Last winter I was at a soccer camp in Florida, where I got to meet several professional soccer players from New York City FC and Atlanta United. We interact with them all day long, we trained in soccer fields that were close to where they trained, and we ate at the same time and place they did. During this time I learned a lot of things about professional players behavior and what made them get to where they are.
Also, I recently read a book about my country’s, Panama, national team goalkeeper Jaime Penedo. In his book, Penedo wrote about all his life, and how he grew up to become a professional soccer player. From that book I learned so much about what pros have to go through, and all the obstacles they have to overcome to get to where they are. I want to share all of this with you today.
Briefly, How do you become a professional soccer player?
- Make the decision: Yes, becoming a pro is a decision you make, a decision that means quitting from everything else in life and dedicating only to soccer.
- Understanding the difference between amateur and professional athletes.
- Devolop a succesful mindset.
- Totally change your lifestyle.
This list summarizes the process of becoming a pro, but only knowing this won’t help you that much if you truly want to take your game to the next level. After reading this article, you’ll have an idea of what it truly means to be a professional athlete, and maybe you’ll want to think twice if you really want to be one. This will be like a filter that will make you realize if this is really worth it for you.
First things first
The following four points, are things you need to know in order to become a pro. Most soccer players, including myself, have said at one point in our lives that we want to become professionals. However, when we say this we usually have no idea of what being a professional truly means. Take this into account and understand the differences between amateur and professional soccer players.
Sacrificing everything and committing to soccer
In Gary Keller’s book “The one thing” he explains how succesful people are those who have committed to one, and only one thing in their lives. In the book, they talk about how success works, there is people that is succesful at sports, others in business, others at school, and so on. The point is that, the more activities one person does, the less technical this person is in each one.
For this reason, if you want to be a professional soccer player, you have to be willing to leave behind every aspect in your life that is different from soccer. If you are someone who likes to play a lot of sports, likes to take dancing classes, learn new languages, or likes any other activity, you need to understand that in order to be a professional soccer player you’ll have to sacrifice doing all of these activities and dedicate that time to soccer.
In Jaime Penedo’s book that I mentioned at the beginning, he tells the story of how he tried very hard to play soccer at the same time he studied a career at the university. He got to a point where he had to make a decision: it was either university or playing soccer, and guess what? He chose soccer.
That is why I say that being a professional soccer player is a decision you make. The decision to sacrifice everything: family, friends, and studies to commit to soccer. Taking the decision, even though you know things can go wrong, but accepting to take the risk anyway.
You have to know this from the very beginning, the reason why most people can’t achieve being a soccer player is not because they don’t have the talent, it’s because they are not willing to make these sacrifices. Which is totally understandable, and a decision not even myself is willing to make.
Giving the extra mile
If you truly want to become a pro, you always have to go one step forward. You think that by doing the same things everyone else is doing you’ll be better than the rest? Absolutely not, so always try doing something different that helps you improve aspects that other player’s aren’t.
Maybe you’ll have to stay some more hours after training or you’ll have to get early to practice. There are plenty of things you can do, but keep in mind you’ll have to put in the extra hours.
There is no magic formula to becoming a professional player, but the answer on how to get started and get in the right path is in my article about The Best Soccer Training Program Online. Having a training program to train by your own when your not practicing with your team is a great option and is what sets apart great players from the rest.
Totally different lifestyle
Not only professional soccer players, but professional athletes in general have a totally different lifestyle from normal amateur players. Their lifestyle is totally focused on being as healthy as possible and taking care of every single detail in their body. Understand from the very beginning that you’ll have to have a different lifestyle than everyone else and the way up will be easier.
Imagine human bodies are cars and machines. Pro athletes can be considered sport cars that you have to fuel with the best gasoline, take to the mechanic once a month to check the engine, and constantly take to a car wash to keep it clean. In the other hand, amateur players are simple diesel trucks that don’t have to go through any of this necessarily.
Expect some of these things when you have a professional athlete lifestyle:
- When everyone else is partying in the weekends, you can’t because you need to be prepared for the game.
- They might invite you to eat out to a place that sells food you have to avoid.
- You have to be extra careful in your daily routine not to get injured outside of the soccer field.
- You’ll have to learn how to cook meals for yourself.
- You’ll never work at a normal 8-5 schedule. You have to be ready every time a coach needs you.
