It’s widely known among the soccer fans that each team starts with 11 players during a soccer game. But that’s for the soccer teams with players aged 16 and above.
What about the other age ranges? Specifically, what about the youth soccer teams? How many players are there on these teams? This is what this article is for.
The number of players on a youth soccer team varies depending on the age group. Players aged less than 8 are advised to play with 5 players on each team. 7 players per team for U9 ~ U10 youth soccer, 9 players per team for U11 ~ U12, and 11 players per team for U13 ~ U16. There’s more to youth soccer than just the number of players.
So there you have it. That’s the number of players per group age when it comes to youth soccer.
However, there is plenty more to talk about when it comes to the youth soccer teams, and that’s what the rest of this article will be talking about.
How does soccer work for youth players aged under 8?
As mentioned before, if your children are still less than 8 years old, then it’s advised that they only play soccer games with 5 players on each team. At least that’s what many of the soccer associations around the world require.
5 players per team is more than enough for the children who are just getting started in soccer. You don’t want the children to be playing soccer on a standard 80 yards x 120 yards soccer field.
The main reason behind this is that the children are too slow for such a large soccer field. They also can’t kick the ball with strong force so they won’t be able to pass the ball to each other properly on a very large soccer field.
For that reason, the youth players aged under 8 should play on smaller pitches, and that’s why they need a smaller number of players on each team, or else the field will be crowded. 5 players on each team is the number used by many soccer associations and they use it for a reason.
In general, a soccer field with a width of 30 yards (27 meters) and a length of 40 yards (36 meters) is perfect for the youth players aged under 8.
The young soccer players will get to learn the most basic techniques that are needed to become a professional soccer player.
That’s the main goal behind youth soccer in general. Helping the children develop their soccer skills at a young age can make them better soccer players.
On a side note, if you are wondering how you can get your child interested in soccer at a young age, then you can check this article that gives you tips on how to do that.
For players aged under 8, it’s also advised that they don’t play a soccer match that’s longer than 40 minutes just to make sure that they don’t over practice.
In other words, the best match duration for the youth players aged under 8 would be a 40 minutes match divided into 2 halves of 20 minutes each.
How does soccer work for youth players aged between 8 and 10?
The number of players per team can go up to 7 for the players aged between 8 and 10. The increase in the number of players is just to gradually move them towards the famous 11v11 soccer game.
As for the size of the field, you can go with 40 yards (36 meters) for the length and 60 yards (54 meters) for the width.
The duration of the game can be increased to 50 minutes. In other words, each of the halves will be 15 minutes long.
Remember, these numbers should not be followed religiously. However, these numbers are the standard numbers used around the world and thus they should give you an idea about what to expect when it comes to youth soccer.
How does soccer work for youth players aged between 10 and 12?
For players aged between 10 and 12, it’s advised that the soccer match is played with 9 players on each team.
Again, as the kids age, they get to play with more kids on their side during a soccer game. The soccer field size of this group age is advised to be somewhere around 50 yards (45 m) in width and 80 yards (73 m) in length.
As you can easily notice by now, the number of players per team is dependent on the size of the soccer field for each of the youth soccer age groups. The bigger the soccer field, the higher the number of players per team becomes.
As for the duration of the game, it’s best to keep around 60 minutes, with each half being 30 minutes long.
At What age does the 11-a-side soccer start?
At the age of 12 and above, soccer players will start playing with 11 players per team. They will also start playing on a standard sized soccer field. At the age of 12, the players will have enough skills and enough strength to be able to play on a large soccer field.
The one player that might find the transition from a small soccer field to a large one really hard is the goalkeeper. Imagine a 12 year-old goalkeeper trying to prevent the ball from entering a net sized 14 ft x 8 ft (7.3m x 2.4m)
Even though the young goalkeeper might find it hard to protect such a large net at the beginning, it’s essential to make sure that the goalkeeper gets used to the standard size soccer nets from an early age.
With time, the goalkeepers get used to the large net that they should protect, and they become better goalkeepers over time.
The last thing that I want to mention here is that even though players aged between 12~16 can start playing soccer with 11 players per team, the duration of the soccer match is usually less than 90 minutes.
For example, the duration of the match can be somewhere between 70 minutes ~ 80 minutes depending on the group age.
With that said, I will end my article here. Before I go, here is a quick table that summarizes all the numbers mentioned in this article in a very simple way:
| Age Group | Number of players per team | Field size (width x length) | Game duration |
| Under 8 | 5 | 30 yds x 40 yds 27 m x 36 m | 40 minutes |
| 8~10 | 7 | 40 yds x 60 yds 36 m x 54 m | 50 minutes |
| 10~12 | 9 | 50 yds x 80 yds 45 m x 73 m | 60 minutes |
| 12 ~ 14 | 11 | 80 yds x 120 yds 73 m x 110 m | 70 minutes |
| 14 ~ 16 | 11 | 80 yds x 120 yds 73 m x 110 m | 80 minutes |