Breakthrough for Capacio Method in Swedish Elite Football
Elite football enters a new performance frontier: cognition and decision-making
As the first Swedish football club, IFK Göteborg has begun using the tech company Capacio’s method to measure and understand players’ cognitive functioning.
IFK Göteborg’s Sporting Director, Jesper Jansson, says:
“Previously, a lot of decisions were based on gut feeling, which is still important. But this allows us to work more systematically and reduce guesswork.”
He continues:
“This method adds a new dimension to recruitment. In the future, I believe this could become as natural as physical tests and medical screenings. It’s not about disqualifying anyone, but about getting to know the player better.”
Capacio CEO, Anders Norén, welcomes the fact that football has now opened the door to the company’s digitised psychological tests:
“This part of performance has long been a ‘black box’. Clubs have analysed physical metrics and data extensively, but not how players actually take in information and make decisions.”
Interest in the tests is growing, both in Sweden and internationally.
“We are in a breakthrough phase. IFK Göteborg is the first in Sweden to implement this fully, but they will not be alone for long. Prominent international actors are in the pipeline. This is a missing piece of the puzzle.”
A prominently featured article, Göteborgs-Posten highlights how elite football is now taking the next step beyond physical performance and traditional statistics—towards a deeper understanding of how players think, make decisions, and function in the complex environment that is elite football. The article describes how IFK Göteborg is working with cognitive and psychological profiling as a new complementary tool in elite football operations.
For decades, elite football has optimized physical performance to near perfection.
Sprint meters, GPS data, passing networks, and medical screenings are now standard practice.
Yet one crucial dimension has long remained underexplored:
how players think, process information, regulate themselves, and make decisions under pressure.
The article highlights how IFK Göteborg has begun working systematically with cognitive and psychological profiling as part of their elite operations. Rather than replacing experience, intuition, or football expertise, this approach adds a new layer of understanding—much like physical data once complemented traditional scouting.
What the article highlights
- Why physical and tactical data alone are not enough to explain performance
- The importance of cognitive functioning to understand decision-making, adaptability, and individual conditions
- Scouting, recruiting, coach and player perspectives on cognition
- How cognitive insights can support recruitment, development, and team building
- The importance of using such data responsibly—for dialogue and understanding, not judgment
A key takeaway is that this work is not about labelling players or reducing people to scores.
It is about gaining better context when making high-stakes decisions in an increasingly complex sport.
As competition intensifies and margins become smaller, understanding the human brain is emerging as a natural next step in performance development—alongside physical testing, medical screening, and tactical analysis.
The future of football is not only faster and stronger.
It is also smarter, more adaptive, and more human-aware.
Original article
The full article (in Swedish, behind a paywall) is published by Göteborgs-Posten:
“The new trend: Clubs are mapping players’ brains”
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We believe this represents a meaningful shift in how elite sport understands performance – and a necessary one.
Elitfotbollen kliver in i ett nytt prestationsområde: kognition och beslutsfattande
Som första svenska fotbollsklubb har IFK Göteborg börjat använda techföretaget Capacio’s metod för att mäta och förstå spelarnas kognitiva förmågor.
IFK Göteborgs sportchef Jesper Jansson säger:
”Tidigare har man gått mycket på magkänsla, vilket fortfarande är viktigt. Men det här gör att vi kan arbeta mer systematiskt, bättre förstå individuella förutsättningar och minskar gissningarna.”
Han fortsätter:
”Den här metoden tillför en ny dimension i värvningsarbetet. I framtiden tror jag att detta kan bli lika självklart som fystester och medicinska kontroller. Det handlar inte om att underkänna någon, utan om att lära känna spelaren bättre.”
Capacio vd Anders Norén välkomnar att fotbollen nu öppnat dörren till bolagets digitaliserade psykologiska tester:
”Den här delen av prestationen har länge varit en ‘black box’. Klubbarna har analyserat fysik och data i stora mängder, men inte hur spelare faktiskt tar in information, fattar beslut och anpassar sig.”
Intresset för testerna växer, både i Sverige och internationellt.
