How to Kick Off a Career in Professional Football

Being employed by a professional football club needn’t involve bulging the net from the halfway line with a perfectly executed bicycle kick.

Nor need it entail beating the offside trap, dribbling past 10 men, dispatching a rocket into the postage stamp and celebrating with your adoring crowd before enjoying a quick Bovril.

Nope, there are plenty of other routes into the football world – albeit in a career unlikely to pay you £300,000 a week like a certain well-known Liverpudlian footballer …

Quite simply, every professional football club these days is a business, so if your football skills are more non-league than Champions League but you yearn to be involved, take a look at some educational goals you can score in your quest for a rewarding career in the beautiful game.

Football Coach

If you have aspirations to become the next Alex Ferguson or José Mourinho, make headway by enrolling in a football coaching degree to boost your existing knowledge of the game. Admittedly, although the majority of top coaches will have enjoyed a successful playing career, Mourinho certainly didn’t set the heather alight, floundering in the Portuguese lower leagues before studying sports science and attending coaching courses in the UK.

Commercial Manager

Becoming a commercial manager at a football club requires you to have a strong background in sales and account management. Typically, this role revolves around creating and selling hospitality packages and boosting sponsorship sales for your club. Like the sound of it but feel your skills need boosting? Our BA (Hons) Management course can furnish you with the expertise you need to thrive in this exciting position.

Marketing Manager

Given that football is a global industry worth billions of pounds, it’s hardly surprising the biggest clubs – and some of the smaller ones – employ folk to market their products. Considering the importance of the internet and engaging with fans, it makes sense that clubs have marketing folk to help spread the word through social media, advertising and direct mail. Fancy getting involved? Take a look at our marketing courses and put yourself on the turnstile to success.

Of course, football is a game packed full of clichés, but to borrow a couple, it’s vital you’re prepared to work your socks off when it comes to learning and give 110 per cent to clinch your dream career and ensure the ONLY goal you have in mind is promotion …

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How to Kick Off a Career in Professional Football