Mental strength > Physical strength
By far, the thing that differentiates the most an amateur with a professional player is their mental strength. Most athletes prepare themselves physically, tactically, and technically, but what will set you apart as an elite athlete is your mental preparation. No matter how strong, technical, and talented player you are, without a strong mental mindset you’ll be weak at hard moments.
All of these aspects: confidence, mental toughness, readiness, are things you need to master in order to become a professional soccer player. Just by aiming to improve the mental aspect you are doing a lot more than the rest.
At soccer camp we had a class called “mental conditioning” in which they teach us all of this things. The one that was the most useful for me was the a class on how to be confident even in the toughest times. I wrote on article on how to improve your confidence you should read, its called “How to Dramatically Improve Confidence When Playing Soccer”.
Process is Different in every country
When we talk about becoming a professional player, the process will be different in every country and continent. I’m sure that becoming a pro in England and Spain, for example, is a lot different from United States or South America. In order to get to be a pro, make sure to understand what is the path to follow depending on your location.
For example, in United States a great way to become a professional soccer player is by playing soccer at high school, trying to earn a scholarship for college, and after college be selected in the draft to play in the MLS.
In the other hand, things in the rest of the world are totally different, you’ll have to get to the clubs since you are very young, and make your way up with time. High school and university have absolutely nothing to do with soccer and anyone can become a soccer player if they are talented and put in the hard work.
What I’m trying to say is that systems will be different and you need to identify how your country and region work. Before you even start your path you need to make a gameplan and follow it.
Useful Tips
#1: The first step is always the hardest
In every aspect of our lives always taking the first step is the hardest, everything after that is easier. For example, every morning, the hardest thing to do is to wake up, but after we wake up we can go and have a very productive day.
The same happens in this process, the hardest thing to do is to take the first step, to take the decision to become a professional soccer player that I explained above. Once you decide you are willing to sacrifice everything: your family, friends, and studies for this sport, then you are one step closer to that dream you have.
# 2: Starting young
This is something fundamental for this sport, you need to start at the youngest age possible. To be honest, if you are 19-20 years old and you are recently starting in this sport it is probably too late for you. In some places where soccer is even more competitive I would say that even 15 years old to start to play soccer would be too late.
The way this system works is by starting young, playing in an academy or team. Depending on where you are playing, you make your way up slowly, and once you are at an age between 17-18 years it’s when teams realize if you are a player that is worth giving a try at a professional level.
The younger you start, the greater chances you’ll have to improve your abilities in this sport. Today, we are seeing professionals as young as 17 years old emerging at great teams and becoming super stars. Soccer is the most popular sport worldwide (Yes, I wrote an article about it too), which means it will also be the most competitive.
Teams will rather prefer a young promising 12 year old kid than a grown 23 year old that plays decent. It is easier to mold and improve the playing style of a 12 year old than a 23 year old, which means there are greater chances the young kids can become a super star.
Does this mean that its impossible to be a pro if you are not at a club by 17? Well no, we’ve seen players like Jamie Vardy become super stars when they were older, but this cases are very rare to see. It’s important you judge by yourself if you are still at an age where it’s worth giving a professional career a try.
#3: Having a succesful mindset
There is something every succesful person in this world has in common. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Michael Phelps, doesn’t matter what activity they do, they all have a succesful mindset. A succesful mindset is a way of thinking about life that will increase your chances of success.
There are a lot of super talented soccer players that have absolutely everything to become great professionals , but what keeps them behind is their way of thinking, poor mindset and personality. It is fundamental to think as any successful person thinks in order to become one.
According to Kiyosaki’s book “The Midas Touch” some common characteristics of a person with a succesful mindset are:
- Strength of character: Turning bad luck into good luck.
- FOCUS: Follow one course until succesful (committing only to soccer).
- Brand: Always remember what you stand for and have a unique personality.
- Not making excuses: Succesful people don’t blame the bad things that happen to them on other people or things.
- Persistance: They understand they will fail many times and each time they’ll stand up until they find success.
- Patience: They understand that things that are truly worth it in life are the ones that take the most to come.
What is great is that having a succesful mindset is not something exclusive to soccer. If you want to be a succesful professional player, make sure to develop this mindset by reading books on the topic and searching information in the internet.
