Disclaimer: as the title says, we purely going to talk about the financial part of becoming a football player so we going to dive deep into it from the money perspective.
Let’s face it. Being a professional football player doesn’t mean earning a ton of money, unless you play at the tippy top of the elite level with names such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Lewandowski etc. Unfortunately, the average professional football players don’t earn that huge amount.
In fact, only a fraction of the world population made it to that level. Being an academy player in a professional team doesn’t guarantee you to make it, but it definitely helps. I totally understand where people might say you do it for the love of the game, not for the money. I completely agree with that saying.
However, as you get older and wiser, you should think that there are things in life after football. I know there are many players who play as a professional but doesn’t lucratively have the amount of money compare to the players I mentioned above. Some of them still need to find a job to earn more and provide for themselves and their family. They don’t earn much but are still considered professional football players simply because of leagues standard, trains 5 times a week, etc. Their lifestyle may not be as luxurious, but they are technically still getting paid to play.
Eye Opening
Even to get to that lower professional level, requires dedication, discipline, consistency, hard work and perseverance which is totally not easy. This comes to the love of the game because at some point some players will doubt themselves. They will think the rewards they might get may not equivalent to the effort they put in. That is totally normal, but if you said you do it for the love of the sport then you would do it regardless.
If you dive deeper, the state of a country’s economy also plays a part in those country’s professional league to strive and deliver the same quality and rewards for the players who are involved in it. A professional league in a developed country like the English Premier League in England is miles ahead of a professional league in a developing country. They both are professional leagues, still getting paid to play but the monetary value they get is incomparable.
A player who earns £1,000 monthly in England might be struggling to live comfortably, while the same amount in Philipines could make you live happily comfortable. So, there is no surprise for players around the world to work on other things off the pitch. Because I see there are so many people saying that if you not earning millions of money as a player then you are not entitled to be called a professional. I believe it is wrong to see it from that perspective. As “professional” essentially means getting paid for your work regardless of how much money you are making.
Real-Life Example
Even an English Premier player, Tyrone Mings from Aston Villa admits that he works on his designer business outside football. It clearly tells that a football player can also be a businessman, a teacher, a fashion designer or whatever it may be as long as it doesn’t divert their focus from football. Click this link to hear insight into his life.
Related Read → Why Football has Become More Commercialised Industry?
I also want to share with you the evidence and the reality of how much do the average professional football players’ wages. This is a report conducted by FIFPro. It’s an association for professional football player worldwide. The report tells about the ins and outs of the working industry in professional football.
Conclusion
No matter how much you love football, at the end of the day, you should not overlooked and be naive about the importance to provide financial support for yourself. Plus, football is not a sustainable career if you are playing in a lower league professional football and want to provide for your family. It is a different case if you are only responsible for yourself. There are more to life once you retired from the game and you need to prepare yourself for that too!
I hope it gives you a different perspective on the football industry. I’m not here to demotivated you but instead, it gives you an objective view of the goals we want to achieve. Let me know what you think in the comment section below. Also, if you find this helpful please kindly share this with some of your teammates. It will really help this blog grow and help players who need it! Thank you I really appreciated it, keep ballin’!