”Vi befinner oss i en genombrottsfas. IFK Göteborg är först i Sverige att genomföra detta fullt ut, men de kommer inte att vara ensamma länge. Internationella aktörer ligger i startgroparna. Det här är en pusselbit som har saknats.”
I en stort uppslagen artikel uppmärksammar Göteborgs-Posten hur elitfotbollen nu tar nästa steg bortom fysik och traditionell statistik – mot en djupare förståelse av hur spelare tänker, fattar beslut och fungerar i komplexa miljöer. Artikeln beskriver hur IFK Göteborg arbetar med kognitiv och psykologisk profilering som ett nytt verktyg i elitverksamheten.
Under decennier har elitfotbollen optimerat den fysiska prestationen till nästan perfektion.
Sprintmeter, GPS-data, passningsnätverk och medicinska screeningar är idag standard.
Ändå har en avgörande dimension länge varit underutforskad:
hur spelare tänker, bearbetar information, reglerar sig själva och fattar beslut under press.
I artikeln lyfter Göteborgs-Posten hur IFK Göteborg nu arbetar systematiskt med kognitiv och psykologisk profilering som en del av sin elitverksamhet. Metoden ersätter inte erfarenhet, intuition eller fotbollskunskap – utan tillför ett nytt lager av förståelse, på samma sätt som fysisk data en gång kompletterade traditionell scouting.
Vad artikeln belyser
- Varför fysiska och taktiska data inte räcker för att förklara prestation
- Hur kognitiv funktion påverkar beslutsfattande, anpassningsförmåga och individuella förutsättningar
- Användning för scouter, coacher och spelare
- Hur kognitiva insikter kan stödja rekrytering, utveckling och lagbygge
- Vikten av att använda denna typ av data ansvarsfullt – för dialog och förståelse, inte för att döma
En central slutsats är att arbetet inte handlar om att etikettera spelare eller reducera människor till siffror.
Det handlar om att skapa bättre beslutsunderlag i en allt mer komplex idrott.
När konkurrensen hårdnar och marginalerna minskar framstår förståelsen av den mänskliga hjärnan som ett naturligt nästa steg i prestationsutveckling – sida vid sida med fysisk testning, medicinska kontroller och taktisk analys.
Fotbollens framtid är inte bara snabbare och starkare.
Den är också smartare, mer anpassningsbar och mer medveten om människan bakom prestationen.
Originalartikel
Hela artikeln (på svenska, bakom betalvägg) publicerades i Göteborgs-Posten:
“Den nya trenden: klubbar kartlägger spelarnas hjärnor”
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Vi menar att detta representerar ett viktigt skifte i hur elitidrotten förstår prestation – och ett nödvändigt sådant.
Daniel Setterwall Joins Capacio
Daniel Setterwall joins Capacio with a primary focus on the company’s ongoing fundraising process – a SEK 10 million seed round. In addition, Daniel will also work with business development and sales.
Daniel brings over 13 years of experience from commercial leadership roles as CEO and Business Area Manager, with a background in IT talent supply (consulting and recruitment services), and most recently as CEO of a SaaS and AI company within football data.
Daniel comments:
“It is truly exciting to be part of Capacio’s journey. The company combines deep brain science with digital, scalable testing, making advanced cognitive knowledge practically accessible. This enables a significantly deeper understanding of human capabilities and contributes to both improved performance and greater well-being.
Initially, the company is placing extra focus on football and recruitment – two verticals where the impact is very tangible and which also align closely with my own background.
The ambition to build a billion-SEK company within eight years is, of course, highly inspiring. To make that journey possible, capital is crucial – which is why it feels completely natural for me to take responsibility for the fundraising.”
Capacio CEO, Anders Norén, comments
“We go from business partners – combining performance data with cognitive data, thus better explaining the performance – to colleagues and close collaborators. While our evidence-based tools and knowledge bring extraordinary power, precision and benefits to the user, we are first movers and thought leaders and as such has all the challenges related to this position. We can now see that the world is waking up and are close to a breakthrough. Daniel joining us in this phase with excellent timing. He combines many important and distinct abilities and attributes that make this collaboration both fruitful, joyful and successful”.
