According to a study carried out by Australian Adrian Barnett, from the University of Queensland, the month of the year in which we are born can affect our future physical shape and our relationship with sport. By carefully analyzing the birth dates of professional players in the Australian Football League, Barnett concluded that those born in January are 33% more likely to play the "beautiful game" professionally . At the opposite extreme are those born in December, who are 25% less likely to dedicate themselves professionally to this sport than the average. The authors attribute this to the fact that the tallest and most physically developed children in a class are those born at the beginning of the school year, which in Australia coincides with the month of January.
Other international studies find similar coincidences between being born close to the beginning of the course and the probability of dedicating professionally to other sports such as ice hockey, volleyball and basketball.
