The limited scientific research focused on female football players

The gap

Evidence profile

Sourced from the future-work section and stated challenges and abstract and conclusions and future work of the source papers, classified as general, drawn from work published between 2024 and 2026, spanning 4 journals. Those papers have been cited 19 times in total.

Supporting evidence — 6 representative gaps

• The Evolution of Physical Performance throughout an Entire Season in Female Football Players (2024) · Sports · cited 7× · doi

  Further research should investigate the effects of different training programs on female football players' physical performance. Studies should examine the relationship between physical performance and game outcomes in female football. Research should focus on developing effective training strategies to improve sprinting and jumping capabilities in female football players.

  generalfuture-work section
  Keywords: further research investigate effects different training programs female
• The Evolution of Physical Performance throughout an Entire Season in Female Football Players (2024) · Sports · cited 7× · doi

  One challenge is the limited scientific research focused on female football players. Another challenge is the difficulty in assessing the evolution of physical performance throughout a season. The study also faced the challenge of ensuring that the participants did not perform any other sport or specific conditioning training during the study period.

  generalstated challenges
  Keywords: one challenge limited scientific research focused female football
• Research on cerebral palsy football: a scoping review (2025) · BMC Sports Science Medicine and Rehabilitation · cited 1× · doi

  More specifically, the findings of this study suggested that future research should address the gaps in the area of medicine and psychology, focus on female players and non-professional players, and conduct investigations within diverse sociocultural contexts, while also providing guidance for practices, such as the optimization of CP football training programs and the establishment of a comprehensive support system for footballers with CP.

  generalabstract
  Keywords: players specifically future address gaps area medicine psychology focus female professional conduct investigations within diverse
• The training and development process for a world-class female handball player: a longitudinal and retrospective case study (2025) · Frontiers in Sports and Active Living · cited 4× · doi

  The study faces challenges in collecting and analyzing longitudinal training data, including the need to ensure data quality and accuracy. The study faces challenges in identifying key factors that contribute to the player's success, including the need to control for confounding variables and ensure the validity of the findings. The study faces challenges in generalizing the findings to other handball players and contexts, including the need to consider the specific characteristics of the player and the sport.

  generalstated challengesevidence 5/5
  Keywords: study faces challenges collecting analyzing longitudinal training data
• Pathways to the senior national teams: experiences of playing-up and mixed-gender play among Swedish elite female footballers (2026) · Frontiers in Sports and Active Living · doi

  Further research is required to clarify the hypothetical reasoning discussed and to obtain better data to improve understanding of the long-term implications of current player development strategies. This study has addressed a specific gap in the literature and provide important insights about the impact of playing-up and mixed-gender play within football.

  generalconclusionsevidence 5/5
  Keywords: further required clarify hypothetical reasoning discussed obtain better improve understanding long term implications current player
• Editorial: Football training and competition (2026) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi

  Collectively, the 31 articles comprising this Research Topic reflect the remarkable breadth and depth of contemporary football science (see Figure 1). The contributions span a wide range of designs, from randomized training interventions and longitudinal monitoring studies to systematic reviews, machine learning applications, and qualitative inquiry, and include populations ranging from grassroots youth players to elite professionals, male and female, across multiple football formats including football and futsal.

  generalfuture workevidence 5/5
  Keywords: football collectively articles comprising topic remarkable breadth depth contemporary science contributions span wide range designs

Questions about this gap