There’s no doubt about it, professional football is a competitive business. To be in with a shot, you need to have an edge on your competition and be the best of the best. But how do you do that? In this article, we explore some top tips for becoming a footballer.
1. Devote Yourself to the Game
Devotion to the game is what will set you apart from the rest.
To become a professional footballer, you need to live and breathe the game. The journey won’t be all smooth sailing, but your passion will help you to power through the negative and challenging moments.
If you want to be a professional athlete in today’s market, you need to be 100% committed. Every fibre of your being needs to be determined to make it; without this, you’ll fall behind the competition.
Commitment is measured in behaviour, not feeling. Academies assess the psychological side of a player alongside the technical, and what they watch for is specific: how you respond to being substituted, dropped, corrected or beaten. Do you take feedback and act on it in the next session? Do you turn up early? Do you keep playing at the same intensity when your team is 3-0 down?
Coaches call this coachability, and along with resilience, it is the trait that most reliably separates players who last from players who were the best at nine.
Devotion also means staying in the game after a setback. Most players are released at some point. The ones who become professionals are the ones who find another team the following week.
2. Learn the Sport Inside Out
Learn as much about football as you can.
Watch matches, read books and talk with professional players whenever you can. Ask for their advice on tactics and how to climb the ranks.
To help you progress in your career, gain a solid understanding of what famous players have done to succeed.
Know what every position is asked to do in and out of possession, not just your own. Understand the common formations and why a coach might switch between them mid-match.
When you watch a game, watch the players away from the ball: where they stand, when they scan over their shoulder, how they move to create space.
Scouts call this game intelligence, and it is the part of a player’s toolkit that is hardest to coach and easiest to spot.
3. Train Regularly
While this may seem obvious, you’d be surprised how often this point is pushed aside.
To make it as a footballer, training once a week just isn’t going to cut it. To be better than your competition, training regularly is essential. If your club offers training or summer camps, make use of those as well.
Not only will you learn new skills, but you’ll feed off the competitiveness and enthusiasm of other players.
Training camps are designed to teach you a lot of new skills in a short period of time. If possible, also get involved in organised games outside of your club. Try to get into tournaments that represent your school, region, or county at the youth level.
For scale: academy players in the Youth Development Phase typically train three or four times a week with a match at the weekend. If you are outside an academy, you can close some of that gap on your own, but only if the extra sessions have a purpose. Pick one weakness (weak foot, first touch under pressure, heading), set a measurable target, work on it until it is no longer a weakness, then pick the next. Coaches call this deliberate practice. Aimless hours with a ball are pleasant; they are not training.
The school, district and county representative route matters more than most players realise. The English Schools’ FA runs county and national competitions that scouts attend, and district selection is often the first time a player is seen outside their own club.
One caution. Between roughly 12 and 15 most players hit a growth spurt, and training load that was fine at 11 can cause injury at 13. Academies manage this deliberately. If you are training outside one, keep total weekly hours sensible, drop the intensity when you are growing fast, and prioritise sleep.
4. Run Every Day
A football match is not a run. It is 90 minutes of walking and jogging broken up by hundreds of short sprints, turns and jumps, and the quality that matters most is being able to repeat a sprint after a short recovery. That is what you need to train for.
Steady running still has a place. A few kilometers at a comfortable pace builds the aerobic base that lets you recover between efforts and keeps your body at its peak fitness. Two or three runs a week is plenty. If possible, incorporate some hills into your route.
For the football-specific part, find a steep hill and sprint up it for about 30 metres, then walk back down. Repeat ten times before finishing the run. Done once or twice a week alongside your normal training, this will make you stronger and fitter and let you play at your best for longer.
Build in rest days. Daily running on top of training and matches is how young players end up injured rather than fit. If you are under 16, most of your conditioning should come from football itself and small-sided games.
5. Do Exercises to Increase Your Speed
Speed over the first five metres comes from fast, elastic leg strength, and the way to build it is jumping and landing work, known as plyometrics. Done well, it also sharpens your reactions.
