The Resistance to Hanging Up the Cleats
The Challenges of Success in Professional Football and Acceptance of Failure
Stepping onto a football field, under spotlights, applause, and the chants of fans, is the dream of many young Brazilians who dedicate themselves to pursuing success in the professional sports market. In a country like Brazil, where football is the most popular sport, this dream is common, which makes the market highly competitive and the path even more challenging.
The reality of Brazilian football is rarely represented when the average consumer of the sport imagines it directly related to the top clubs, players with mega salaries, and large structures surrounding the main competitions. According to a survey conducted by the consulting firm Esporte Executivo in partnership with the Federation of Professional Football Players (Fenapaf), 75% of Brazilian players earn salaries below R 7,000. The situation is even worse for some athletes: 38% of this group earn up to R 2,000.
When we consider the elite of football, only 10% reach salaries above R$ 40,000 per month. Despite this unrepresentative scenario, fame and money end up being motivators for many aspiring players who aspire to a career in the sport. But it’s not the only motivation. Love for football and admiration for the great idols also encourage amateurs to seek the recognition that standing out in a top club brings.
With such a competitive and demanding market, the emergence of “new Ronaldinhos Gaúcho” does not happen all the time. On the contrary, career frustrations are recurring and more common than the rise of new superstars. There are many reasons that lead to the end of dreams in football, and changing paths, in many cases, is not easy.
In the case of Matheus Hilger, 26, who currently works as a barbecue chef in a restaurant, his football career ended due to a personal decision, driven by a lack of motivation caused by the heavy training routines. In addition, the lack of external investment made the costs of following the work routines, which were previously covered by Matheus’s parents, unsustainable.
His relationship with the ball began when Matheus was 11 years old and joined a football school, where he stayed until he was 15. When he reached the age for the under-17 division, he underwent a trial to join the youth teams of Cerâmica Atlético Clube, from the city of Gravataí, in the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre.
It was from this time that football ceased to be just a hobby and began to present itself as a career option for Matheus. His view of the sport completely changed after starting the training routines and preparations for the club’s competitions.
“I had to take the bus every day, wake up early, go after school; sometimes there was training in the morning and in the afternoon,” he recalled.
After about six years participating in lower-level competitions in clubs like Cerâmica, Matheus joined the youth teams of Esporte Clube Cruzeiro — affectionately known as Cruzeirinho — from Cachoeirinha, the same region as his previous team. Because it was a bigger club than the previous ones, the challenge also became greater and offered more prospects for a future as a player. However, it was not enough.
Still in basic education, balancing sports life with studies became difficult for Matheus, to the point where he even dropped out of school for a period of time. Despite the moral encouragement that clubs provide to young players to continue their studies while pursuing a career in football, Matheus says that it becomes unfeasible to maintain a dual workload.
“Even though the clubs encourage us, saying ‘don’t stop studying, keep studying,’ there comes a point where you’re exhausted, you can’t take it anymore,” he laments.
In addition to the demanding routine, some young players have a distorted mindset regarding their future prospects in sports: “It also gets to your head. You think, ‘why should I study if I’m playing, if I’m almost a professional?’ But then, if you don’t end up becoming a professional, you end up hurting yourself,” Matheus confesses.
All these factors further narrow the path to reaching the professional level, ultimately frustrating many dreams along the way. Matheus experienced the same dilemma.
The young player became drained by this context, leading him to consider the rewards of this trajectory and give up his football career before reaching the professional level. “There comes a point where it drains you. There comes a point where you sit down and think, ‘is this what I want for my life? To go through all of this just to be a football player?’”
When the instrument of work interrupts the dream
Just like every profession requires its own tools, athletes in sports rely entirely on their physical integrity. The human body, during an athletic career, undergoes various forms of improvement to deliver its best performance. However, like any other instrument, the human anatomy has its vulnerabilities and, in the event of obsolescence, it ultimately leads to the end of dreams that cannot be replaced like any ordinary tool.
This was the scenario that 39-year-old lawyer Roger Barbosa experienced when he had to end his professional football career after injuring his right ankle in 2010. At the time, Roger was playing for Gauhati Town Club in India.
The club was on the eve of the final of the main tournament in which they were participating. Roger, who was the team’s key player, underwent treatment before the competition and played the games despite being injured. The team ended up winning the competition, but Roger did not have a successful recovery and had to return to Brazil, where he received treatment for over seven months.
Nevertheless, the athlete was already at an advanced age for football and experienced a lot of pain, which made him reconsider his future as a player. His extensive experience in sports, both as a footballer and a judoka in his childhood, was not enough to prevent his football career from coming to an end.
At the age of 28, Roger was no longer as young when his career was interrupted, which makes it challenging to find an alternative career path. Despite this, he found his future in Law, which is not representative of other cases like his, as according to Roger, clubs only prepare players to deliver results.
According to the former player, clubs and agents are only interested in the financial and sporting returns that their athletes can provide, resulting in a disregard for personal growth and preparation for a second path.
