Reply to Hope Solo - Youth Soccer is for Rich White Kids

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=RantingSoccerDad][quote=Anonymous]I think another issue in addition to money barrier in development programs/teams is the pay once you get to pro level.

If you have a very athletic kid which would you spend your resources on? Developing a pro football player who could earn a couple of million/year or a pro soccer player who would be lucky to bring in a couple hundred thousand/year? See Odell Beckham. Nevermind the women's teams don't pay more than $40k/year. For that amount you may as well study to take the entry level desk job![/quote]

I'd choose soccer. Longer careers. Better-rounded experience. [/quote]

A decent football player can make more in one year than most pro soccer players. Even semi pro football players get paid more than pro soccer. A better rounded experience doesn't pay your bills.[/quote]

Hmm, not so sure about that.  My thought is that globally, there is probably more money being paid to professional soccer players, in total, than any other sport.

Did some googling and here's what I found.  The average NFL salary is $2.1 mn.   MLS average is $315,00.  But semi-pro (American) football players make on average only $35,000 per year.  So if you make it to the NFL, great.  But if not, you're pretty much SOL b/c there aren't any other good options to make a living at the sport.   But US lower division soccer salaries aren't even worth looking up, so yeah, within the US, a player has a better chance of making more money at football than soccer.

If a player is willing to live in Europe for a few years though, it could be a completely different story.  At the top of the heap, the EPL avg salary is $3.4 mn.  Next comes Spain at $2.2 mn, Italy at $1.7, Germany $1.6 mn, and France at $1.2 mn.  So those are 5 professional soccer leagues all paying, on average, over $1 mn a year, and 2 of them pay more than the NFL.  But that's only part of it.  There's still good money to be made even if not playing for one of the big 5.  The top divisions even in smaller countries like in Denmark, Austria, Greece, Turkey, the Netherlands, and Belgium all pay more than the MLS average.  2nd division in England averages $650,000. In Germany  2nd division is around $300,000.   Heck even 4th division in England offers an average salary over $65,000 - which isn't great but still a lot better than any professional football league other than the NFL pays.  And that's 4th division.

But I don't think there are really that many parents who are actually calculating any of that.   In general when it comes to sports, parents support their kids in the sports their kids are most passionate about about, and that usually correlates pretty highly to the same sports the parents are passionate about  - go figure.  [/quote]

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