Investigation of physical fitness levels of soccer players according to position and age variables

152 soccer players participated in this study playing in A, A2 and Youth teams between the ages of 14-20. The mean age of players was 17.48 ±2.89. Measured variables of height, weight, body mass index, body fat percentage, flexibility, speed, agility, anaerobic power, anaerobic capacity, aerobic capacity were compared among the groups of playing positions as goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders and strikers and between the groups of ages as ? 16 and ?.17. The differences between positions analyzed with One Way ANOVA test, and pairwise comparisons between groups made by Bonferroni test. Age groups compared with Independent Samples T-Test. SPSS statistical program version 19 used for analysis and 0.05 accepted as statistical significance level. Goalkeepers? weight and height were higher than strikers and body fat percentages were higher than all other positions. In the group of ? 17 goalkeepers 30 m sprint time is slower than all other groups. The maximal oxygen uptakes of midfielders were better than strikers. Flexibility, agility, anaerobic power, anaerobic capacity (repeated sprint ability and fatigue index), recovery values were not significantly different between positions. In all variables of height, weight, body mass index, body fat percentage, flexibility, anaerobic power, speed, agility, aerobic capacity, anaerobic capacity, ? 17 years age group had higher and better performance values than ? 16 years age group. When all the data are thought as a whole, there are no determinant performance differences among the positions. It can be said that the differences are due to the goalkeepers and so it will be profitable that the goalkeepers must be evaluated independently from the other positions. The similar training history and the unavailability of specific player composition are seen as the reason of indifference.