• Posted July 13, 2026

Pro Soccer Players Show Signs Of Shrinking Brains

World Cup fever has America in its grip, as the international soccer tournament grinds steadily toward the finals.

But a new study is highlighting a darker side to the sport: the toll that soccer can take on the brains of its professional players.

Middle-aged former pro soccer players appear to suffer more shrinkage in key brain regions than others who’ve never played contact sports, researchers reported Sunday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in London.

“These findings suggest there may be measurable effects on brain health in former elite soccer players even in mid-life, before clinically apparent neurodegenerative disease would typically emerge,” lead author Caleigh Grace Lynch, a research technician at Imperial College London in the U.K, said in a news release.

The retired players also tended to suffer more symptoms of depression and anxiety, and reported difficulties with thinking and decision-making, researchers said.

“While we did not find significant differences in objective cognitive testing between the groups, we did observe important differences in symptoms and brain structure,” Lynch said.

Repetitive head impacts do occur in soccer, mainly due to the practice of heading – hitting the ball with one’s own head to direct its movement, researchers said.

In other sports, these repetitive impacts have been linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease linked to concussions and head trauma.

For the new study, researchers compared 142 former pro soccer players to a group of 56 people who’d served in the military but had no history of repetitive head impacts or contact sports.

The players included 126 men who’d had a full-time pro contract for at least three years, and 16 women who’d competed in pro soccer in the U.K. All were between 30 and 60 years old.

Results showed that nearly a third (31%) of the former soccer players had clinically significant depression symptoms, compared with 9% of the control group.

Likewise, 42% of soccer players had serious anxiety symptoms, compared with 25% of controls.

MRI brain images of the players revealed shrinking gray matter in several brain regions that play important roles in memory, attention, decision-making and emotional regulation, researchers said. Overall, the players had less brain volume compared to the control group.

Researchers plan to keep tracking soccer players over time, to see whether the loss of brain results in symptoms of CTE, dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

“By following participants over time, we hope to better understand how repetitive head impacts may influence long-term brain health and neurodegenerative disease, and help inform strategies to make sports safer for future generations,” senior researcher Dr. Thomas Parker, a clinical lecturer and consultant neurologist at Imperial College London, said in a news release.

“Research like this helps us better understand brain health factors across the lifespan and reinforces the importance of injury prevention and monitoring,” Maria Carrillo, the Alzheimer’s Association’s chief science officer and medical affairs lead, said in a news release.

“These findings can help players, physicians and sports organizations better understand the risks of contact sports and how to participate safely,” added Carrillo, who was not involved in the study.

Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The Alzheimer’s Association has a list of healthy habits for your brain.

SOURCE: Alzheimer’s Association, news release, July 12, 2026