Elite Footballers' Cognitive Abilities Featured in Major Swedish Newspaper
Swedish researchers uncover striking differences in brain function and personality traits among elite football players
One of Sweden’s largest daily newspapers, Svenska Dagbladet (SvD), recently published an article highlighting groundbreaking research on the cognitive abilities of elite football players. The study, led by Capacio’s co-founder Predrag Petrovic and Torbjörn Vestberg from Karolinska Institute, along with colleagues from universities in England, Denmark, Italy, and Brazil, reveals fascinating insights into what makes top footballers excel.
"Greater Brain Flexibility – The Results Are Striking"
The research team conducted extensive testing on 204 elite players from top teams in Brazil and Sweden, comparing them to a control group of similar age and education level. Their findings demonstrate that elite footballers possess exceptional executive functions – the brain’s ability to plan, maintain attention, and quickly shift focus when needed.
“After extensive tests, elite players proved to be better at advanced planning and have greater cognitive flexibility than those in the control group. The results are striking,” says brain researcher Predrag Petrovic.
Key Findings About Elite Players
The study revealed that top footballers display several distinctive traits:
- Superior working memory and rare creative abilities
- Advanced planning capabilities and exceptional cognitive flexibility
- More conscientious and meticulous in their actions compared to the general population
- More extroverted and more open to new experiences
- Greater mental toughness and ability to maintain attention under pressure
For the first time, researchers employed artificial intelligence to identify the cognitive profiles of elite players. Remarkably, the AI could identify individuals with sufficient executive capacity to play at the highest elite level with almost 100% accuracy.
Beyond Physical Skills
Leonardo Bonetti from Oxford University explains: “Many dream of becoming top-level football players, but only a few succeed. We wanted to find out what makes elite footballers so special and what drives their success. In recent years, cognitive abilities – how the brain functions – have emerged as an explanatory factor. Our results not only confirm this but add new knowledge.”
The study confirmed that legendary players like Andrés Iniesta and Xavi Hernández possessed exceptionally high levels of executive functions, which helped make them an unstoppable midfield pair at Barcelona.
Applications Beyond Football
The researchers believe their findings have broader applications:
“Employers generally have poor knowledge of how their employees function and react in different situations,” says Torbjörn Vestberg. “Increased knowledge about the importance of executive functions can lead to better collaboration and better results in all workplaces.”
While these executive functions are largely innate and difficult to improve, Vestberg suggests we can regulate our emotions through breathing techniques and physical exercise to reduce stress hormones, thereby gaining better access to our mental capacity and executive functions.
The study “Decoding the elite soccer player’s psychological profile” was published by PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) late last year.
Read the full article (in Swedish) at Svenska Dagbladet.
Fotbollsspelare – Mästarna på Problemlösning?
I en intressant studie som belyser sambandet mellan fysisk aktivitet och kognitiva färdigheter, visar ny forskning att fotbollsspelare inte bara utmärker sig på planen utan även i problemlösning. Artikeln från TV4 belyser hur spelarnas snabba reaktionsförmåga och beslutsamhet under press överförs till en övergripande förmåga att lösa komplexa problem.
Nyckelinsikter från studien
- Kognitiva fördelar genom träning: Fysisk aktivitet, och särskilt den snabba och intensiva miljö som fotboll erbjuder, bidrar till en förbättrad hjärnfunktion. Spelare tränas att fatta snabba beslut i ständig förändring, vilket även i vardagen kan vara en värdefull egenskap.
- Beslutsfattande under press: I matchsituationer ställs spelarna inför oväntade utmaningar där varje sekund räknas. Detta har visat sig ha en positiv effekt på deras förmåga att hantera stress och fatta effektiva beslut.
- Överföring av färdigheter: Forskningen understryker att de strategiska och taktiska färdigheter som utvecklas på fotbollsplanen kan ha positiva effekter även utanför sporten. Denna typ av mental träning visar på en överraskande koppling mellan fysisk aktivitet och kognitiv prestation.
Vad kan vi lära oss?
