Football isn't a career...for everyone

When you think about footballers, I can guarantee you the first thing that comes to mind is how many millions they make. Not for all footballers.

The further you travel down the football pyramid, the more you understand how much money they can afford to give players.

And then you get to non-League.

25-Year-old, Ethan Darr, is amongst those in non-league where football doesn’t pay the bills, and he needs a job alongside the sport to function in his life financially. The problem is, football doesn’t slow down, you’re expected to live and breathe the sport and trying to balance a full-time career alongside it, can be tough.

Ethan working at the NHS Foundation Trust

Ethan graduated from the University of Manchester in ­­­2020 and studied psychology, then in the same year took a Master’s degree at the University of Central Lancashire in forensic psychology.

“Once I completed my Masters in Forensic Psychology, I wanted to try and push myself and work in a high-risk environment and apply my psychology studies to those in secure units or with a criminal background”, explained Ethan.

“I then became the neurodiversity manager for HMP Hindley, the Category C prison in Wigan, and I really enjoyed it. It was a new role in which was introduced across her Majesty's Prison and probation services.”

The 25-year-old spent a year working at the prison before moving to his current role under the NHS, where he became Senior Lead for the key working service, and helps young people that may be at risk to themselves or other people within Lancashire and South Cumbria, NHS Foundation Trust.

Although Ethan can clock off at 5pm, going from working in a high responsibility and intense environment, to on the same day, being expected to keep that high level of intensity going into his footballing life.

Ethan expressed even though he’s clocking off at the same time as most workers, there’s things that happen behind closed doors that stay on the back of your mind.

He said: “We do clock off at five o’clock, but obviously we're in direct contact with quite risky individuals. So, you might wake up on the next day and have a text message to say someone has tried to commit suicide, or they may have tried to overdose. Whilst we are in your standard model of Monday to Friday, there is aspects to the job where mentally you can’t ignore work.”

“Football for me, is an opportunity to switch off.

“If you've had an intense day, sometimes we play on Tuesday evenings and maybe things are going through your mind, when you play football for 90 minutes, whether it's training or a game, you can switch off and just focus on the match.

“However, we play teams all the way up to Kendall, all the way down to central Manchester, the travel can be really take its toll, I’ll sometimes get home at one or two o'clock in the morning, that definitely can be tough.”

I always see this diagram of a triangle which is split into three categories: Career, fitness/sport and finally personal life. The idea of the diagram is that you can’t keep an equal balance of all three at the same time and you have to give one less of your attention to keep two at a high level, I asked Ethan what he thought about this theory, and he said:

Ethan playing football for Euxton Villa (Orange)

“Most footballers in our level, are young lads between 18 and 30. So, having to sacrifice your Saturdays when a lot of your mates can be out having good social times with each other, being a footballer, you miss out on that.

“Similarly, you've got the older players who may have children and are still playing regularly. You lose a full weekend because football.

“On a Saturday football is a full-time job.”

He added: “To be honest, I have considered dropping football.

“You do think at some points with an intense job and the opportunity to spend more time with friends and family, you do think if football is worth it.

“But I will say that feeling will always come when you're experiencing either a lack of playing time, or you feel your own performance levels aren't where they should be.

“During these emotions you realise that football is the easiest to drop.”

There’s always this stereotype with footballers not being intelligent and that’s why they fall to the sport. But once you get a footballer with a degree deserving career and they have to tell people outside of football, what it is they do to make money, their reactions match the stereotype. Alongside this, there are players that match the stereotype. Usually with younger players that believe they’ve got what it takes to become pro and not have to worry about generating money elsewhere. But when their life plan fails, where does that leave them?

“There is defiantly element of surprise in how people react to my career, and other footballers at my level who may have a post graduate degree”, Ethan described.

“But when you start getting to the lower steps you get the lads who have focused solely on their occupation and football becomes a bit of a bonus, I'd like to think that's the way I see things.

“There’s also the handful of players that have been at an academy since they were 18, and didn’t get offered a pro contact. Now they've been left with no with no job and no idea what they want to do with their life except play for a non-league team, which the money they're getting for it won't be sufficient to live off.

“I always say that the biggest sufferers are those lads who've been in the academy set up for all their childhood and when it gets to 18 it’s time to go into the big world, they’ve got no idea what they want to do.

“I do worry about those players.”

In reality, non-league footballers will always face issues and setbacks with balancing a full-time career whilst keeping a consistent high level of football. Despite non-league not getting the same spotlight that Premier League or EFL does, there are always stories that are worth the weight in gold.