7 out of 10 youth soccer players will quit playing by the age of 13. Many more players will start losing interest in between the age of 13-16 and completely quit playing soccer by the time they are seniors in high school. As results, only few will actually play in college or beyond.

These statistics are nothing new. In fact, this is well known but HIGHLY IGNORED. The reason why i’m writing this blog is because over the years we’ve met hundreds of goalkeepers and field players who are READY to quit soccer in America.   However, once a goalkeeper or athlete reaches the point where they are finished with soccer, then they will have the toughest and most stressful assignment of all, which is facing their PARENTS to tell them “I want to quit soccer”.  Here’s the sad news, some kids are simply SCARED to tell their parents!!… Perhaps, these kids do not want to disappoint their parents.

First signs goalkeeper/athletes want to quit soccer (it varies from individual to individual):

• Kids lose interest in training,
• They rather do something else instead of soccer,
• they are not getting better at all,
• they enjoy being with their team but not play,
• they are in CONSTANT fear to make a mistake,
• They are not making anything to contribute to the team.
• they are extremely hard on themselves when making mistakes,
• Parents seem to want it more than the kids
• Always seem to be scared or uncomfortable

Important information:

sometimes this may not means they want to quit soccer, maybe they want to play a different position in soccer, perhaps, they need to play on a different level higher or lower; Some parents will argue to death that putting your young athlete to train or play with older kids will make them better, CAUTION this is very deceiving…I have seen MANY kids “succeed” and later crumble. others Do not even improve (Next blog is about playing levels). 

Bottom line, if you are a parent, LISTEN to your child concerns not just what YOU want to hear!!. If you are an athlete talk to your parents, coach or professional about what your concerns, do it now before is too late!!

Why are they quitting soccer so young?

Today there are so many reasons why they want to quit soccer in America, but it will take too long to write about each one of them. Therefore, I will concentrate the most common reasons:

Most frequent answer  “is not fun anymore”. Goalkeepers /athletes STILL want to play soccer but not necessarily at a serious or competitive level. Some of them are just burned out after years of playing games every weekend, training everyday, travel, tournaments, showcases, tryouts and the list goes on…For some of these young kids, they have NO LIFE outside soccer.

Other goalkeepers / athletes they simply know they are not going to play in college soccer and prefer to concentrate in their academics or social life in college, there is NOTHING WRONG with that!!

Kids also lost sense of ownership. It seems as if the experience of playing soccer is more about the Parents and coaches not the young child…This become an issue, when parents are trying to measure their own self-esteem based on how “well” their kids perform during a game or season.  In other words, Parents living their dream through their children.  So as you can imagine, these parents will put LOTS OF PRESSURE on their kids to perform well or to play almost to perfection.

The US Soccer system and youth organization is set up to help only a very few players and it is creating more stress on soccer players than ever.  Many youth amateur clubs will brag about their amount of players in their clubs and provide very little specialized or individualize development programs that actually works in the MODERN GAME.

Therefore, only few players will benefit and others will never be discovered or taken seriously.  Kids NOTICE the club politics, kids also see and hear parents getting upset & frustrated about these youth club internal politics, this HURST KIDS; they know these arguments, fights and frustrations with the clubs is all because of THEM (the kids) they are humans so they rather just not deal with this anymore and quit.

Answer these questions HONESTLY:

Parents:

What happens if your child comes to you and tells you he/she wants to quit playing soccer?

Are titles or levels such as ECNL, DA, TOP TEAM, ODP, NATIONAL etc important to you?

Is your child good enough to play in college?

Will your child be BURNED OUT by the time he plays in college soccer?

Is your child starting to get burned out NOW?

Goalkeeper/Athletes:

Do you play other sports?

Do you clearly have a social life outside soccer?

What happens if you can’t play soccer anymore? injuries or otherwise.

Your soccer life is busy now, do you think it will be easier while playing soccer in college?

Are you able to speak to your parents, coach or professional FREELY about your soccer career?

Final thought, soccer in America has become almost like a JOB for young players from practices, games, trips and tournaments, no wonder many of them want to quit very young. I do not believe there is a solution to this problem unless PARENT & COACHES are willing to work together to change things.   However, with all the politics involved in youth clubs,  changes are not likely to come anytime soon. Plus, if you add coaching staff or parents ARROGANCE or EGOs, then you can bet changes are NOT going to happen for many years to come!!!

I can’t imagine a coach who DOES NOT CARE about his winning records and ONLY wants to concentrates in development !!!. I also can’t even imagine a PARENT who does NOT care about his child’s team losing record or what level this child should play.  It is simply the way things are set up at the youth club level around the country.   It is like going to a field and throwing SEEDS up in the air with hopes that one of those seeds actually grow into a plant. Only few will grow and the rest will disappear!!

Be aware of this:

There are many goalkeepers / athletes who’ve would like to quit soccer now but they are afraid to tell (parents). Parent should be CONSTANTLY monitoring the child’s mental and physical welfare. A clear and UNBIASED communication needs to take place if you recognize your child is no longer interested in playing.

If you want to be supportive, then be supportive even when you do not agree with the child’s decision not to play or play other sports.  It is a long journey and this should be the most unforgettable moments of their life so be sure they are not just playing soccer to please you (parents). They should be playing soccer because they love it, after all it is only a game.

If your main focus to play soccer is to get a SCHOLARSHIP or GET A BIG PRO CONTRACT then you are playing soccer for ENTIRELY THE WRONG REASONS.

If you are a goalkeeper / athlete reading this, sometimes taking long breaks from soccer or doing other things can help refocus. For example, like playing other sports or taking on different hobbies etc.

I DO NOT want to discourage you from playing soccer but if you want to enjoy a full soccer career you need to continue to play the sport because you LOVE IT and not because you need to please someone!!  Your soccer journey will be a long one so make it a pleasant trip and not a nightmare. Opportunities will come as you develop your skill and competition is part of this deal, so make it a great experience.

Read More on this Subject:

Why they stop-by Vince Ganzberg of usyouthsoccer.org

Estimated probability of competing in college athletic of ncaa.org