Another thing I love about the Soccer Training Program I recommend is that you also get a mental training program. Almost nobody pays attention to this. Make sure to take a look at the program here in my website, I won’t get tired of saying it.
#4: Local clubs and federated leagues
The first step towards this goal is to choose a team that plays in federated leagues. I want you to know that there is a difference between local clubs that play in private leagues and federated leagues.
A private league is a tournament in which private clubs participate. Private clubs are basically teams where players pay to play soccer for that team. These teams play in tournaments that are normally also paid by themselves or by sponsors. This tournaments have no intention to form and train kids to become professional players, they only have recreational purposes. It’s not bad to play in them at all, you can learn a lot of things and truly improve as a player, but if you want to play professionally you are wasting your time.
Federated clubs and leagues in the other hand is the place where you should be. These are clubs which intentions are to create the best future professional players. Players can’t pay to be there, they have to earn their spot and everything is paid for them. Great examples are Real Madrid’s academy “La Fabrica” and Barcelona’s “La Masia”.
All big clubs in the world, in every continent, will have academy teams in which you can earn a spot. It is convenient for them because they make a solid base of young players for the future that can play in their teams or be sold for millions of dollars.
#5: Making contacts and new relationships
You like it or not, soccer is a world that is managed with influences. The more people you know, the greater chances you’ll have of being a professional. Most of the times I had the chance to tryout with a team or attend to a great soccer camp, was because of a contact I had that talked to me about it or that helped me in.
The more people you know that are involved in the soccer world where you live, the better. Just be friendly, always be an extrovert that is willing to meet other people to open new doors. Everytime you get to train with a new coach, present yourself, talk a little bit about your position, about him, and you’ll see that in a short time you’ll have a lot of influence among these people.
#6: Climb the ladder first
Most of us see the professional players and admire them, but we don’t see everything that they’ve been through, everything they had to sacrifice to be what they are.
We always say big dreams like: I want to play in the premiere league, I want to play for Real Madrid, I want to be like Cristiano Ronaldo. What we don’t understand is that, to get there, we have to go through a long way first. Instead of only having those long-term dreams, try making a series of short-term goals that will make you achieve those dreams in the long-term.
#7: Expect financial sacrifice
In my article “Costs of Playing Club Soccer” I explain the real costs of playing this game. It is not cheap at all to play soccer and, unless you’re young Lionel Messi, you should expect to make a financial sacrifice.
You’ll have to buy soccer gear (cleats, uniforms, protection), tuition or tournament fees, and travel expenses when you play outside the country or region. If you want to see all the costs of playing this game you can read them in the article.
If you are a future promising stars, club will probably pay all for you, but that is not the case for most of us. People will have to pay for a lot of things if they want to train and improve in this game.
However, if you are not a person that can financially afford the cost of playing soccer, don’t worry. In fact, most professional soccer players today, were very poor people in the past, that were able to move forward through soccer and change their lives. For this reason, money shouldn’t be something that stops you from becoming a professional soccer player.
#8: Be careful with scams
In soccer, you’ll always find people that will tell you how good of an awesome player you are. If you take this compliments too serious, this can be prejudicial for you. I like a quote the says: “Always keep your head in the clouds, but the feet in the ground”. If you know you’re good you don’t need anyone else to say it to you, and start thinking you are Ronaldo.
This usually happens with agents that promise you the world, lots of contracts and opportunities. According to Will John, professional player and youtuber, never pay an agent before you sign a contract.
This also happened to me at a soccer camp. I was told how good I was, and that I should definitely join the academy.They compliment me so much that it was weird. Of course, I was interested but then realized the I had to pay a huge buck to join, probably to be in the bench forever.
#9: The truth about tryouts and tips
Tryouts are ways scouts see new soccer players and determine whether they’re good fit for the team or not. The truth about tryouts is that you’ll usually have to pay a lot of money to get in them, also transport costs, hotels, etc. At the end of the day, the chances of you getting selected are seldom, but not impossible. Most teams will post tryout dates in their social media and websites.
Unless a team exclusively calls you to tryout for their team because they really liked your playing style, I think tryouts are not the best way to become a professional soccer player for everyone. With that said, they always offer the possibility to open new doors. Here are a couple of tips to get the most out of a tryout:
- Get to know the coaches. Talk to them about yourself, where you are from, what position do you play, ask questions about the club, what tournaments they play, and just network with them as much as possible.
