Footballer's face can predict on-field performance, goals, assists and fouls: Study

A latest study has revealed that the structure of a football player's face can predict his performance on the field, including his likelihood of scoring goals, making assists and committing fouls.

Scientists led by a researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder studied the facial-width-to-height ratio (FHWR) of about 1,000 players from 32 countries who competed in the 2010 World Cup and the results showed that midfielders, who both offense and defense, and forwards, who lead the offense, with higher FWHRs were more likely to commit fouls.

The results, published in the journal Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, also revealed that forwards with higher FWHRs also were more likely to score goals or make assists.

Postdoctoral researcher in CU-Boulder Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Keith Welker, who is also the lead author of the paper, said that previous research into facial structure of athletes has been primarily in the United States and Canada.

Welker said that no one had really looked at how facial-width-to-height ratio is associated with athletic performance by comparing people from across the world.

FWHR is the distance between the cheekbones divided by the distance between the mid-brow and the upper lip. Past studies have indicated that a high FWHR is associated with more aggressive behavior, with both positive and negative results.

However, some previous research has failed to find a correlation between FWHR and aggressive behavior in certain populations. The new study adds weight to the argument that FWHR does correlate with aggression. Welker and his colleagues chose to look at the 2010 World Cup because of the quality and quantity of the data available.

Welker said that there is a lot of athletic data out there, adding that they were exploring contexts to look at aggressive behavior and found that the World Cup, which quantifies goals, fouls and assists, provides a multinational way of addressing whether facial structure produces this aggressive behavior and performance.

Scientists have several ideas about how FWHR might be associated with aggression. One possibility is that it's related to testosterone exposure earlier in life. Testosterone during puberty can affect a variety of physical traits, including bone density, muscle growth and cranial shape, Welker said.