How to Become a Football Player After 20
Soccer or football can sometimes seem like a young person's game. But with the right attitude and preparedness, anyone who is fit and dedicated to the sport can get in the game. Here are a few tips to help you out if you're over 20 and still keen to get involved.
1. **Be motivated to play the sport and play it well.** Motivation can drive you a long way and keep you focused. If you really want this to happen, you have to focus on one main thing and that is football.
2. **Ensure that you are fit and in shape.** Being in good shape and fit are essential for a football player. To achieve your goal, start building your stamina, fitness and agility. A football player must be able to clear a distance of about 6 kms in one hour. You must be physically strong.
3. **Enhance your technical ability.** Football is not all about stamina and fitness, it is more about your technical and tactical ability. You must have a lot of footballing skills, such as great dribbling, passing, corner kicks and free kicks. It also helps to have your own unique move, one that will cause coaches to look and take notice. Practice as much as you can and play as much as you can.
It also helps to watch as many matches as you can, to get an idea of good playing techniques.
4. **Join a local club.** In order to progress, join a local football club in your area. This means joining a very basic level of club. Here you will feel safe to improvise, review and view your skills. It will also allow you to enhance your footballing skills and give you a good idea as to  how well you can perform.
5. **Prepare a video.** Prepare a killer video with the help of an HD camera. Show all of your skills in the video, such as free kicks, dribbling and passing.
6. **Create a great CV.** Just as you need a CV when applying for a job, a football CV should be able to explain to a coach, club, or agent, all about who you are as a player, in less than a minute. Include a player photo, height/weight, positions, experience, links to articles you’ve been featured in and statistics.
The football network Fieldoo allows you to create and share a player CV online. You can even go the extra mile by creating your own.
7. **Find opportunities.** Now that you have the skills and the tools, you have to find ways to show off your talent. Here are a few ways to find opportunities:

Email and call as many clubs as you possibly can, but don’t expect replies (you may need to email 50 clubs before receiving a reply!).
Check out the Market on Fieldoo.com for opportunities abroad.
Consider getting an agent, however many agents can be very deceiving, so be careful.

Some players have famously been accepted into pro teams, just by showing up to a practice session with their boots and asking if they could train with them.
8. **Perform well.** It’s easy to only think of getting to the next level, instead of focusing on your performances in matches. Take your football career game-by-game. Every game you play, focus on playing well and giving 110%, as you never know who could be watching. Make sure you build a good relationship with the club, players and club staff, as having their off-field support will contribute to good on-field performances.
9. **Be persistent and patient.** It is going to be difficult trying to become a pro. Becoming a professional soccer player doesn’t happen overnight. It doesn’t take months either. It takes years and a lifetime of dedication. When you hear people say that success takes ‘blood, sweat, tears’, they’re totally right. In football, no one ever cheated their way to becoming one of the less than 0.001% of the 240 million players worldwide, that ‘made it’. It takes time and patience. Sometimes you have to wait for the right opportunity. Sometimes it takes just a bit of luck to swing your direction, but being persistent and having the ability to never give up will determine whether you’re successful or not.
10. **Sign a professional contract.** Ensure that you are confident about your agent. Never hesitate to take things slowly at the start. There will come a time to leap frog and take victory with both hands. Just be careful while signing the contract and have the clauses read over by a lawyer or someone capable of understanding the fine clauses.
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