So you want to become a professional football player.
In this series I'll take you behind the scenes to meet the experts
to see what it takes to actually get there.
The football pitch, where the magic happens. The football part of being a professional football player.
Easy right.
You can juggle for 3 hours straight and meg anyone on your best day. WRONG
In professional football its the details that make the difference,
and performance on the pitch is not just about what your feet can do.
According to FIFA, there are over 200 million active football players in the world.
Not even 1% make it professionally. So you have to set yourself apart from the rest. But how?
I think, you always have to have your gun?
We’re going to go talk to an expert
and theres noone better to talk than somebody who is are made it as a professional and is now a professional coach.
That’s Julia Simic. Former pro, Germany international, and now coach with Germany’s youth teams.
She also runs her own football camps and is a TV pundit.
What do you think are the most important skills that a player needs in order to make it professionally?
I think the most important thing would be just the focus to have that goal
and to commit to that goal and also sacrifice other things for this.
Obviously, there's talent and there's a lot of other skills and skills that you need to become professional.
But the main thing is the passion that you love to sacrifice other things just because it's your main priority.
You love to also train when there's bad weather, when it's about waking up very early or to probably miss a birthday party
or wedding and I think if you don't love it more than other things, you won't make it not long term.
Maybe not the “skill” you were expecting to hear, right?
Nowadays social media is full of trick shots and tekkers,
but making the jump to the professionals is so much more than just having good skills.
I think it's actually the commitment to put into more work and hours of work next to what you're supposed to do.
So if you have a training week with like four sessions probably in one game,
you can do these four sessions in the game and that's it.
Or you can think about your recovery, your sleep, your food, your nutrition, your diets,
your probably things you can work on individually, but also technically, for example, that you
improve your weaker foot to just explore all the potentials you really have and become the best version you can be.
Not to say you don´t need skills, because you do
Your skills are your basic tools, they’re what you can use to help you to get into
and out of different situations on the pitch. The more tools you have to use, the better prepared you are in games.
I think you always have to have a gun.
Let's say it's your speed, it's your shot, it's your dribbling, whatever it is, and you should focus on that strength you have.
And that's very important to have because if you have everything on an average level, you'll make it to an average level.
But if you have your guns and your talent and your skills next to it, you also improve on your weaknesses.
You're just a more complete player.
How important is it for a player to be two footed or be able to use their left foot and their right foot?
It will help you whether you're a winger or a central midfielder or a striker
because you don't have to switch the ball from the left to the right foot.
You can just use your left foot because you're confident enough as well to use it
because you did it 50 times in training in the last week and you didn't try to avoid it. I think the higher level you reach,
the more important is to make quick decisions but also to have your backpack with you with all the tools you trained
so you can just use them. I think that just makes a difference between an average and a very good player.
So many skills, so little time. It might seem difficult to improve
but sometimes the first step is forcing yourself out of your comfort zone.
The players sometimes ask me do we have to shoot here with the left foot
or do we have to cross the ball here with the left foot?
I said, look, yesterday all you guys were telling me that you want to improve your weaker foot.
Now it's the time to do it. It's not about just bringing the perfect crossing
because it's obviously more fun to do it with your better foot because it feels better.
But actually it's not about today, it's about tomorrow and the next week,
in the next month and the next year and how your mindset is working. It's not just hiding your weaknesses,
it's like exploring them and getting rid of them by improving them.
And that's something in training, before training, after training, you always have minutes for yourself.
You can just chat a little bit with the others or use that time a little bit different.
Or you take a ball and you just pass against the wall like I did most of my youth.
So what would you say if you had to say as a coach and as a player what's the hardest skill for you to actually train?
Shooting, maybe touch left, right foot?
I think it's probably not really that technical skill. It's more to make the right decision because when you have the pressure,
the time pressure, you don't have space and you still find a solution.
But for this to find the right decision you have to have all the other drills really set up for yourself to then just use and pick.
This is why we try to do a lot of small sided games with the girls and the players just to always put them in a challenge
to stress them in training already so the game doesn't become so stressful anymore.
If you want to improve your technical skills on the side there are many ways, whether alone or with other players.
If you’re still not sure where to start, the internet is a great tool to help you on your way.
A simple youtube search will give you multiple drill ideas for any skill you can think of.
Having talent and constantly working to improve your game and strengthen your weaknesses is crucial to becoming a pro,
but another thing Julia mentions is the mindset and the mentality that it takes to make it.
