Abstract

This paper aims at comparing some blood parameters in amateur and professional soccer players following an acute training session. The professional players (n=10) and their amateur counterparts (n=10) who participated in this study were 20.5 ± 1.4 and 20.6 ± 2.3 year old, respectively. Following full field play and strength training, participants’ venous blood samples were drawn to be analyzed for some parameters. The SPSS 15.0 package software was used for statistics, evaluating group differences by t-test analysis. There were significant differences (p<0.05) for blood erythrocyte (4.85 ± 0.10 vs 5.33 ± 0.14 x 106.µl-1) and thrombocyte (182.6 ± 22.3 vs 295.2 ± 15.2 x 103.µl-1) counts, urae (40.9 ± 3.5 vs 31.3 ± 1.6 mg.dl-1), calcium (8.70 ± 0.35 vs 7.32 ± 0.33 mg.dl-1) and phosphorus (3.42 ± 0.20 vs 7.18 ± 0.11 mg.dl-1) levels among professionals and amateurs players, respectively. Blood leukocyte counts, hemoglobin, cholesterol, triglyceride, and glucose levels were not significantly different. The reasons underlying differences in blood responses of parameters that may be used in performance evaluation are discussed.