Football is a sport enjoyed by millions in and around the world. Whether you pull on the shirt for your local team on a Sunday, or just pull on your favorite team’s jersey and cheer them on with a pint and a pie, making it as a professional player has crossed the minds of every single one of us.
Only a special few have what it takes to become a professional footballer for the premium leagues. It takes a whole load of determination to stay on track. Follow these steps in order to achieve your goal
Step 1. Have the desire to achieve
Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration. The words of famous inventor Thomas Edison ring true in many walks of life. One of them is getting to the top of the footballing elite.
You can have all the talent in the world, but without ‘dedication’ and no small amount of endeavor, you’ll never realize your full potential. Sometimes, these can be hard things to quantify for players, but putting your all into the 11 further points we list here is a good start.
There will be more than one occasion when you want to throw in the towel, but recovering from positions of peril only makes getting to the finish line that much sweeter.
Step 2. Set Goals to become a pro footballer
Setting goals is a valuable part of improving in football. With studies proving it can boost your performance on the pitch. With such a long and difficult journey to making it as a pro, you need a way of regularly checking your progress.
This is where goal setting comes in. Underneath the one, mammoth end goal of making it to the top.
To do that, harness the knowledge of your coaches. They can offer an honest critique of your game, and a plan for improving it during training sessions. Goals could be anything from saving 50% of penalties , making it to the top in goalscoring charts, or not getting booked for five consecutive games. Setting goals is a valuable part of improving football, with studies proving it can boost performance on the pitch. With such a long and difficult journey to making it as a pro, you need a way of regularly checking your progress.
Step 3. Condition Correctly to become a pro footballer
Skill and ability with the football are one thing. But to become a professional footballer having the stamina to consistently produce on the pitch is down to how you conduct yourself off it. Before you cancel your gym membership , consider how seriously you need to take conditioning in football.
Undergo a proper strength and conditioning program and you’ll reap the rewards a healthy body and mind can bring to sports performance. Primarily, a well-conditioned body can dramatically decrease your chances of picking up an injury. As an injury-free player, you’re free to put even more hours out on the pitch learning and honing your skills.
Plus, a good conditioning programme looks to improve strength: underpinning your power, speed, and agility. Armed with an increase in these attributes, you’ll become a better player – and you’ll be able to show it more often.
Step 4. Keep on Training to become pro footballer
A long-standing theory in sports performance suggests that after 10,000 hours of practicing any skill, you’ll become an expert. Dating back to the work of Anders Ericsson in 1993 and championed by Malcolm Gladwell, the theory has more recently been dismissed in favor of a more holistic approach – but it still provides you with a good yardstick over how much time you’re going to have to put into practice.
Lionel Messi is the greatest professional soccer player on the planet for not just one, but several reasons. Sure, copious amounts of natural, innate talent help, but without the hours put in on the training pitch, he wouldn’t be the player he is today.
To make it as a pro in the premier league, you need to be constantly striving to improve. Use every training session as a stepping stone to becoming better, and include all the remaining steps to ensure you can cut it at the very top.
Step 5 Stay Motivated to become pro footballer
Staying upbeat and in the zone when your ultimate goal seems so far aware can be a tough prospect. To stay motivated, you keep in touch with the more beautiful side of the beautiful game. Enjoyment and passion for the sport you love should be the main reason you get out of bed on those chilly December weekend’s and head straight to the football pitch. Never lose sight of your love of the game, or you’ll quickly lose the unnerving motivation required to become a professional.
You can also harness the innate competitive nature of playing football to your motivational advantage. Set those goals and use them as a tool to drive yourself onwards – using the elation of victory and disappointment of defeat as emotional cues to keep going.
Conclusion
Making it as a professional footballer isn’t easy, but the tips above can certainly get you closer to your goals. To be better than your competition, devote yourself to the game, practice regularly, and fine-tune your skills. In every match you play, give 100% and keep a cool head. You never know who could be watching on your aim to become a professional footballer.
Read more