Top soccer players demonstrate superlative cognitive abilities for strategizing and situational awareness
Soccer fans sometimes imagine that they themselves could potentially perform at the highest levels of the sport, just like the athletic heroes they watch on the pitch. But if they ever do find the chance to try, they will learn that their body simply won’t cooperate — and they might even get seriously hurt.
And many of them are ignoring the fact that the “beautiful game” is also a brain game. Reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, an international research group says it has now confirmed that success on the soccer field is about mind as well as body.