Football player

Wages in some top men's leagues are significantly higher than other jobs. Players in the Premier League earn average wages of about $1 million per year.[3] In the wealthiest clubs in European football leagues, some players earn an average wage up to $6 to $8 million per year.[4] The best players of those clubs can earn up to $70 million per year.[5]

However, only a fraction of men's professional football players are paid at this level. Wages may be much more moderate in other divisions and leagues, and a significant number of players are semi-professional. For example, the average annual salary for footballers in Major League Soccer (which started in 2009) for the 2013 season was $148,693, with significant variations depending on player position (goalkeepers for example earned $85,296, whereas forwards earned $251,805[6]).

Popularity and average salaries in women's leagues are far lower. For example, players in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) (which started in 2012) earn $15,000 to $40,000 per year as of January 2017.[7]

Arild Stavrum is a retired football player who post-retirement has worked as a football manager and novelist.

Pia Sundhage is a retired football player who post-retirement has worked as the football manager for the United States and Sweden national teams.

A minority of retired footballers continue working full-time within football, for instance as football managers. A 1979 study reported that former first-team ballplayers were over-represented as top ranking executives in their companies and had greater income mobility than second teamers and reserves.[8] However, some experience chronic health issues, see below.

In association football there are four traditional types of specialties (positions): goalkeepers (goalies), defenders (full-backs), midfielders (half-backs), forwards (attackers). Special purpose positions include such performers like sweepers, stoppers, second forwards (under-attackers), wingers, insiders, etc.

• Goalkeepers: good reflexes, communication with defence, one-on-one ability, command of the penalty area and aerial intelligence.[9]

• Centre-backs: good heading and tackling ability, height, bravery in attempting challenges, concentration.[10]

• Full-backs: pace, stamina, anticipation, tackling and marking abilities, work rate and team responsibility.[11]

• Central midfielders: stamina, passing ability, team responsibility, positioning, marking abilities.[12]

• Wingers: pace, technical ability like dribbling and close control, off-the-ball intelligence, creativity.[13]

• Forwards: finishing ability, composure, technical ability, heading ability, pace, off-the-ball intelligence.[14]

The American football teams' positions are categorized by a form of play where each of it has own spectrum of positions. Those are offensive, defensive and special teams.

The average life expectancy or lifespan of an American football NFL player has been reported to be extremely low, only 53 to 59 years depending on playing position.[23] However, a 2012 study reported that retired NFL players have a lower death rate than men in the general population.[24] An oft-cited life expectancy of 58 years has been claimed by Sports Illustrated to be based on a myth.[25] According to a 2007 study, which also claims that little supporting data is available, retired American football players had "long and fulfilling careers with no apparent long-term detrimental effects on physical or mental health scores despite a high prevalence of arthritis".[26] One explanation is that "life expectancy" is ambiguous: it may in some contexts refer to the expected age of death of a player, and in other contexts to the expected remaining number of life years.

As for association football, a 2011 German study found that German national team players live 1.9 years less than the general male population.[27]

Football players participating in international matches for Germany have reduced longevity compared to the general population. This disadvantage was the larger, the earlier the international football player started his international career. This finding is in line with the current knowledge of life expectancy in major athletes, especially those from other team sports

A 1983 study of rugby players found that the life expectancy of All Blacks is the same as for the general population.[28]

Abby Wambach, a retired player known for scoring header goals

Heading of the ball in association football can increase the risk of chronic brain damage.

American football players are prone to head injuries such as concussions. In later life, this increases the risk of dementia[29] and Alzheimer's.[30] Professional American football players self-reporting concussions are at greater risk for having depressive episodes later in life compared with those retired players self-reporting no concussions.[31][32]

Probably due to the repeated trauma associated with heading balls, professional association football has been suggested to increase the incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.[33] In a 1987 study of former Norwegian association football national team players, one third of the players were found to have central cerebral atrophy, i.e. brain damage.[34] A 1999 study connected soccer to chronic traumatic head injury (CTHI):[35]

[P]articipation in amateur association football in general and concussion specifically is associated with impaired performance in memory and planning functions. Due to the worldwide popularity of soccer, these observations may have important public health implications

Anterior cruciate ligaments are particularly vulnerable in most types of football due to injuries that can be sustained during tackles.

An increased incidence of osteoarthritis in the hip joint has been found in retired football players.[36]

A 2012 study of association football injuries found that 19% of all injuries were muscle injuries, of which 54% affected the thigh muscles.[37]

In a 2009 study, association football was found to be associated with favourable sleep patterns and psychological functioning in adolescent male football players.[38]

The rate of suicide among NFL vets has been found to be 59% lower than in the general population.[25]

In 2012, FIFA released a paper intended to identify key risk factors for association football players.[39]

An observational study held from professional footballers -active (during career) and recently retired (post career, aged more that 45 years)- of 70 different countries between 2007 and 2013, elaborated on data of the World Footballers' Union (FIFPro), recorded 214 deaths of which 25% was caused by accidents, 11% by suicides and 33% by a suspected cardiac pathology (on an overall 55% of deaths caused by a some sort of disease).[41]

Clinical evaluation, ECG and echocardiography are required to the athletes as pre-participation tools in order to prevent sudden cardiac deaths on people aged less than 35. To evaluate the risk of myocardial fibrosis, it may useful and recommended the additional use of alte gadolinium enhancement (LGE) with pre- and post-contrast and extracellular volume fraction (ECV) images.[42] Even encouraged, it wasn't yet made mandatory.

In 2015, it was conducted an analysis of 205 deaths among North American professional athletes who were registered as active at time of their decease. Data were collected by the four major sports: National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL), and Major League Baseball (MLB). The NFL and NBA active players resulted in "a higher likelihood of dying in a car accident" and in a significantly higher likelihood of dying from a cardiac-related illness compared to the NHL and MLB active populations.[43]

In 2013, a study on 3.439 retired athletes of the National Football League s with at least 5 credited playing seasons between 1959 and 1988 didn't show any statistical correlation between the suicide mortality and the professional activity and particularly the football-related compared with the general control sample. No stratification was reported between speed and nonspeed position players.[44]

Until the 2000s a very limited number of formal studies has been published on mortality from all causes in soccer players, despite the high interest of the public to the matter. An extended study held in Italy between 1975 and 2003 on a total of 5.389 players, age 14–35 years, highlighted that, while the mortality for cancer and cardiovascular diseases among the soccer players cohort was significantly lower than the general Italian population, the "mortality rates for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and car accidents were significantly higher than expected, and for ALS the risk is 18 times than expected."[45]