Purpose: Motivation is one of the psychological traits that affects on the athlete’s performance in sport competitions and has considerable role on identifying and developing talented players. However, there are limited studies about the effects of internal and external factors on competitive motivation in professional soccer players. The purpose of this research was to study the effect of age and the playing positions on the competition-specific motivation in male professional soccer players. Methods: 59 soccer players of youth U-19, U-23 and senior national teams, who were selected purposively, completed the Willis’ sports attitude inventory. The data were analyzed by 3 (age) × 4 (position) MANOVA. Results: The statistical analyses indicated a significant main effect for age (p<0.01), but not for playing position and interaction between age and position (p>0.01). According to the results of post hoc tests, players of senior national team were more motivated to avoid failure than youth U-19 national team players (p<0.01). Conclusions: These results may serve as a criterion for identifying talents and planning psychological interventions.
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