...to think being a Premiership Footballler is one of the best jobs in the world?

Why are they role models though? Most of them aren’t the brightest or the best behaved - surely they are the last people we want boys to look up to

The football academies take in hundreds if not thousands hoping to make the top, most fail to achieve their dreams always have a back up plan.

I read this early, very interesting and relevant

www.theplayerstribune.com/yan-diomande-soccer-bundesliga-rb-leipzig-ivory-coast

Not true at all.

So....the 'career' usually starts at about 6, 7 years old. That involves travelling every weekend, extra training during the week, being unable to do sleepovers etc, watching diet, unable to do certain activities like skiing, not being able to go on holidays with family, if they have siblings in school ( pre season clashes) trying to juggle academia with training priorities.

Thats aside from the mental pressure, not being able to socialise with peers, knowing you could be released at any point, knowing people could try to attach themselve due to the job etc.

Then out of all that, a very small percentage make it to the wages i think people are talking about. A lot more get slowly discarded through lack or ability or mental strength, and when their whole identity has been as a 'footballer' from childhood, its hard.

Only if they make it 'big' may there be insurance that kicks in, but thats probably after 15 to 20 years developing. Anything other than the top couple of leagues isnt that substantial. Make it to those levels and yep, its worth it. 99% wont do though. Then they have a limited shelf life based, that could be dictated to by the whims of a manager. One lad i know was ready to debut at a young age against premier league club, got injured, then change of manager with different tactics and he never played for them again. His counterpart from the time plays for England and premier league now. Literally one wayward boot and a domino effect ruined his career. And no insurance payout.

Its easy to judge from the outside, as with most things, in real life, its not that clear cut

I don’t save any lives in my job. I earn probably at least three times what a nurse does. That’s because pay doesn’t reflect your moral worth to society, it reflects the amount of money you can make for a private business, and I bring in a lot of money.

If a football team is making millions off their performances and your image, why shouldn’t a player get a fair share of that?

Also, if kicking a bag of air around is so easy, I’m surprised you aren’t doing it yourself. The pay is really rather good.

I read a really interesting article about 15 years ago about how the demographics of footballers are changing along with the demographics of fans. The players of the 60, 70, 80s were generally solidly working class. The increase in prices has seen the fandom shift to encompass the 'middle classes' and there is a reflection of this on the pitch. They compared the occupations of the parents of players in the 80s and the current team of a particular club that had been in the top division in the 70s 80s and had just been promoted to the Premier league for the first time that year and there were marked differences.

What about Anika Nilles? Hugely talented and respected drummer, bobbing along nicely mostly under the radar until BAM! Rush pick her to replace Neil Peart on their mammoth tour. Worldwide acclaim and fame and presumably a very large pay cheque for 18 months. Then she can go back to relative obscurity if she wishes, only much better off!

That is very true: on the scrapheap at 30.

We've all been irresponsible with money in our youth to some degree - imagine that on a larger scale, with very little way of making money past 30, 35. You aren't thinking of the fallow periods as that isn't what you do.

It's also highly unlikely you have had much of an education past football and the statutory education. Some of the academies are getting better around education and things like that, but it still isn't priority to many.

You can tell those who have had good advice when they have been playing and have invested well. For every one of those, though, there are others who have frittered things away. Even if you invest well, there's still the fact that you can no longer get paid to do the one job yoy know how to- not all footballers will make good managers, coaches etc.

I have seen some of this first hand, with a family friend's child in this situation. Thankfully they were one of the lucky ones- they were well suited to other (less well-paid) roles in the game, and they also had a fantastically savvy, down to earth family to guide them the whole way through.

Very true!

Many of the England world cup winners ended up working unskilled jobs to try and make ends meet. Even most of the Italia 90 squad had to move on to 'normal' jobs once their football careers ended bar a few household names, those who stayed in football in one way or another. But those in the system now are earning enough to be set for life assuming they don't screw it up but lots of them do, addiction, bad investment, scammed by people they should be able to trust. But never 'needing' to work again aged 28 has its own challenges. What do you do next with few qualifications and a lack of transferable skills?

No thanks, I do not have the dedication for that level of training. I like a nice sit down at work.

It’s got its attractions but they are literally bought and sold. If they’re lucky, they uproot their whole lives, close family and kids to somewhere they like that they can easily get home from to see the rest of their family.

It was far harder for those whose footballing careers ended just before the invention of the Premier League meant that salaries skyrocketed -- once their careers ended because of age or injury, they didn't have massive savings from a whacking great salary to live on, and were just uneducated working-class men suddenly having to find a new way of making a living in their 20s or 30s, with no previous 'ordinary' work experience. They often ended up in low-paid, unskilled jobs, while watching the next generation of footballers earn millions. No wonder some had struggles with addiction.

Hm I'm not sure I'd fancy it - a friend of ours has an extremely sought after job (although nowhere near the wages of a footballer). There's very much an environment of put up and shut up, because there are a hundred people behind you wanting your job.

My son started on this path at 18 but dropped out. The club expected you to work/train for 5 days a week, play on Saturdays all over the country, so only one day a week to relax. Yiu aren’t allowed to do any other sport and all they offered for education was a Btec which wouldn’t have been enough at the level they offered to go to university if the apprenticeship didn’t work out. So after a few months he dropped out, did A levels, went to Uni, then played non-league for a few years alongside his job. The chances of making it big are very slim.

Film stars aren't saving lives either. All they are doing is saying words written by other people. Do you feel the same about them?

Because they kick a ball about. They aren’t saving lives! The whole industry is out of hand

Have you seen the haircuts they make you have? No thanks.

How are they overpaid?

Premier League football clubs can have incomes of millions of pounds. Even the lowest team gets about £100 million from the TV deal alone. Add on ticket sales, merchandise, sponsorship etc. They have a huge income.

All because people want to watch the football, and by extension, the footballers.

They are the ones who are generating this money. Why shouldn't they get paid well to do so.

Why do you think they are overpaid?

Yes and no. On the surface, it is amazing. Underneath, I'm not so sure.

It's brutal - and injury or a bad run can really be a threat to all of that. You are only as good as your last run. You essentially start your journey very, very early- if it doesn't work out, it can be very difficult; if you do, then when you retire in your early 30s, you are may not know anything else.

When you retire there is no guarantee of anything. After years of adulation and praise, substance abuse and depression rates are high. Unless you are advised well on your next steps/investments etc whilst you are learning, you can end up with very little...

We love playing 'shit town bingo' either when a new player joins our club or at away games with someone featured in the programme. While some players are snapped up by fancy big name clubs at 9 many have taken a path through a few places that are less than glamorous.

Not to mention sleeping with some publicity hungry vacuous reality star.

It’s a shame that footballers are so revered and overpaid for doing their ‘job’

No amount of money would be worth having my life, face, mistakes, family, address and privacy out in the public domain

There’s also a huge amount of uncertainty. There are obvious examples of players who started off premier league but who then drifted to the lower leagues, spending 12 months here and there, short term contracts, journeymen playing up and down the country. It’s still solid pay in the lower leagues but difficult to put down proper roots if one season you’re playing for Carlisle and the next you’re playing for Plymouth.