Сommunication and organizational aptitudes in the structure of leadership qualities of young football players

The effectiveness of young football players’ athletic training is determined by the interaction of physical, technical, tactical, theoretical, integrated, and psychological components. In team sports, communicative and organizational inclinations are of particular importance as psychological prerequisites for effective interaction and the realization of leadership potential. Purpose. To identify and compare the age-related characteristics of communicative and organizational inclinations in young football players and to determine their role in the implementation of leadership functions in team activities. Materials and methods. To achieve the aim of the study, an analysis was conducted analysis of scientific and methodological literature, comparison, psychological assessment using the «Assessment of Communicative and Organizational Inclinations» by V. V. Sinyavskyi and B. O. Fedorishyn, and methods of mathematical statistics, including the Kruskal–Wallis test. The study involved three groups of football players (n=108): aged 9–10 (n=33), 13–14 (n=37), and 16–17 years (n=38) from Children and Youth Sports Schools in Kyiv.Results. Significant individual variability in the indicators was established. Communicative inclinations were found to be more developed than organizational inclinations. Their mean values were 3.00±1.58, 2.92±1.40, and 3.21±1.45 points, respectively, across the three age groups, while organizational inclinations were 2.03±1.33, 2.24±1.42, and 2.34±1.38 points. The oldest group demonstrated a higher proportion of athletes with high and very high levels of communicative inclinations, whereas a low level predominated in organizational inclinations across all age groups. No statistically significant age-related differences were found in communicative (H=0.75; p=0.69) or organizational inclinations (H=1.11; p=0.57). Conclusions. Communicative and organizational inclinations are important psychological prerequisites, but not direct indicators, of leadership function implementation. The communicative component creates prerequisites for information, motivational, mediating, and representative functions, while the organizational component contributes to planning, coordination, and responsibility-taking. The findings support the need for targeted development of these characteristics and the application of distributed leadership principles.