Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to analyse whether football coaches' age and experience have an impact on self-perception of emotional intelligence, as well as analysing the impact of this on leadership skills.DesignThe research involved 211 football coaches. A questionnaire was used to assess the self-perception of emotional intelligence and leadership skills through structural equation modelling (SEM-PLS) to validate the hypotheses.FindingsResults indicate that age has statistically significant impacts on emotional intelligence, particularly in the dimensions of well-being, emotionality and sociability. It was also concluded that experience as a coach, in relation to years in the profession and the number of clubs served, does not have any statistically significant effect on any of the four dimensions of emotional intelligence. As for the impact of emotional intelligence on leadership skills, a positive impact was found on well-being, emotionality and sociability, but not on self-control.Practical implicationsOne recommendation is to structure coaches' training paths with perspectives that go beyond physiological, technical and tactical aspects, namely by developing skills such as emotional intelligence and leadership.Research contributionThis study suggests that sport agents in general need to be more aware of the importance of some soft skills in improving their teams' performance.