Motivasi dan orientasi pencapaian sebagai mediator kepada hubungan antara gaya kepimpinan jurulatih dengan prestasi atlet bola sepak sekolah sukan di Malaysia

Football is a major sport in Malaysia, including at the youth level. However, currently the position of the Malaysian youth football team is unsatisfactory because in the Asian under 14 years old tournament, the Malaysian team is only able to compete in the early stages. One of the causes of this failure is because coaches do not practice appropriate leadership styles. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to identify the leadership style of coaches that are able to increase the motivation and achievement orientation of players as well as the performance of football players in Malaysian sports schools. A total of 290 sports school students who participated in the football league competition of the Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE) were involved in this study. Data analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and SmartPLS 3.0 software. This study found that ten alternative hypotheses were accepted and 22 alternative hypotheses were rejected. The results of this study show that the leadership style of coaches who practice democratic style and positive feedback style have a significant influence on the performance of football players. The findings of this study also found that motivation and achievement orientation are not mediators to the influence of coaches' leadership style on players' performance. This study has contributed to the development of knowledge in the leadership style of youth football coaches in the Malaysian context. This study suggests that if player performance is to be improved, coaches should adopt a democratic leadership style and positive feedback.