I think the wide range, obviously a wide range of skills you have to bring, it's definitely the talent.
I think that's the main part of it. Also the will to invest, the work ethic, obviously the extra hours you're putting in that shift.
It's quite like a 50 50 balance, obviously what people see is what's happening on the pitch,
but what people don't see is what's happening off the pitch but that has a big influence on your performance.
If you want to play high-level football you have to know the framework of how football is played.
4-4-2
4-3-3
4-2-3-1
There are many different tactical systems which require players to work together as a team
while knowing their individual role in the system.
Think of Pep Guardiola’s tiki taka
or Jurgen Klopp’s gegenpressing.
I think the older you get and become, obviously tactics are getting more important You're not playing single sport.
And I think that's important to just get the automotism into the group and everyone has to do their job first of all,
and then the group can work together and then it becomes a great thing. It´s not so important for an eleven year old girl
to do her, to put all these tactics on her. They should just enjoy themselves.
But the more older you get and team tactics are more important also to win games.
And don’t worry if you dont have an ex-professional as a coach. There are still ways to improve your tactical knowledge…
I think a lot comes with watching football games.And you can watch it from two different perspectives
So you just watch probably the goals and you see the atmosphere and the emotions,
but you won't really see how do they set it up, where are they moving in between areas and all these little tactical things.
I think when you watch a football game, you can also look at different things.
And we have some girls who are very addicted to football.
They know the tactics from Chelsea, from Barcelona, from all teams around the globe.
They're also thinking about, what clever decision I can really make on the pitch,
or how can I improve my game by just watching other players. YouTube is a great platform to do there.
When you watch I would always watch in Iniesta and Messi and all these kind of players.
You can improve your game a lot because you can just see where are they working it and what spaces,
what areas are they exploding and what are they doing before probably they get the ball already.
So a lot of players who are trying to take their jump to the next level are probably going to find themselves sooner
or later in the position where they have to make a trial or go on trial.
So if you could give somebody advice for how they could approach a trial, what would that advice be?
I think it's very easy to say just relax and don't fear anything and tried to calm down and I've been in that situation as well
and you can't just relax if you're not that person to relax naturally.
What's important and what you can influence is what you're actually doing then
and how you deal with all that stress around you I would rather have a player who's brave
and confident in a certain way and who's willing to make mistakes.
I think that's a very good skill to have as well, next to being actually good on the ball and making the right decision.
I think that's something very important for a trial that you keep trying even if it's the worst day you probably have in your life,
whatever, but you're still trying. And I think that's something they will also pick up on and if it's a tough decision,
they would still think about you and have you in their heads.
Since standing out is important during trials, players might be tempted to try
and change the way they play, but it’s important to be yourself.
All obviously comes down to what kind of player you are.
If you're not that player who loves to meg people don't try to do that in a trial probably.
Just be true to yourself, whatever player you are.
If you are the player who's distributing the ball and getting the ball, giving the ball
and kind of move and do simple things, don't try to change it in a trial because that's actually the player you are.
But don't just do the simple things because you're afraid of being a mistake to do something
yeah, more complicated and more risky. So that's what people want to see.
So after all that, let’s see what Julia thinks- what’s the secret to making it as a pro?
I think it helps to have talent definitely, you have to bring a backpack full of talent with you, either thats there or not,
but everything else you can influence, whether thats your head whether thats physically
or whether thats the will to improve yourself
technically tactically, by watching games, by taking extra hours on the pitch, individually.
By also thinking about other things like sleeping recovery,, nutrition.
And I think its alot easier and probalbly this will decide whether you make it or not, the passion for it.
The passion for it. You cant just create a passion thats not there. And I think if u feel it and your willing to work around
all these little things you can influence i think then you are on a very good pathway to actually do it,
Obviosuly you have to stay injury free at specific times of your career as well,
thats also something you can influence by doing right things around the performances on the pitch.
But then as well you need a little bit of luck, definetly we can’t deny that.
If you want to improve your performances on the pitch you have to work on your weaknesses even if it feels uncomfortable-
so yes you have to use your left foot…or your right. All you need is a ball.
Just remember, It's important not to make excuses for yourself
and that you’re going to have to make sacrifices if you want to achieve your dream.
After a while you will see improvements. And just remember, don’t give up if things don’t go exactly according to plan.