Background Emotions play a crucial role in youth football performance and development, yet no validated instrument exists for measuring football-specific emotions among young players. This study aimed to develop and validate the Football Emotion Scale (FES) for Chinese youth football players. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted among youth football players in China. The study included 492 participants in the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) phase (males 51.8%, females 48.2%) and 450