This blog is going to be off the cuff, and I will most likely be going against what most parents or probably anyone in your life has advised you.
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Alan Deriard. I'm a full-time football agent and the founder of Australia’s number one player agency, Elite Football. I've helped hundreds of players with representation, and we currently have a roster of over 25 professional clubs in Europe, UAE, and South America that we work with.
Last month alone, we signed four players to professional clubs. Throughout my journey of working as a football agent, I'm constantly in communication with players.
Throughout the years, there have been certain points and topics that the majority will bring up, which is what they struggle with or what they’re thinking about when they’re trying to go pro.
I've jotted a few down so we can get through them, and I've also added a few things that I struggled with when I was a player.
This is advice I wish I heard when I was 15...
The Myth of Balance
The first point I want to touch on is balance. I hear a lot of players tell me that they want to live a balanced life of football and being able to do other stuff or live a normal life. While it sounds tough, balance just doesn’t exist in the world of football. I would actually go further and say that for anyone wanting to achieve something big, balance is a myth.
You can’t be great at more than maybe two or three things in this lifetime, there’s just not enough time. You can be good at a lot of things, but to be great at something, you have to dedicate so much time to it that it doesn’t allow for the balance of being able to play five sports.
This is common sense, but I think it goes under people's radar. I'll use myself as an example, not even in football terms but in business terms. A few years ago, I was working in finance, running a different social media channel, doing Elite Football, and also had another company. I was doing decent, making a bit of money everywhere, and all companies were growing, but they were growing slowly because my time was split between these different ventures.
It wasn’t until I realised this a couple of years ago that you can be good at a lot of different things, but you can only be great at a few. In business, this might mean focusing 15-20 years on one company before moving on. Many people get stuck trying to diversify and do many things at once but end up being good and never great. Sometimes, it’s easier to grow one company to 10 million than to grow three to one.
For football, if you’re worried about balance—working a 9-to-5, pursuing a football career, playing tennis on weekends, seeing your girlfriend, going out to dinners, and playing Fortnite with the boys—you’re never going to be great.
You need to focus on what you want to be great at. Football is not a game where you can be good and go far. Balance is something players need to eliminate from their minds if they want to make it.
The Problem with Backup Plans
Another point is backup plans. A lot of players talk to me about their backup plans. I think the idea of a backup plan is a mental paradox. How can you give your best effort to something if you’re not all in? If your mind is split between playing football and doing a uni degree, you’re always going to sit in the middle because you know if football doesn’t work out, you have that backup plan. Parents might hate me for this take, but if you want the life of many, you have to sacrifice a lot.
A backup plan feeds the sense of defeat in your mind, thinking you probably won’t make it because it’s hard, so you keep something on the side. You never give 100% to that main goal. I would have never achieved anything if I had those backup plans. I felt the pressure from my parents to go and study, and I tried it for about six months. I went to uni and dropped out because I realized how easy it was. When you struggle for years in football and then walk into a classroom at uni, you realize how easy it is to get grades and do the work.
What you realise is that you don’t want to be like the people in that room. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that road because that might be your road, but if you want to be a footballer, it’s probably not. If you can do football until you’re 25, go for it. Run it. Don’t get stuck feeling you need to have a degree or be set up because your friends are going to uni.
I’m 25 now, and I remember feeling that way when I was 16. I graduated high school at 16, pursued football for about four years, and felt everyone was ahead of me. The funny thing is, many people who went to uni straight out of high school dropped out, and many changed degrees multiple times.
Focusing 100%
You can’t see the bigger picture when you’re 16-18. If you have backup plans, it’s almost a sense of insecurity. You can always fall back on something, but there’s no point in not focusing 100% on your primary goal. Even if you fail, you can come back and focus 100% on the next thing and get it. Most people don’t focus 100% on anything. People try to do many things at once, and it’s easy to get stuck looking at different options. Life isn’t about that; it’s about picking a few things and being great at them. No one remembers good; there’s not much achievement in just being good.
Avoiding FOMO
Many younger players focus on not missing out and miss out on what matters. They worry about not making their formal, wanting a side job to buy sneakers or take their girlfriend out, or about uni. The list is long. I haven’t thought about my formal since the day I had it almost ten years ago.
The money you make at 16-18 is lost as fast as you get it. Uni? Stop allowing others' opinions to dictate your life.
Many people waste their time and focus on external factors. When you’re young, with different pathways in front of you, it’s easy to get dizzy and unsure. You only have control over your daily actions. If you’re picking football, give it 100%. Most players don’t because they’re hedging their bets with side jobs or uni.
Even if you do football for 7-8 years, you still have 50-60 years of your life left. You’re not running out of time. Focus 100% on your goal, and even if you fail, you can focus 100% on the next thing and succeed.
Commitment
The point of this is to emphasise that if you need an under 18 football pathway, you need to focus solely on football. If it doesn't work out, you can always shift your focus to something else, and that will work out too.
Life is short, and you don't want to wake up one day regretting not giving your all to football. Commit fully to your football pathways for the best chance of success.
That’s what I want to leave you with. Thanks for reading.
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