Start low. Two-footed hops, bounding, and jumps onto and off a box of around 30 to 45 cm are enough for most young players. Land quietly, knees over toes, absorb the landing into a squat, then drive back up as quickly as you can. Quality matters more than quantity: a few sets of five to eight good jumps, twice a week, will do more than fifty tired ones.
Warm up and stretch properly first. If you are under 16 or new to plyometrics, learn the technique from a coach before adding height or volume; getting the landing right is what protects your knees and ankles.
6. Learn to Play with Both Feet
While most footballers play better with one foot than the other, it’s important to know how to use both. Instead of improving your touch with your dominant foot, concentrate on your weaker one for a quick win.
Being able to play well with both feet is something that will set you apart from the crowd and catch the eye of talent scouts. You can improve your weaker foot by using it to kick a ball against a wall.
Another great way is to play a scratch game in training where everyone uses their weaker foot. This doesn’t require much effort and you’ll notice results after just a few games.
Make it measurable. Against a wall, count consecutive weak-foot passes taken with one touch and try to beat the number each week. In a rondo or small-sided game, ban your strong foot for the first ten minutes. The reason this matters to a scout is simple: a defender can show a one-footed winger onto the weak side and take away half his options. A two-footed player cannot be steered.
7. Learn from the Professionals
To become a professional footballer, learn from those that have already made it. Watch how footballers in the Premier League play and copy their moves and tactics.
This may sound obvious, but you’d be amazed at how many players ignore this! For best results, choose a player who plays in your position and watch him closely. Pay attention to his positions when on and off the ball and follow suit.
8. Move Through Graduate Levels
If you’re not already part of a club, join one immediately. Whether you choose a school team, district team, or local club, attend their training sessions and matches regularly.
From there, keep your eyes open for recruiting academies. Known for grooming young players into professionals, academies are well worth the competitive entry process.
If you don’t get into an academy, don’t panic. Continue building your skills and progress to more competition and selective teams each year. Eventually, move from your youth team to a college or university team or a semi-professional club. Continue to improve each year and climb the levels gradually.
In England the ladder looks like this. Grassroots club and school football first. Then district and county representative selection, which is where scouts from EPPP academies do much of their looking. Then a club development centre or pre-academy group, and from there a place in the academy itself. If that door does not open, the adult ladder is the National League System: county league, then the regional and national non-league steps, where semi-professional clubs play in front of scouts every Saturday. College academies at 16 and university football at 18 run alongside that ladder rather than replacing it.
One warning. The word “academy” is unregulated. A professional club academy is free, audited and part of the EPPP. A commercial “elite academy” or development centre may be a good coaching environment, or may be a business that sells hope to parents. Ask where their players go next, and get the answer from the players, not the brochure.
9. Assess Yourself as a Player
Once you’ve got some experience under your belt, assess yourself as a player. Take a good look at your skills and find out what position you’re best suited to. To figure this out, don’t just think about yourself.
Consider how your strengths benefit your teammates and how your skills fit into the game as a whole. As the sport is so competitive, it’s important that you’re extraordinary at what you do.
To do this, choose your position and fine-tune your skills. Seek your trainer’s honest opinion about your talent and strengths. Listen to this advice and identify ways to improve your natural talent.
Use the same framework the academies use. The EPPP is built on The FA’s Four Corner Model, which looks at a player under four headings: technical and tactical, physical, psychological and social. Score yourself one to five on each, honestly, then ask a coach to do the same and compare. The gaps between the two lists are where your next six months of work should go.
A written view from someone who does this for a living is worth more than a self-score. The PFSA offers a professional scouting report on your match footage, and if you do not yet have footage, our guide to capturing a highlight reel and match footage explains what scouts want to see and what they skip.
10. Know What a Scout is Looking For
To get selected for professional football trials, you’ll need to impress the scout. Trained by the PFSA, a scout can appear at any time to check out your team. With this in mind, it’s important to play your best in every game.
To impress a scout, you’ll need to know what they’re looking for. In addition to your ball play, a scout will assess your entire attitude. Your character will be watched just as much as your talent, so showcase your team ethos by helping your teammates. While competitiveness and ambition are important, play fairly and stick to rules.
