A recent study unveiled at the Advanced BRAIN Health Clinic Research Programme’s AAIC 2026 conference examined former elite soccer players and their mental health outcomes.
Key Findings
The investigation involved 142 retired professional footballers — 126 men who held full‑time contracts in the men’s top tiers and 16 women from the leading divisions of the women’s game — and compared them with 56 healthy volunteers who had no history of contact sports, military service or head injury.
Participants completed detailed symptom questionnaires and underwent neuropsychological testing, while structural MRI scans were processed with voxel‑based morphometry to assess brain anatomy.
Results indicated that nearly one‑third of the former players met criteria for clinically significant depression, and 42 % scored in the range suggesting clinically significant anxiety. Moreover, imaging revealed reduced grey matter volume in the frontal, cingulate and thalamic regions relative to controls.
Although only about 2 % of scans showed atrophy that a clinical review classified as neurodegeneration‑related, the overall pattern points to a heightened risk of brain changes among retired players.
Researchers emphasized the necessity of long‑term monitoring and further study to fully understand the trajectory of these changes and to develop preventive strategies.