Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, this is a stupid goal for your children. If someone told me this was their hope for their kid, I would assume they were a deluded, terrible parent, and there is a 99.999% chance I'd be right.

If they happened to be in the .001% that proved me wrong, more power to them.

But they wouldn't be! Your kids will not be pro soccer players, and even if they were, they would probably be middling and make terrible money while risking some kind of injury and squandering opportunities to do literally anything else with their lives.

Would rephrase the question and ask since it’s so unlikely that your child would be able to play pro soccer at all or for more than a year or two, would you want/hope your child become a club/travel coach for U9-U11?

Anonymous wrote:No, this is a stupid goal for your children. If someone told me this was their hope for their kid, I would assume they were a deluded, terrible parent, and there is a 99.999% chance I'd be right.

If they happened to be in the .001% that proved me wrong, more power to them.

But they wouldn't be! Your kids will not be pro soccer players, and even if they were, they would probably be middling and make terrible money while risking some kind of injury and squandering opportunities to do literally anything else with their lives.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is trying - he took a gap year to play in Europe - and now resents me for suggesting he come back and play D1 college soccer. I've told him he has to give it 1 semester and if he still wants to go back, he can. The trouble is there are many layers of professional soccer in Europe (7 divisions in some countries) and climbing the ladder is as much a matter of luck as skill. It's not like tennis or golf or even baseball - where there are concrete statistics you can point to.

The European soccer landscape is very confusing to me below the top so your post is helpful. DS has a coach who talks about playing pro soccer there. We once looked up the team and it did say “pro” but we couldn’t make sense of the level at all. We had not even heard of the league. And in the US, although he plays “pro”, it is for a NISA team which I’m told is the 3rd tier. DS would love to play soccer on any team at any level post HS so this is not a criticism but rather leads me to conclude that one needs a day job to support oneself.

These levels in US sports for the major sports are called baseball AA or AAA, basketball G league, football USL. We don't consider those players professional athletes. So if one isn't playing in one of the top European leagues, where we can watch on TV here in the states, I just consider those players minor league athletes trying to become professionals.

Anonymous wrote:I have an American friend who has two boys who are playing for the Barca Academy in Barcelona Spain. He moved there because the cost of having just one boy play at the Barca Residency Academy in Arizona was more than having two boys play at the same in Spain. His wife is Mexican, so she is on some sort of Visa program that leads to a Spanish "green card" equivalent, his two boys are on educational visas, and he has to manage on a tourist visa requiring him to come and go frequently from Spain (which his job requires anyways). That is other worldly dedication to me.

He refers to his sons soccer careers as his slow burn retirement strategy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is trying - he took a gap year to play in Europe - and now resents me for suggesting he come back and play D1 college soccer. I've told him he has to give it 1 semester and if he still wants to go back, he can. The trouble is there are many layers of professional soccer in Europe (7 divisions in some countries) and climbing the ladder is as much a matter of luck as skill. It's not like tennis or golf or even baseball - where there are concrete statistics you can point to.

The European soccer landscape is very confusing to me below the top so your post is helpful. DS has a coach who talks about playing pro soccer there. We once looked up the team and it did say “pro” but we couldn’t make sense of the level at all. We had not even heard of the league. And in the US, although he plays “pro”, it is for a NISA team which I’m told is the 3rd tier. DS would love to play soccer on any team at any level post HS so this is not a criticism but rather leads me to conclude that one needs a day job to support oneself.

Anonymous wrote:It's a purely hypothetical situation for my kid, but professional soccer players don't seem to attend college at the same rate as athletes who play other sports. I'm sure it has something to do with the differences in higher level education in the UK and Europe vs US and how soccer programs in those areas develop talent compared to here. So if my kid's ability to play professional soccer meant he had to forego college, then no, I would not want him to play professionally.

Anonymous wrote:My son is trying - he took a gap year to play in Europe - and now resents me for suggesting he come back and play D1 college soccer. I've told him he has to give it 1 semester and if he still wants to go back, he can. The trouble is there are many layers of professional soccer in Europe (7 divisions in some countries) and climbing the ladder is as much a matter of luck as skill. It's not like tennis or golf or even baseball - where there are concrete statistics you can point to.

Anonymous wrote: I mean, an odd question? If my son or daughter was talented enough to be the <1% of soccer players able to play at the professional level AND had the desire and drive to do so? Sure I'd be excited for them, it's a big accomplishment.

For the guys, the pay is pretty decent. For the girls, mostly not so much. But it's also not something they will do forever. And if they love doing it and are happy? I hope they could find that combination regardless of occupation.