“Attitude” is not vague to a scout. It is your body language after a mistake, whether you sprint back or jog, whether you talk to teammates, how you react to the referee, and what you do in the warm-up when nobody is coaching you. Scouts also rarely decide on one game; a player of interest will be watched several times, often without the player or the parents knowing. That is why the advice to play your best in every game is not a platitude.
For a detailed breakdown of the process from first sighting to trial invitation, read our guide on how to get scouted for football. If you have been invited to a trial, or want to attend one, the football trials FAQ covers what to bring, what happens on the day and what follows.
In Summary
Making it as a professional footballer isn’t easy, but the tips above will 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.
Know the route as well as the habits: academy if the door opens, scholarship at 16, contract from 17, and non-league, college or university football if it does not. Keep studying either way. Being released is where most professional careers actually start.
FAQs
What age do you have to be to become a professional footballer?
In England you can sign a first professional contract from 17. Academy registration starts at Under-9, scholarships are offered at 16, and most professionals joined an academy between 8 and 12. None of those ages is a rule about you; they describe the most common route, not the only one.
Is 16, 18 or 20 too late to become a footballer?
No. Sixteen is scholarship age, and the EFL’s Under-16 trials exist for players not offered one by their club. At 18 the realistic routes are non-league, a college academy or university football. At 20 it is non-league, and the bar rises each year, but professional clubs sign non-league players every season. Jamie Vardy was 25 when Leicester signed him from Fleetwood Town.
Can you become a professional footballer without an academy?
Yes. The academy route is the most common, but non-league football, college and university programmes and open trials all produce professionals, and a large share of those players were released by an academy first. The section above on routes that do not run through an academy sets out each one.
What qualifications do you need to be a footballer?
None. Clubs do not ask for GCSEs or A-levels to sign you. Once you are a scholar, though, you will be required to study alongside training, because the club and the PFA both know that most scholars do not go on to a professional contract.
How hard is it to become a professional footballer?
Very. The most-quoted estimate, from Michael Calvin’s research in 2017, is that fewer than half of one per cent of boys who enter an academy at nine make a living from football, and around 0.012 per cent of all boys in organised youth football reach the Premier League. Most professionals play well below the top division, and most of them spent time being released, loaned out or playing non-league on the way.
Do I need an agent?
Not until a professional club is offering you a contract, and often not then. Agents must be FA-registered, and your club or LFE will advise on representation once it matters. Nobody in grassroots or early academy football needs to pay for one.
References and More Information
Premier League. Elite Player Performance Plan. premierleague.com/en/footballandcommunity/youth-development/eppp. Phases and Category 1 to 4 grading.
Premier League. EPPP: Helping Academy players reach their potential (2022). premierleague.com/en/news/2920464. Basis in The FA’s Four Corner Model.
League Football Education. Pre-Apprenticeship Information (U16). lfe.org.uk/apprenticeship/pre-apprenticeship-information-u16/. 31 December scholarship deadline, EFL Under-16 trials, education requirement.
League Football Education. Sporting Excellence Professional Apprenticeship. lfe.org.uk/apprenticeship/.
Professional Footballers’ Association. Outstanding Ofsted result for League Football Education (2023). thepfa.com/news/2023/4/27/lfe-rated-outstanding-ofsted. LFE founded 2004 by PFA and EFL; Level 3 standard.
Business Insider. Michael Calvin interview on academy success rates (2017). businessinsider.com/michael-calvin-shocking-statistic…. Source of the 180 in 1.5 million and “less than half of one per cent” figures.
The FA. FA to discover “new generation” with revamped women’s and girls’ player pathway (2023). thefa.com/news/2023/feb/09/womens-player-pathway-revamped-20230902. Emerging Talent Centres (8 to 16, up to 70) and Professional Game Academies (14 to 20).
The FA. Women’s and girls’ football sees record growth (2024). thefa.com/news/2024/sep/27/…. 73 ETCs, 21 PGAs, Discover My Talent.
Leicester City FC. Leicester City in 100 Players: Jamie Vardy. lcfc.com/media-article/Leicester-City-In-100-Players:-Jamie-Vardy. Release at 16, non-league clubs, £1 million fee.
National Careers Service. Sports professional job profile. nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/sports-professional. Career length and planning.
