Soccer

[OnlineLC]

As far as the professional level players, soccer or all sports, your chances are pretty slim.  It is possible, though.  We have a kid here in Knoxville who made the u-16 national team.  Though that is pretty rare.  Not may kids (at least from Knoxville) go on to big D-1 schools.  Most go to smaller D-1, D-2, or NAIA.  I haven't heard of anyone going pro from here (besides USISL, or semi pro teams)

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If you want to hit the big time professional soccer player status, college is not the way to go if you are a male. For example Wayne Rooney who is just 18 years of age was transferred from Everton to Manchester United for a fee of around $50M this summer. His salary will start at around $3M and will probably skyrocket from there. David Beckham makes around $27M a year at Real Madrid.

 

To play at this level, you basically get signed by clubs at around 14 years of age who will put you in farm teams and take care of basic education. Like Hockey, most pro soccer players have never seen the inside of a college. Soccer players tend to peak at around 23 to 26 years of age so most pro clubs want to have them within their system at least 4-5 years prior to that. They all have scouts out looking for 13 to 15 year old kids who they can sign.

 

I am not saying I agree with the system, as you correctly point out, very few ever make it to that level and to make matters worse they don't even have a college degree to show for it. It comes down to culture, in the majority of the world, there is only one sport that absolutely dominates in fan support, schoolboy dreams etc. and that is soccer. Anybody who wants to make it to the pros ( and I don't mean teams like DC United or LA Galaxy who would be relegated after their first season in a league like the English Premier League, Italy's Seria A, Germany's Budesliga and Spain's Primera Liga) have to eat dream and sleep soccer from the day they can kick a ball.