Last week the Premier League joined the rest of the English football leagues and a new season is yet again underway. The summer will have seen a number of changes as new objectives are set and re-set. Some players may have commenced the new season re-energised from signing a new contract with their club, whilst others may have welcomed a fresh challenge elsewhere. However, there are also those whose contracts have expired and now they face the struggle of finding a club, or even worse a new career.

For the first time in a player’s professional life a new season may be beginning without them, leaving them to consider their future beyond the pitch. When players reach the point when they are forced into hanging up their boots they face the ultimate transition, entering unfamiliar territory to seek a new profession.

 The Launch of Next Step FC

One network that has been launched in order to support retired footballers is Renaissance Coaching’s Next Step FC programme. Renaissance Coaching was originally established by coaching psychologist and employability expert Martin Ousley to help individuals from many fields with their career development and those seeking career change. But in 2019 he added Next Step FC to his coaching programme. Speaking to the Sports Gazette Martin gave an insight into this:

 “Much of Next Step FC is part of the coaching work I was delivering as a coaching psychologist to a much wider group. But because of my lifelong interest in football and an interest in career coaching I naturally brought the two things together. Through my home club, which happens to be Oxford United, I got to know quite a lot of the more senior journeymen footballers that came through the club and I read with interest the problems they had been having after leaving the sport.”

Martin’s specialised coaching programme for Next Step FC offers second career seminars, one to one career transition coaching and even direct work with players at their current club, providing support to small groups of players who now seek a new career path. Martin launched Next Step in early 2019 and momentum built throughout that year, however the global pandemic arrived and put this on pause:

“In early 2020 everything came to a grinding halt, but now I’m planning to pick up with Next Step FC once more and bring it back to life for the 2022/23 season and beyond.”

Finding the Right Support

Players searching for a new career after football can only benefit from such support and guidance during this transitional phase, but Martin emphasised that players need to be sure that the support comes from those who have their best interest at heart:

“The most important thing is access to speak to somebody who doesn’t have a vested interest in what their decisions are, somebody completely impartial. I think what they benefit from more than anything is an impartial professional to listen to what they want to say, rather than someone just going straight in and advising them about what to do next with no previous dialogue of any kind having taken place. Although it’s career transition that we’re talking about for most of these footballers it’s a whole life transition, it’s a massive change. It doesn’t just affect them, it affects their families, friends, colleagues, former colleagues, and for this reason it has to be looked at in that context, not just as a career change.”

Understanding their Change of Identity

Retiring and retired footballers can suffer from a loss of social and athlete identity as well as the financial anxieties that can occur, putting their future income in doubt. Martin touched upon the impact this has towards ex-players:

 “A lot of it stems from that change of identity, they can literally spend 25-30 years with people asking them what they do and they can say ‘I’m a professional footballer’, then all of a sudden they can’t say that anymore. They then have to come to terms with saying something quite different, particularly if they don’t stay in any kind of aligned jobs like punditry or coaching. If you decide to go into teaching for example or any other job or profession, or go into business, you’ve got to make that switch in your mindset to I am now a business manager, an entrepreneur, or I’m a lecturer. That change of identity can bring about a lot of anxieties.”

Martin continued:

“Obviously there are also the financial worries for many players. On leaving the game they are entering a world that is probably quite familiar to everyone else but to the ex-player it is quite alien, it’s a transition that requires a shift in who you are and this is one of the threads that I bring into the coaching, helping them remember that they are a person not just a profession or job role. Although they’ve been a footballer, there was always a person inside and they need to recognise and take that person forward into the new role and in some respects a new identity.”

The Damaging Stereotype

One of the stereotypes that ex-players face is that footballers don’t need to concern themselves with future endeavours because they already have lots of money. Martin recognised the impact this can have on ex-footballers:

“Being closely associated with a club like Oxford United who have spent a lot of time in the lower leagues and knowing a lot of the players and what they do earn it’s an aspect that has been uppermost in my work with some ex-pro footballers. Even if you’re a well-paid championship player you really have to think hard and fast about what you’re going to do. There’s a lot that can be learned from some of the elder statesman, a lot of ex-Oxford United players who were playing back in the 70s and 80s have since been working in trades like the building trades, in sales or in shop work.  So, they never came out of football and went into anything grand they just went into essentially an everyday job, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that at all.

But that stereotype of the high life in football does stick with people and it does cause a problem and an expectation in terms of what an ex-pro might aim for when they leave the game, it sets people up for failure almost and it’s managing their expectations and ambitions that is vital as part of this change process and needs to be managed very carefully and skilfully.”

Recognising Reality

The hero perception of footballers can leave them with unrealistic expectations when transitioning into a new career, forgetting that behind their luminary status as a professional footballer they are still like anybody else and are entitled to find this transition difficult.

Martin understands the difficulty and helps ex-players recognise this within his one to one coaching sessions:

“One of the things that I try and encourage is not to think about things going wrong as failing, especially if whatever they decide to do post football initially doesn’t work out. It’s a difficult transition, you probably won’t get it right first time, you may have to have a backup plan or a contingency of some type and you may want to have two or three different options that you’re pursuing, if that’s possible. But don’t be panicked if your original plan needs to change after a period of time, because that can happen in any kind of career transition phase.”

To find out more about Next Step FC and Martin’s career transition support for ex-players visit: https://www.renaissance-coaching.co.uk/nextstepfc