How to Become a Professional Footballer: 10 Vital Tips
There’s no doubt about it, professional football is a competitive business. To be in with a shot, you need to have an edge on your competition and be the best of the best. But how do you do that? In this article, we explore some top tips for becoming a footballer.
1. Devote Yourself to the Game
Devotion to the game is what will set you apart from the rest.
To become a professional footballer, you need to live and breathe the game. The journey won’t be all smooth sailing, but your passion will help you to power through the negative and challenging moments.
If you want to be a professional athlete in today’s market, you need to be 100% committed. Every fibre of your being needs to be determined to make it; without this, you’ll fall behind the competition.
Commitment is measured in behaviour, not feeling. Academies assess the psychological side of a player alongside the technical, and what they watch for is specific: how you respond to being substituted, dropped, corrected or beaten. Do you take feedback and act on it in the next session? Do you turn up early? Do you keep playing at the same intensity when your team is 3-0 down?
Coaches call this coachability, and along with resilience, it is the trait that most reliably separates players who last from players who were the best at nine.
Devotion also means staying in the game after a setback. Most players are released at some point. The ones who become professionals are the ones who find another team the following week.
2. Learn the Sport Inside Out
Learn as much about football as you can.
Watch matches, read books and talk with professional players whenever you can. Ask for their advice on tactics and how to climb the ranks.
To help you progress in your career, gain a solid understanding of what famous players have done to succeed.
Know what every position is asked to do in and out of possession, not just your own. Understand the common formations and why a coach might switch between them mid-match.
When you watch a game, watch the players away from the ball: where they stand, when they scan over their shoulder, how they move to create space.
Scouts call this game intelligence, and it is the part of a player’s toolkit that is hardest to coach and easiest to spot.
3. Train Regularly
While this may seem obvious, you’d be surprised how often this point is pushed aside.
To make it as a footballer, training once a week just isn’t going to cut it. To be better than your competition, training regularly is essential. If your club offers training or summer camps, make use of those as well.
Not only will you learn new skills, but you’ll feed off the competitiveness and enthusiasm of other players.
Training camps are designed to teach you a lot of new skills in a short period of time. If possible, also get involved in organised games outside of your club. Try to get into tournaments that represent your school, region, or county at the youth level.
For scale: academy players in the Youth Development Phase typically train three or four times a week with a match at the weekend. If you are outside an academy, you can close some of that gap on your own, but only if the extra sessions have a purpose. Pick one weakness (weak foot, first touch under pressure, heading), set a measurable target, work on it until it is no longer a weakness, then pick the next. Coaches call this deliberate practice. Aimless hours with a ball are pleasant; they are not training.
The school, district and county representative route matters more than most players realise. The English Schools’ FA runs county and national competitions that scouts attend, and district selection is often the first time a player is seen outside their own club.
One caution. Between roughly 12 and 15 most players hit a growth spurt, and training load that was fine at 11 can cause injury at 13. Academies manage this deliberately. If you are training outside one, keep total weekly hours sensible, drop the intensity when you are growing fast, and prioritise sleep.
4. Run Every Day
A football match is not a run. It is 90 minutes of walking and jogging broken up by hundreds of short sprints, turns and jumps, and the quality that matters most is being able to repeat a sprint after a short recovery. That is what you need to train for.
Steady running still has a place. A few kilometers at a comfortable pace builds the aerobic base that lets you recover between efforts and keeps your body at its peak fitness. Two or three runs a week is plenty. If possible, incorporate some hills into your route.
For the football-specific part, find a steep hill and sprint up it for about 30 metres, then walk back down. Repeat ten times before finishing the run. Done once or twice a week alongside your normal training, this will make you stronger and fitter and let you play at your best for longer.
Build in rest days. Daily running on top of training and matches is how young players end up injured rather than fit. If you are under 16, most of your conditioning should come from football itself and small-sided games.
5. Do Exercises to Increase Your Speed
Speed over the first five metres comes from fast, elastic leg strength, and the way to build it is jumping and landing work, known as plyometrics. Done well, it also sharpens your reactions.
