Rejected young footballers

Although I was a footballer and remain an avid fan, what I’m going to convey did not happen to me personally but to many young players at the time and continue to happen. My footballing career, though promising, was halted by a very bad injury.

If I must say so, I was a good footballer, but I feel there were many footballers that were better than me, that deserved and should’ve gained professional contracts.

I love the beautiful game, but I have a constant irritation in the way so many young footballers are released from professional clubs with no support provided for them to develop a career or even get a job.

Most of these young prospects are coming from some of the poorest areas of the country, and have been signed to professional football clubs from as early as 10 years old. They see the clubs and the game as a way of escaping what at times are grim prospects.

They spend the best part of a decade with the club, only to be told they are surplus to requirements.

The football club has become their second home, and the players their second family. This is understandable, with the vast amount of training and football matches they participate in, they see and spend more time with their teammates; more than they do with their biological family.

In saying this, the club does not provide them with any support in job prospects or adequate education. They’re just thrown out into to the big wide world, with little skills to participate competitively.

Unfortunately many of these young footballers become lonely, as all they’ve known from a young age is the football institution, which has now been taken away from them. Many sadly turn to drugs and alcohol to fill this void.

With the amount of money the game has amassed, I’m sure these clubs can implement some sort of programme for young footballers that support their needs for moving on in life, outside of football.

The game is still a beautiful work of art to me; in the formations created by the managers, and the movement of the players with and without the ball, but when I think of these young footballers, the art becomes somewhat distorted.

This is based on a UK prospective. What are your experiences or thoughts on this; wherever you are in the world?