Sakari Holopainen1, Mihaly Szerovay1, Niilo Konttinen2 & Marja Kokkonen1
1 University of Jyväskylä, Finland; 2 Finnish Institute of High Performance Sport KIHU
Since little leadership research has been conducted in elite national team environments, this study explored the types of leadership characteristics found in a men’s national football team. The research question was: What leadership characteristics describe a men’s national football team? Our data comprised 182 pages of transcripts of interviews with five coaches and two players from a men’s national team. Reflexive thematic analysis with a deductive approach yielded three themes: 1) coach leadership, 2) athlete leadership, and 3) shared leadership. These key themes suggest that a national team’s leadership is built on interactivity. The team’s leadership structure was characterized by the coaching staff and players having clear roles while leaving space for informal leaders to emerge as needed. The coaches highlighted the captain’s role in bearing the primary responsibility for representing the players’ voices in decision-making. Our interview data indicated that the characteristics that distinguish an excellent athlete leader from a good one were an unselfish personality, excellent social skills, and the ability to inspire others.
Click to access this peer review article in Scandinavian Sport Studies Forum, Vol. 17, 2026
SAKARI HOLOPAINEN is a doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences within University of Jyväskylä. Alongside the doctoral studies he works as a coaching specialist and coach educator at Eerikkilä Sport Institute. Sakari has a background as a player and a professional coach on a national level in football and in futsal.
MIHALY SZEROVAY holds a joint professor of practice position at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and the Football Association of Finland. Before taking up his current role that focuses on research and development in football, he worked as a senior lecturer in Football Studies at Solent University, United Kingdom. Szerovay played football professionally as a goalkeeper in Finland.
NIILO KONTTINEN (Ph.D., Docent) works currently as a Leading Researcher in Sport Psychology at the Finnish Institute of High Performance Sport KIHU, Jyväskylä, Finland. He has a long experience of working as a consulting psychologist in Finnish national, Olympic, and Paralympic teams. His recent areas of academic interest in sport and exercise psychology have included psycho-social aspects in youth sport, including issues like motivation and sports participation process.
MARJA KOKKONEN (PhD in Psychology, M.Sc in Sport Sciences, docent of the psychology of health and well-being) is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Pedagogy in the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences within University of Jyväskylä, Finland. As a sport and exercise psychologist she has been involved with applied sport psychology work and coach education via her own company.
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