Start low. Two-footed hops, bounding, and jumps onto and off a box of around 30 to 45 cm are enough for most young players. Land quietly, knees over toes, absorb the landing into a squat, then drive back up as quickly as you can. Quality matters more than quantity: a few sets of five to eight good jumps, twice a week, will do more than fifty tired ones.
Warm up and stretch properly first. If you are under 16 or new to plyometrics, learn the technique from a coach before adding height or volume; getting the landing right is what protects your knees and ankles.
6. Learn to Play with Both Feet
While most footballers play better with one foot than the other, it’s important to know how to use both. Instead of improving your touch with your dominant foot, concentrate on your weaker one for a quick win.
Being able to play well with both feet is something that will set you apart from the crowd and catch the eye of talent scouts. You can improve your weaker foot by using it to kick a ball against a wall.
Another great way is to play a scratch game in training where everyone uses their weaker foot. This doesn’t require much effort and you’ll notice results after just a few games.
Make it measurable. Against a wall, count consecutive weak-foot passes taken with one touch and try to beat the number each week. In a rondo or small-sided game, ban your strong foot for the first ten minutes. The reason this matters to a scout is simple: a defender can show a one-footed winger onto the weak side and take away half his options. A two-footed player cannot be steered.
7. Learn from the Professionals
To become a professional footballer, learn from those that have already made it. Watch how footballers in the Premier League play and copy their moves and tactics.
This may sound obvious, but you’d be amazed at how many players ignore this! For best results, choose a player who plays in your position and watch him closely. Pay attention to his positions when on and off the ball and follow suit.
8. Move Through Graduate Levels
If you’re not already part of a club, join one immediately. Whether you choose a school team, district team, or local club, attend their training sessions and matches regularly.
From there, keep your eyes open for recruiting academies. Known for grooming young players into professionals, academies are well worth the competitive entry process.
If you don’t get into an academy, don’t panic. Continue building your skills and progress to more competition and selective teams each year. Eventually, move from your youth team to a college or university team or a semi-professional club. Continue to improve each year and climb the levels gradually.
In England the ladder looks like this. Grassroots club and school football first. Then district and county representative selection, which is where scouts from EPPP academies do much of their looking. Then a club development centre or pre-academy group, and from there a place in the academy itself. If that door does not open, the adult ladder is the National League System: county league, then the regional and national non-league steps, where semi-professional clubs play in front of scouts every Saturday. College academies at 16 and university football at 18 run alongside that ladder rather than replacing it.
One warning. The word “academy” is unregulated. A professional club academy is free, audited and part of the EPPP. A commercial “elite academy” or development centre may be a good coaching environment, or may be a business that sells hope to parents. Ask where their players go next, and get the answer from the players, not the brochure.
9. Assess Yourself as a Player
Once you’ve got some experience under your belt, assess yourself as a player. Take a good look at your skills and find out what position you’re best suited to. To figure this out, don’t just think about yourself.
Consider how your strengths benefit your teammates and how your skills fit into the game as a whole. As the sport is so competitive, it’s important that you’re extraordinary at what you do.
To do this, choose your position and fine-tune your skills. Seek your trainer’s honest opinion about your talent and strengths. Listen to this advice and identify ways to improve your natural talent.
Use the same framework the academies use. The EPPP is built on The FA’s Four Corner Model, which looks at a player under four headings: technical and tactical, physical, psychological and social. Score yourself one to five on each, honestly, then ask a coach to do the same and compare. The gaps between the two lists are where your next six months of work should go.
A written view from someone who does this for a living is worth more than a self-score. The PFSA offers a professional scouting report on your match footage, and if you do not yet have footage, our guide to capturing a highlight reel and match footage explains what scouts want to see and what they skip.
10. Know What a Scout is Looking For
To get selected for professional football trials, you’ll need to impress the scout. Trained by the PFSA, a scout can appear at any time to check out your team. With this in mind, it’s important to play your best in every game.
To impress a scout, you’ll need to know what they’re looking for. In addition to your ball play, a scout will assess your entire attitude. Your character will be watched just as much as your talent, so showcase your team ethos by helping your teammates. While competitiveness and ambition are important, play fairly and stick to rules.