- Make sure to be in your best shape for the tryouts.
- Be explosive, make risky plays. At the end of the day, you only have one chance to impress.
- Learn as much as you can. When you learn new things, doesn’t matter if you are selected or not, you’re already winning.
Other things you can do
This next advice I will give you might not work for most of you, because it requires a bigger financial sacrifice. You can totally become a professional soccer player without them, but if you have the money this tools can be very helpful.
Student athlete high school academies
Student-athlete academies are schools that are dedicate to make the best athletes, at the same time they study. We could describe them as high-schools that perfectly combine studies with sports. Their objective is to graduate students with sports scholarships for college.
The greatest example I can give is IMG Academy at Bradenton, Florida. I went several times to IMG, and I have to say it is just impressive. It is literally a high school that focuses on creating elite athletes in all types of sports: Tennis, soccer, american football, lacrosse, track and field, golf, basketball, and baseball. They have the best multiple sports facilities in the world.
I went to camp multiple times there, and it was always my dream to study in this school. However, student-athlete schools are very expensive (about 80,000 dollars a year), an amount that is impossible to pay for a normal middle class person.
Most people that go to this school look at it as an investment, they think that if they pay that amount of money they might earn a sports scholarship for college and be one step closer to being a pro athlete. If you have the money, believe me, this is a great option to be as close as possible to become a pro.
NCSA: Next college student athletes
This is an online platform that connects coaches from colleges in the United States and players. In this platform, you make a detailed profile in which you insert all your information, videos, experience, etc. It is great because it helps coaches fill their roster and helps players find coaches that can possibly offer scholarships.
Their plans are expensive though. You can buy a plan that offers a simple profile that connects you with coaches or you can even buy a plan that gets you an agent that contacts coaches and looks the best match for you. You can check this tool at www.ncsasports.org.
Soccer Camps
Soccer camps are easily the places I’ve learned the most about soccer. Most of the things I teach in this website come from things I’ve learned at soccer camps. They are expensive though, but for me are totally worth it because you learn a lot, have fun, and have the chance of being scouted by coaches.
The best way to become a professional player is to actually be a very good player, so anything that helps you improve is extremely useful.
Academies outside USA to earn scholarships
At the beginning I said that the process of becoming a pro is different in every country. I would like to give an example of one chance I had to become a professional player in my country, Panama. Here in Panama, normally players become pro the same way as most countries: they enter federated teams academies and make their way up.
However, during the last years, we are seeing more and more players go play college soccer in the United States. I had the chance to enter a team that prepares players exclusively to earn scholarships in universities in the United States. You have to go to tryouts first to be selected and after that, as you would expect, you have to pay an extremely expensive price to play.
I tell you this because there will always be different methods to get to that level you want to be. Just make sure to make a good research and take all the options you can according to where you live.
Barriers you’ll find in the way
As in everything, to achieve any dream there will be obstacles to overcome. If you take into consideration that on your way to becoming a professional player you will find all of these things, it will be easier for you and less frustrating when you bump into them:
- Corruption: Sometimes, you won’t have the place in the team because some other guy that paid more than you or his father is a friend of the coach will be given the spot over you. Or other times, teams will not be loyal to their word and will make a bad move on you.
- Social discrimination: In most latin american and european countries there are social believes that soccer is a sport for the poor class. There are “physical parameters” of how a soccer player should look, and it is very hard to fit in if you are different. Jaime Penedo said this was a huge problem for him, because he was physically different and wasn’t from the poor class, it was hard for other players and coaches to accept him.
- Coaches that won’t like you: There will always be coaches that won’t like you for no reason at all. This is totally normal, just make sure this bad relationship doesn’t stop you from improving, and learn to move on.
- Injuries: These are easily the thing that has stopped the most players from becoming professional players. If you’re unhealthy, you are not able to achieve anything. Being free of injuries is super important to achieve the goal, I wrote an article on “How to prevent soccer injuries” that will help you stay fit and injury-free.
The list is endless, you need to remember that climbing the ladder won’t be easy. It is at the toughest moments that you’ll realize if making all the sacrifices to become a professional soccer player are worth it for you. Be mentally tough, put in the work and sooner or later you will have achieved the goal.