The Slippery Ladder of Soccer Success

Soccer, or football as the rest of the world calls it, is the most popular sport in the world, with over three billion people supporting the sport in some way. Of course, with this large of a fanbase, there are going to be millions of children who dream of playing professionally one day, however, many have no idea the challenge that stands in front of them. Players try many different routes from training every day or eating like Ronaldo to get in what they believe is the best shape possible. With over 250 million players around the world, the competition has never been so fierce for the very few spots at the top table. Only 180 players will make it out of the 1.5 million who are in academies throughout England, and with mental health not at the forefront of their brains, a lot of those players can end up in a depressed state when they finally realize their dream is over. 

Besides the obvious physical obstacles, the mental side is also a huge factor that is usually overlooked in the process to achieve success. In October 2020, a former Manchester City academy player, Jermey Wisten, hung himself in his room, resulting in several inquiries into if Manchester City had properly helped him with transitioning out of the club. English footballer, Brendan Kiernan, opened up about his and many other struggles after being rejected at a young age, after his own rejection as a sixteen-year-old at Premier League side Crystal Palace. He tried to save his career by going on other trials at other clubs such as Leeds, Leicester, and Charlton, however, he was turned down every single time. Just before he was going to start a transition to switch careers, Brendan joined non-league Lingfield, where he was given the platform to slowly climb back up the leagues. Throughout his career, ever since he nearly gave up on the sport, Brendan has trademarked his ‘call me’ gesture, a signal to the #CallBK hashtag, a trend he started on Twitter so that people can reach out to talk about their mental health. Having recently completed his level two counseling course, and when asked about why he decided to complete them, he said, “I know what rejection feels like and I wanted to be part of the solution and hopefully try to help prevent young people taking their lives.” 

Soccer may not be the most difficult sport to compete in, mentally or physically, however, there are many factors it contains that are often overlooked when thinking about how a player reaches the top of the soccer pyramid. From doing other sports such as swimming and cross country, I know that each sport has its difficulties which everyone must overcome to achieve success in their respective sports. However, I believe that soccer is the most difficult sport to achieve success in because of the difficulties players face, not only to get game time but just to get into the academies where they can be seen by coaches that can make their dream come true. With other sports, there are times or requirements that, if you surpass, will put you on course to reach that dream. With the world of soccer being so large, the likelihood of you being picked up by a professional team is one of the worst of any sport. With a sport such as baseball, only the American-based league is truly respected and televised throughout the country, meaning that the majority of clubs keep their scouting networks inside the states. However, with soccer, a sport played in every corner of the world, scouts will rarely visit half the countries, and when they do they will only visit one or two areas of that country. If you’re lucky enough to sign up for a camp where there will be scouts present, their requirements are so high that many will never live up to what they expect out of a player, no matter how hard they try. Even if you manage to get into the academy you are not guaranteed to achieve your dream, as we’ve seen through Brendan’s story. This causes many players to enter a state of shock if they are released by their academy, leaving them to wonder where it all went wrong, or what was wrong with them. When players do realize the dream is over, there needs to be a form of help, not only for soccer players but for athletes as a whole, because we can not afford to let brilliant young, not only athletes but people as well, end up in a depressed state of mind they may never come out of. 

By Luke Birch