“Attitude” is not vague to a scout. It is your body language after a mistake, whether you sprint back or jog, whether you talk to teammates, how you react to the referee, and what you do in the warm-up when nobody is coaching you. Scouts also rarely decide on one game; a player of interest will be watched several times, often without the player or the parents knowing. That is why the advice to play your best in every game is not a platitude.
For a detailed breakdown of the process from first sighting to trial invitation, read our guide on how to get scouted for football. If you have been invited to a trial, or want to attend one, the football trials FAQ covers what to bring, what happens on the day and what follows.
In Summary
Making it as a professional footballer isn’t easy, but the tips above will 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.
Know the route as well as the habits: academy if the door opens, scholarship at 16, contract from 17, and non-league, college or university football if it does not. Keep studying either way. Being released is where most professional careers actually start.
FAQs
What age do you have to be to become a professional footballer?
In England you can sign a first professional contract from 17. Academy registration starts at Under-9, scholarships are offered at 16, and most professionals joined an academy between 8 and 12. None of those ages is a rule about you; they describe the most common route, not the only one.
Is 16, 18 or 20 too late to become a footballer?
No. Sixteen is scholarship age, and the EFL’s Under-16 trials exist for players not offered one by their club. At 18 the realistic routes are non-league, a college academy or university football. At 20 it is non-league, and the bar rises each year, but professional clubs sign non-league players every season. Jamie Vardy was 25 when Leicester signed him from Fleetwood Town.
Can you become a professional footballer without an academy?
Yes. The academy route is the most common, but non-league football, college and university programmes and open trials all produce professionals, and a large share of those players were released by an academy first. The section above on routes that do not run through an academy sets out each one.
What qualifications do you need to be a footballer?
None. Clubs do not ask for GCSEs or A-levels to sign you. Once you are a scholar, though, you will be required to study alongside training, because the club and the PFA both know that most scholars do not go on to a professional contract.
How hard is it to become a professional footballer?
Very. The most-quoted estimate, from Michael Calvin’s research in 2017, is that fewer than half of one per cent of boys who enter an academy at nine make a living from football, and around 0.012 per cent of all boys in organised youth football reach the Premier League. Most professionals play well below the top division, and most of them spent time being released, loaned out or playing non-league on the way.
Do I need an agent?
Not until a professional club is offering you a contract, and often not then. Agents must be FA-registered, and your club or LFE will advise on representation once it matters. Nobody in grassroots or early academy football needs to pay for one.
References and More Information
Premier League. Elite Player Performance Plan. premierleague.com/en/footballandcommunity/youth-development/eppp. Phases and Category 1 to 4 grading.
Premier League. EPPP: Helping Academy players reach their potential (2022). premierleague.com/en/news/2920464. Basis in The FA’s Four Corner Model.
League Football Education. Pre-Apprenticeship Information (U16). lfe.org.uk/apprenticeship/pre-apprenticeship-information-u16/. 31 December scholarship deadline, EFL Under-16 trials, education requirement.
League Football Education. Sporting Excellence Professional Apprenticeship. lfe.org.uk/apprenticeship/.
Professional Footballers’ Association. Outstanding Ofsted result for League Football Education (2023). thepfa.com/news/2023/4/27/lfe-rated-outstanding-ofsted. LFE founded 2004 by PFA and EFL; Level 3 standard.
Business Insider. Michael Calvin interview on academy success rates (2017). businessinsider.com/michael-calvin-shocking-statistic…. Source of the 180 in 1.5 million and “less than half of one per cent” figures.
The FA. FA to discover “new generation” with revamped women’s and girls’ player pathway (2023). thefa.com/news/2023/feb/09/womens-player-pathway-revamped-20230902. Emerging Talent Centres (8 to 16, up to 70) and Professional Game Academies (14 to 20).
The FA. Women’s and girls’ football sees record growth (2024). thefa.com/news/2024/sep/27/…. 73 ETCs, 21 PGAs, Discover My Talent.
Leicester City FC. Leicester City in 100 Players: Jamie Vardy. lcfc.com/media-article/Leicester-City-In-100-Players:-Jamie-Vardy. Release at 16, non-league clubs, £1 million fee.
National Careers Service. Sports professional job profile. nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/sports-professional. Career length and planning.
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