CONSIDERACIONES DE LA COMISIÓN

Surprisingly to date, specific career transition research on professional footballers is limited. Significantly, other than a recent intervention study by (Lavallee 2005), research on career transition for professional footballers in the United Kingdom is scarce. In an extensive review of previous research on career transition in sport between 1950 and 1998 (Lavallee & Wylleman 2000), there was just one specific reference to a ‘football study’ (i.e. Mihovilovic, 1968). Similarly, a recent systematic review of research on career transition from sport (between 1968 to 2010) by Park, Lavallee and Todd, (2012), revealed that there had been no other research carried out on professional footballers over this period. The three-part study by Mihovilovic, (1968), on 44 male Yugoslavian footballers, using a combination of qualitative interviews and questionnaires, looked to explore the reasons for career transition, the reactions of peers and ways in which the effects of retirement could be eased. The key findings revealed that 95% of the footballers retired involuntarily due to the factors of injury, age, club conditions or being replaced by younger players. For 52% of the players, retirement came suddenly and this was highly correlated with illness, family issues and age. However, for the rest of the footballers the process of

retirement was gradual. In this regard, Mihovilovic suggested that the reasons for the gradual transition were due to players wanting to hold on as long as they could and that the decision to accept retirement immediately was difficult for them to accept.

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What is more, significantly the participants indicated the importance of maintaining contact with their ex-sporting environment (i.e. recognition, employment and playing in tournaments) as a means of improving their transitional experiences.

In Lavallee’s recent intervention study (2005), he assessed the efficacy of life development intervention on career transition adjustment in retired footballers.

Drawing on previous research, Lavallee (2005) argued that the implementation of life development intervention could be one way of assisting footballers in developing essential life skills that are deemed necessary for a successful post-career transition. Lavallee (2005) recruited two groups for his study both of which contained recently retired professional footballers that had played for premiership teams in England and Scotland. The intervention group consisted of individuals whose careers had

terminated between 2000 and 2003, and who had been self referred to the author for psychological support, whilst the control group received no support over a 4-month period after retirement. The results indicated that the pursuit of football excellence, for some players, could be developed at the expense of essential life skills needed to overcome the challenges of career transition. Because of this, professional

footballers were seen to have difficulties adjusting during career transition because essential skills, at that time, were not available to them. Yet through the

implementation of life development, the footballers in this study were seen to develop sufficient skills to navigate through career transition. However, whilst this research tells us a lot about what could be done for professional footballers after their careers have ended, it does not tell us much about why and how professional footballers pursue a sporting identity at the expense of essential life skills.

Furthermore, it does not tell us about how this sporting identity is developed and lived within the culture of professional football and how this, in turn, serves to influence professional footballers’ experiences negatively during career transition. When considering the research on career transition using a phenomenological methodology it is proposed that further research needs to be developed to build upon our existing understanding of the lifeworld of athletes during exit from sport. In particular, an exploration of the career transition experiences of sportsmen within the United Kingdom using a phenomenological approach would be a first study of its kind. What is more it is also apparent that more consideration should be given to the sporting cultural context and what this can tell us about athletes’ experiences during

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Indeed, historically Ball (1976), Greendorfer and Blinde (1985) and Parker (1996) have all highlighted how the transitional experiences from sport should be seen as highly influenced by the specific sport culture and institutional context from which the retiring athlete is leaving. Despite this, over the years little attention has been given to understanding the influence that the pre-transition environment, or lifeworld of sport, may have on the transitional experiences of athletes during retirement. In addition, it is highlighted that only a limited amount of research has been carried out on the experiences of professional footballers during career transition.

In consideration, it is put forward that there is a requirement for researchers within this field to begin focusing more on the experiences of athletes during career

transition from sport, whilst also acknowledging how the sporting culture could have shaped their retirement experiences. By focusing on these issues, it is felt that a more ‘athlete-aware’ understanding of career transition can be established, one which moves away from a focus on the factors associated with career transition from sport and, thus, shifts more towards understanding personal experiences of the athlete during disengagement. Through this process, it is believed that more focused sporting interventions can be established to help assist athletes during career transition, ones which consider any requirements that are specific to the sporting cultures that athletes are involved in and leaving.

With this in mind, it could be argued that at this time there is an over dominance of research on career transition which focuses on specific athletes exiting specific sporting cultures. This is quite clearly apparent in the large number of studies that have been carried out involving certain athletes, e.g. former collegiate student- athletes (Greendorfer & Blinde, 1985; Adler & Adler, 1989, 1991; Carr & Bauman, 1996; Murphy, Petipas & Brewer, 1996; Lally, 2007), and former elite-gymnasts (Kerr & Dacyshyn, 2000; Lavallee & Robinson 2007, Warriner & Lavallee 2008). However, despite the advantages of such studies (e.g. understanding the influence of athletic identity on career transition from certain sports), it is argued that they fail to provide an understanding of the diversity of athletic experience outside the parameters of these specific sporting cultures. Whilst it is acknowledged that, the existing field of work has helped to provide a broad understanding of sport-career transition, as a

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whole it could fail to focus on why athletes, in specific sports, experience career transition in the ways that they do. For example, the experienced world of an English professional footballer can be seen as being in some ways different to that of a collegiate athlete in the United States of America. Indeed, during the transition into professional sport, a collegiate athlete is fully integrated into a dual educational and sporting system (i.e. combination of full time education programme and full time sports development programme) compared to the English footballer who is exposed to a predominant sporting development programme (i.e. only one day a week for education). Further differences are proposed when comparing the career transitional experiences of Olympic athletes with professional footballers. For example, when an Olympian faces the transition from sport it is typical that they will not compete again at elite-level, however, this is not always the case for the English professional footballer. The majority of elite-footballers in England, when exiting the professional game, choose to take the transition into semi-professional football. When playing at non-league level, ex-professional players still have the opportunity of being ‘talent spotted’ by professional clubs and, in some cases, ex-players earn the opportunity to compete again at professional level. Therefore, the transition from the game for a professional footballer does not always spell the end and an immediate letting go of their sporting career (Mihovilovic, 1968). Unlike the typical retired Olympian athlete who can put closure on their sporting career upon career-transition, the professional footballer in some cases still maintains ‘ the dream’ of playing again at elite-level long after the opportunity of such has diminished. Lerch (1981) somewhat alludes to the difficulty of ‘letting go’ when he proposes that, a number of athletes attempt to cling on to their athletic status, long after their sporting skills have deteriorated. Furthermore, Lavallee and Wylleman (2000) provides additional support to this view when he disputes the applicability of activity theory (which posits a total cessation of work upon retirement) to career transition because according to him not all athletes upon disengagement experience ‘total retirement’ from their sport. With this in mind, one has to consider how such ‘clinging on’ could affect the footballer in transition, especially if they continue to maintain their sporting identity long after their careers have ended.

However despite these differences, which could be deemed unique to each sport, there still seems to be an over preponderance of research within sport-transition

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research which focuses on specific athletes (e.g. Olympic and Collegiate athletes) as well as within specific cultures (e.g. United States) (Lavallee & Wylleman, 2000). In this regard, Grove, Lavallee and Gordon (1997) have argued that career transition research has often made generalisations across a number of athletes and, thus, has not presented information about how to individualise approaches. With this in mind, it is felt that there is a necessity to begin to focus and develop our understanding of career transition within the relevant boundaries of each specific sport and, thus, culture. In doing so, it is hoped we can move away from trying to over prescribe this phenomenon and instead begin to focus more explicitly on the contextual influence of each sport and thus, what this can tell us about the experiences of athletes during career transition.

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