“We are a machine that, when it malfunctions or stops working, is quickly replaced and forgotten by everyone,” he declares.
The financial interests in football are evident, as it is a market that generates billions of dollars on the main continents of the world. A study conducted by Ernst & Young in 2019, at the request of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), revealed that football contributed R$ 52.9 billion to the Brazilian economy in 2018.
The influence that money has on the football market is evident even in the formation of players in the youth categories of clubs. Matheus and Roger report that many young players who have influential agents or parents end up having an advantage over others in teams, gaining more prominence than other aspiring players. Matheus affirms that he has witnessed cases where colleagues were favored and given starting positions solely due to the influence of their agents, rather than their individual skills.
“More than ever, football is a business today, so there is a group of agents that have taken control of the main clubs in Brazil, and their products have an advantage due to their influence, rather than their football skills,” confirms Roger.
These factors end up impacting the mental health and personal development of the players. Roger says that clubs show little concern for the players’ psychological well-being. “The encouragement to study and undergo psychological preparation advocated by clubs is just a smokescreen, considering it is not essential for the player to remain in the club,” he states.
This perspective diverges from the one presented by Fernanda Faggiani, a psychologist in the youth categories of Grêmio. The professional states that clubs invest in psychological and social support for young players in their development. She believes it is the athlete’s right and a duty of the clubs, especially those recognized as training clubs.
This obligation is defined by the Pelé Law of 1998, which establishes that clubs recognized by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) as training clubs must provide psychological support, as well as educational, medical, and dental assistance to young athletes. This should also be accompanied by accommodation for the youths and a guarantee of school attendance, limiting club activities to four hours per day.
Fernanda reports that psychological support in the youth categories of a club is provided both individually and collectively, which is an important characteristic of the sports field. Professionals in the field address the athletes’ needs, exploring different areas that focus on individual development and their integration into the sports context.
According to the psychologist, young players often arrive at clubs feeling anxious. Family and personal expectations, along with the pressures within the sports environment, hinder the psychological development of the athletes. Additionally, the relationship with the professionals providing psychological support is affected by common misconceptions about the profession.
The reality of pressure for results is confirmed by Fernanda. She states that this is one of the main challenges of working with these players. “We need to deal with them within an environment that demands quick, immediate results.”
However, Fernanda asserts that there is preparation for unexpected career scenarios for these young athletes, as in the case of Roger. Within the athlete’s development, there are activities aimed at fostering their growth as individuals beyond football. However, this also depends on the player’s cooperation and interest in preparing their mentality for potential setbacks.
“This desire cannot only come from the psychologist and the professionals working with aspiring athletes in the club. If the athlete doesn’t have the desire to learn, understand, train, and work, it will be difficult for us to do quality work. So, it’s a two-way street,” she explains.
The dreams of becoming professional players bring expectations that can sometimes overshadow the athletes’ perception of unexpected realities. “The dream is a motivator, an argument, something individual, very important for them to realize the many adversities, disputes, and pressures that exist within the world of football,” comments Fernanda.
However, the desire to achieve goals is not enough; the means to achieve those ends are also necessary. Fernanda emphasizes: “It’s not about stifling the dream. It’s about creating steps, organizing the idea of what steps are needed to realize this dream.”
All these obstacles make the journey to success in sports challenging. Although successes inspire new athletes to pursue the path despite the difficulties, failures often go unnoticed, resulting in a lack of planning on the part of athletes for alternative futures.
The Challenging Mission of Making It There
It is undeniable that the majority of young individuals who enter the world of football aspire to become the next Neymar. The passion for the sport is almost inseparable from the hunger for athletic success. However, faced with the demands and struggles described, the path becomes unbearable for many. Consequently, this can result in difficulties in finding alternative careers.
“For the majority of players, it is a very difficult situation to deal with, and it was no different for me. We often find ourselves lost, without aspirations. It feels like our lives lose direction because we have spent many years playing, and suddenly everything ends abruptly… It is rare for a player to be able to plan the end of their career. In the overwhelming majority of cases, football is a means of survival,” declares Roger.
The responsibility of psychological preparation for setbacks in a football career also falls largely on the athlete. Those who are striving to reach the professional level need to train their mindset to be prepared for opportunities and strengthen their resilience.
This is what Erivelton de Lima, Technical Observer for the youth categories at Grêmio, believes: “When players reach the professional level, many of them think, ‘I’m already the guy,’ so to speak, and they end up forgetting to truly stay focused. And when an opportunity arises, they are not prepared for it.”
Therefore, this duality in a player’s development reinforces the collective nature of sports, especially football. The club’s efforts, aligned with those of the athlete, tend to have a positive effect.
According to Erivelton, young athletes would have a greater chance of success in professional football if clubs valued their development programs more and invested in the mental and psychological training of the players. On the other hand, the patience and wisdom of these players to complement the club’s efforts in preparing for their future are essential for turning their opportunities into the results they have always dreamed of.