Denna studie utmanar den traditionella uppfattningen om att idrott enbart handlar om fysisk förmåga. Istället framträder bilden av en helhetsspelare – en individ som genom träning utvecklar både kropp och sinne. För arbetslivet och vardagen innebär detta att regelbunden fysisk aktivitet potentiellt kan förbättra våra problemlösningsförmågor, kreativitet och stresstålighet.
Join our exclusive webinar - Decoding the Football Players' Psychological Profile
Discover how Personality, Cognition & AI, combined with existing tools, can help build winning teams in Football.
📅 Date & Time: Wednesday, March 19, 2025 | 16:00 – 17:00 CET
📍 Location: Online
🗣 Language: English
How Can Football Clubs Use Psychological Profiling to Build Stronger Teams?
Elite football players think fast, adapt under pressure, and make disciplined decisions. But how do you measure their Psychological Profile, and how can they be used to gain a competitive edge throughout the talent process?
Join us for a practical and actionable webinar where we bridge cutting-edge cognitive science, AI-driven analytics and hands on application to optimize player development, scouting, and performance management.
You’ll hear from leading experts in neuroscience, talent scouts, coaches and analysts on how new profiling tools can translate scientific insights into concrete actions and winning strategies for clubs, coaches, and talent scouts.
Learn from the world’s largest study on elite footballers psychological profile
Get the highlights from a comprehensive international study recently published, that confirms and strengthens previous findings about the cognitive abilities of elite football players, also adding personality & AI. This is the most extensive study to date on the psychological profile of elite football players and is the result of close collaboration between universities in Oxford, Aarhus, Bologna, CQ University Australia, Rio de Janeiro State University, and Karolinska Institutet. It shows elite footballers as a group has a very distinct personality- as well as cognitive profile. Read about the study here.
What You Will Learn
✔ What truly sets elite players apart – New evidence-based findings on cognition & personality in football.
✔ Practical application in coaching & player development – Real use cases.
✔ Psychological data in sport analytics – Combining psych data with statistics will lift analytics to the next level.
✔ Psychological profiling in practice – Powerful yet easy to apply.
Speakers
- Predrag Petrovic (Cognitive Neuroscientist & Co-founder, Capacio) – The Psychological Profile of Elite Football players and how AI can be used to identify them
- Jesper Jansson (Sport director/recruitment/transfers) – Use-case; How data-driven psychological insights impacts scouting & transfers
- Staffan Olsson (Netherlands National Team Coach & Handball Legend) – Use-case; Practical application in relation building, individual coaching and team building related to European & World championships
- Jens Fjellström (Football pundit, analyst and former assistant coach at The Matildas) – The role & impact of psychological profiling & data in modern football
- Alex Jorge (Head of data, Playmaker AI) – How game state statistical analysis can reveal individual- and team performance under pressure and even further strengthened by adding psychological data
- Anders Norén (CEO & Co-founder, Capacio) – A platform for psychological profiling and immediate application
Who Should Attend?
🏆 Coaches & Talent Developers – Personalize training based on cognitive insights
⚽ Sport Directors & Scouts – Improve recruitment and support with data-driven psychology
📊 Analysts – Use AI and combine psychological data with other data to enhance football analytics
🧠 Sport Psychologists & Mental Coaches – Sharper assessment and basis for individualized support
📈 Club Executives & Agents – Make better decisions based on a deeper understanding of your assets
Don’t Miss Out – Secure Your Spot and register now to gain exclusive insights on how combining footballers psychological profile with analytics will shape the future of football.
Capacio's co-founder Predrag Petrovic interviewed by Sveriges Radio about the role Cognitive abilities play in Football
Capacio’s co-founder, Associate Professor, Senior Physician and psychiatrist Predrag Petrovic, was interviewed on Radiosporten, Sveriges Radio, about a major research study that has just been published. This study is the culmination of 15 years of research and provides the most comprehensive findings to date.
In the interview, Predrag explains that the key insight from the study is the crucial role of cognition in becoming a great football player. Physical ability and ball control alone are not enough—cognitive skills that enable players to process and regulate information about what happens on the field are just as important.
🎧 Listen to the interview here
(Article is in swedish)