(CNN) — While research around sports and brain impacts has tended to focus on American football, soccer players may be at risk as well.
Retired professional soccer players show signs of potential neurological impacts in midlife, according to new research.
As the World Cup heads toward the finals, the study presented at the July 2026 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in London turns toward a sport that has not been researched as fully as tackle football. This initial research suggests that neurological symptoms may be evident in soccer players earlier than many people expect.
Former professional players were more likely to report anxiety, depression, and problems with thinking or decision-making compared to people who had not played contact sports, according to the abstract, which presents initial findings and has not yet been submitted to a journal.
“We don’t know if this is something that’s due to playing soccer for a long time and those repetitive head impacts, or is it something that is intrinsically different for people who decide to player soccer professionally and who are good at soccer,” said lead study author Caleigh Lynch, a research technician at Imperial College London and the UK Dementia Research Institute Centre for Care Research & Technology.
Changes in the brain
The research team looked at many measures of impact, including questionnaires, clinical assessments and brain scans.
Among the 142 former players, made up of 126 men and 16 women who ranged in age from 30 to 60, researchers did not find significant impacts on cognition, which includes skills like memory and attention, Lynch said. However, brain scans did show lower gray matter — the brain’s information processor — in regions that affect memory, decision-making, attention and emotional regulation among the group of players compared to those participants who did not play contact sports.
The structural brain differences and higher reports of psychological symptoms could be unrelated to soccer, but they also could point to neurological impacts from repetitive head injuries.
It is significant that the former players studied are in midlife, because a lot of research has focused on people after the age of 70, when dementia symptoms are most likely to emerge, said Dr. Thomas Parker, senior study author and clinical lecturer and consultant neurologist at Imperial College London and the UK Dementia Research Institute Centre for Care Research & Technology.
“Studying people in detail before that stage, you can get an idea of a trajectory before things like dementia become apparent,” he said.
While the findings are important when thinking about how to make sports safer, the data is still preliminary. More people will be studied, more tests will be done and the participants will be looked at for a longer period to get a better sense of the impacts, the researchers said.
It’s not just concussions
Most of the data on sport head impacts and long-term brain health comes from research on American football, which makes sense because it’s hard to play without taking some hits to the head.
“Seeing more research on other sports, including soccer, perhaps the world’s most popular sport, is really important to see if the risks apply to those sports too,” said Dr. Michael Alosco, codirector of clinical research for the Boston University CTE Center and vice chair of research for neurology. He was not involved in the study.
Where does the risk come in when it comes to soccer? There is a misconception that the biggest problem is concussions, Alosco said.
“Concussions can — don’t get me wrong — have devastating consequences in some people, but we do know that most people who have concussion recover fully,” he said.
The concern is really about repeated hits to the head over the course of a lifetime, Alosco said. In soccer, that can come from collisions, but an important source is when players hit the ball with their head, called a “header.”
The data aligns with what researchers have seen studying American tackle football. In that sport, players often report psychiatric symptoms, such as anxiety and depression, earlier in life as this study found, he said.
Researchers across sports are still trying to understand whether these symptoms are directly caused by head impacts or are associated with other factors in athletes, and more research still needs to be done about the potential impacts on memory later in life, Alosco said.
Does this mean my kid shouldn’t play sports?
This study focuses on people who played soccer at the highest levels, but a lot of people play for at least some period of their lives. Are they at risk for brain impacts as well?
It’s hard to say right now, Alosco stated. The data can only show associations in brain difference of professional players, not the broader population, and researchers can’t determine what number of impacts to the head might start to show long-term damage.
“What we are seeing here doesn’t necessarily directly translate to the middle or high school player,” said Dr. Steven Broglio, director of the University of Michigan Concussion Center. He was not involved in the research.
However, the broader research on head impacts does indicate that individuals and sports organizations should be thinking about protecting brain health.
In the United States, efforts have been implemented to protect brain health. The US Soccer Federation banned headers in 2016 for players younger than 10 and limited how long 11- to 13-year-olds could practice them each week.
“Anytime you can reduce head impact exposure, no matter the sport you play, that’s ultimately going to help you,” Broglio said.
The goal is to make a safer sports environment, not to villainize sports, he added.
“That is a very big concern that we have in the scientific community, because it’s very clear that individuals that are physically active have better life outcomes,” Broglio said. “There is a massive benefit to being physically active, but there, you know, there’s a balance to that. We want to make sure people are participating safely.”
Broglio also hopes that athletes learn to look for symptoms such as anxiety, depression and cognitive issues, because many are very treatable. Talk to your medical provider, because you don’t have to just deal with psychological or cognitive problems, he said.
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