{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,7]],"date-time":"2026-09-07T09:11:53Z","timestamp":1788772313533,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,7]],"date-time":"2026-09-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788739200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Children"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Enjoyment in sport has emerged as a key psychological factor influencing exercise adherence and cognitive and emotional development. This exploratory study examined pre\u2013post changes in selected cognitive and motor variables over a 15-week observation period and whether average enjoyment during soccer training was associated with cognitive and motor performance indices. Fifty-six players (M = 52; F = 4; age: 9.98 \u00b1 0.70) were observed across 30 soccer training sessions over 15 weeks. Methods: Enjoyment was rated after each session using an emoji-based visual analogue scale, and cognitive performance was assessed before and after the observation period with tablet-based tasks. Results: Pre\u2013post analyses showed significant changes in the Motor Efficiency Test (t55 = 3.15; p = 0.003; \u0394 = \u221219.4%; Cohen\u2019s d = 0.42) and FlankTime (W = 1345; p &lt; 0.001; \u0394 = \u22128.1%; rank-biserial correlation = 0.68). FlankAcc showed only a nominal, uncorrected distributional change (W = 323; p = 0.015; \u0394 = 0.0%). Enjoyment was not significantly associated with any of the cognitive or motor performance indices. However, enjoyment scores were clustered toward the upper end of the scale, indicating restricted variability that may have limited the ability to detect associations. Conclusions: These preliminary findings indicate changes in selected cognitive and motor indices over the 15-week observation period, without evidence of direct associations between perceived enjoyment and the cognitive or motor performance indices examined.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/children13091204","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,7]],"date-time":"2026-09-07T08:07:06Z","timestamp":1788768426000},"page":"1204","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Enjoyment, Executive Functions, and Motor Efficiency in Youth Soccer Players: A 15-Week Observational Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-2177-5974","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sonia","family":"Angilletta","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Theoretical and Applied Sciences, eCampus University, 22060 Novedrate, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4547-3130","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Enzo","family":"Iuliano","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Theoretical and Applied Sciences, eCampus University, 22060 Novedrate, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4254-3105","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Johnny","family":"Padulo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1967-1640","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Domenico","family":"Martone","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Economics, Law, Cybersecurity and Sports Sciences, University Parthenope, 80133 Naples, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Arianna","family":"Manavella","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, 10124 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5302-7192","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Goran","family":"Kuva\u010di\u0107","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Split, 21000 Split, Croatia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2363-0956","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Davide","family":"Curzi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Economic, Psychological, Communication, Education and Movement Sciences, University Niccol\u00f2 Cusano, 00166 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Marco","family":"Alessandria","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Theoretical and Applied Sciences, eCampus University, 22060 Novedrate, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4679-286X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andrea","family":"De Giorgio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Theoretical and Applied Sciences, eCampus University, 22060 Novedrate, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hraste, M., De Giorgio, A., Jelaska, P.M., Padulo, J., and Grani\u0107, I. 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