Growth and maturation in youth female football players and its association with body composition and physical performance: A scoping review

This review highlights the relationship between maturity status, body composition and fitness performance in women's football. The scoping review protocol was registered on the Open Science Framework (osf.io/6wvm5).The literature on growth and maturation in female football players was scoped on PubMed, SCOPUS and Web of Science between February 2023 to April 2025. Studies were considered if they were on, or if they included female football players less than 17 years and included indicators of biological maturation. Two reviewers (FB and BK) selected studies and extracted data. Forty-six studies met the criteria. Regarding maturation the mean age at peak height velocity (APHV) ranged between 12.5 and 12.4 years and the mean age at menarche between 13 and 12.8 years. Body composition varied according to maturation status. Early maturing players are heavier and have greater fat mass than the late maturing ones. Concerning physical performance it was observed that, countermovement jump improved after the PHV, as did change-of-direction ability; for pre-PHV players greatest improvements were observed in sprinting performance and anaerobic endurance. Coaches should consider maturity status while programming their training sessions, not only to adapt their training load more rigorously but also to prevent injuries. However, scientific research on the growth and maturation of female football players is still limited and most of the studies carried out did not consider the players’ training age.