.bbc.com/news/education-29723384 https://www.bbc.com/news/education-29723384

hrnn 4y ago
At least the Gladiators that lost!
LunaSea 4y ago
Correction twenty out of twenty-two gladiators that died in one particular place ate mostly but not exclusively plants. Two other did not follow said died because they didn't come from the same area. That's a drastically different conclusion
- virtualritz 4y ago
  How do we know they didn't follow the diet because they didn't come from the same area? Maybe they were special otherwise? Super stars? I.e. this may well be coincidence. At a sample size of two any conclusion is a tad hard to support. There is overwhelming evidence for meat being consumed rarely in most western cultures until very recently. Excavations of food pits mostly.[1] The link I posted is just one example. [1] My brother is an archeologist. I take his word for this.
  - LunaSea 4y ago
    Well I hope that his evidence is stronger than your overstatement of the link you posted.

katamarimambo 4y ago

Footballers in Brazil mostly come from a poorer background where red meat is not that much available. Rice, beans, various kinds of flour are what they will eat everyday; eggs are probably the most consumed protein alongside those staple dishes