Anxiety, critical moments and identity: a case study of a professional footballer’s career in England

Thomas A. Buck, Alan Tonge and Gary Souter

Abstract

Previous academic literature has outlined the issues many current and retired male professional footballers face in their careers. Many agree that the pressures and expectations of playing professional football in England come with myriad physical and psychological challenges. Professional footballers must maintain balance in both their personal and professional lives, and there has been growing interest in exploring the experiences of professional players. The present research explores the experiences of a retired male professional footballer.

The participant was recruited purposively and has over 700 senior first team appearances and has represented clubs from the English Football League Two through to the English Premier League. A semi-structured interview was conducted, and a thematic narrative enquiry approach was used to analyse the data. The semi-structured interview was designed to explore the participant’s lived experiences of playing professional football in England, the psychological challenges they faced both personally and professionally, and their coping strategies.