Soccer is a renowned sport with numerous variants and forms such as futsal, beach soccer, indoor soccer, and freestyle soccer, just to name a few. They are played with little distinctions in their rules and structure but they all contain teams with team players of exceptional talents and skills.
In today’s article, we shall be using the word soccer in place of all of its other interesting forms instead of stressing you by mentioning them one after another since this topic doesn’t necessarily mandate separate descriptions for each variant.
It takes a lot of time, strategy, and money to build a successful soccer team. Soccer clubs are rated high not because of their exquisite names or massive net worth but because of how viable and skilled their team players are.
Knowing how to play soccer is very important but knowing how to get signed to a soccer team is much more important. What is the point of knowing how to play soccer if it is not footing your bills?
Soccer can be played for just fun but for those players who play soccer as a career, it goes beyond fun. To hit the pinnacle in your soccer career, you need to earn a spot in an already established soccer team from where you can build a name for yourself.
If you believe you can play soccer enough to compete with professionals but still haven’t joined a good team to showcase your skills, this article will help you understand how to position yourself in such a way that you will attract soccer scouts and agents.
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How to make a soccer team?
Soccer is usually played at the basic level by a lot of youths with the intentions of scaling up and progressing to national and international stages but only a few players from grassroots stages get to progress to professional clubs.
Players don’t usually progress to international stages because they are exceptional or more skilled than their contemporaries. They get elevated in status because they positioned themselves in the right way and manner to attract attention from professional soccer clubs.
Many players get stuck at playing locally even when they are greatly skilled on the pitch because they believe too much in luck instead of doing what is needed.
Soccer players who started their soccer journeys from soccer academies get exposed to the rudiments and requirements for scaling in the sport. Players who started from the streets find it more difficult to figure out how to get signed to a soccer team.
Soccer academies build up players’ confidence and required skills through tough competitive matches, rigorous training sessions, and even soccer trials. Players must be able to confidently express themselves when the opportunity for a professional career finally shows up.
You might be reading this article because you have all the needed skills and reasoning to fit into the position of a professional soccer player but lack the connections to get signed by a reputable soccer team.
That has been a common problem since soccer started making massive waves and becoming a global sport. This same problem has landed young soccer aspirants in the hands of fraudulent soccer scouts and agents who exploit their skills for personal gains.
It is not only scouts and agents that are guilty of defrauding aspirants, some soccer academies are also guilty of such malpractices. Fraudulent academies take money from young soccer players only to fill their heads with junk that will never help them progress in the sport.
Getting into an MLS (Major League Soccer) Academy youth team can make the whole difference in your soccer career and greatly increase your chances of getting signed professionally. Always do your research on the track record of an MLS team before joining them.
Most MLS teams are predominantly concerned with grooming amateur soccer players into professional stars—and you wouldn’t want to miss such an opportunity.
Your quest to make it to a professional soccer team shouldn’t just stop at joining an MLS team – you need to try out consistently and effectively for big soccer clubs to boost your chances of getting signed.
We have taken out time to compile a list of 10 important tips you should be aware of while going for tryouts. This information will give you leverage over other competitors and greatly increase your chances of getting selected after tryouts.
Be Original
Most amateur soccer players tend to lose themselves when playing in scenarios with a lot of peer pressure. They start copying other admirable players on the pitch so they can also be noticed and cheered.
At tryouts, factors like speed, skills, and goal-scoring abilities matter but what matters most is usually your confidence level and uniqueness. Most amateurs are not aware of this little secret that can uplift their soccer career.
If you focus more on doing the things that you know how to do best during trials, you have greater chances of getting noticed.
Most soccer scouts and agents usually have a style of play in mind when attending trials. Your original style of play might just correspond with what they have in mind without you being aware.
Always be confident in what you can offer to a soccer team and resist sabotaging yourself to gain cheap recognition.
Attend both free and paid tryouts
It is not news that only a tiny percentage of grassroots soccer players get the opportunity to play for professional soccer clubs. You shouldn’t only attend free tryouts, save up money, and register for paid tryouts.
The advantage of paid tryouts is that not everybody can afford to participate, so your chances of getting noticed and picked in paid tryouts are higher than free tryouts.
When you have extra cash to spare, enter the team’s website and register for their paid tryouts. Most amateur players usually see such action as a voluntary waste of money. However, that is the wrong way to look at it.
Do all you can and take all the chances available to you because it is not the best players that usually make it to the pro level but those with the most hunger for success.
Create your luck
What is the meaning of luck? We believe luck is an increased possibility for a positive outcome after every required action has been taken.
Most people don’t usually do what is expected of them before hoping for luck to befall them. As an amateur soccer player, you must be dedicated enough to put in a desirable time and effort into seeing your dreams actualize.
By putting yourself in the right situations and circumstances, you wouldn’t miss life-changing opportunities when they come knocking. Getting lucky is more of a choice than an accident—if you choose to be lucky, luck will find you.
It doesn’t matter how well you have mastered the art of playing soccer, as long as the people who matter in soccer aren’t watching you play, you will hardly excel beyond where you currently are.
Go to events and places where your skills will be noticed by people that matter and don’t just settle for entertaining your folks and the local community. Your little efforts might seem like it doesn’t matter but when you finally get to shine, people will say you were just lucky.
Build your confidence
The role that confidence plays in your journey to becoming a professional soccer player cannot be overemphasized. Being confident in your skills and abilities will give you the needed drive to work harder towards achieving your goals.
No matter how bad you are in soccer, you can always get better as long as you have a strong belief about how good you could become. Arrogance can often be mistaken for confidence in situations where a soccer player lacks character.
Arrogance can cause a lot of setbacks to a soccer player especially when they haven’t signed to a professional soccer team yet. No manager would want to work with an arrogant player.
Don’t dwell on past mistakes
Making mistakes in private spaces or amongst friends and family can often be overlooked or trivialized but when it comes to a public event, the effect hits differently on soccer players.
Some players often find it difficult to let go of their past mistakes especially when it caused their team a victory in a major tournament. Going to trials with past mistakes in mind will cause you to make more mistakes while trying to avoid making them.
Even professional soccer players often make grievous mistakes from time to time. So, consider it as a way of life and not a defect in your personality or a sort of disability.
Moreover, a mistake is truly a mistake if you learned nothing from it. If you learn something from a mistake it becomes a lesson rather than a mistake.
You must learn to forgive yourself for mistakes made in the past so you can make progress in the present. Nobody attains perfection without making a couple of mistakes.
What should always be of concern to you is your courage to keep on going no matter what happens.
Try scoring as many goals as possible
Most times in soccer, the most celebrated players in matches are the players that score the most goals and not the ones that make the connections. Knowing how to play can get you noticed during trials but scoring goals is the easiest way to be visible to scouts and agents.
Even if you might not score at the end of the day just make multiple attempts at scoring but don’t overdo it. The goals you missed while playing will give you a positive image.
Goalscorers have better chances of being selected during soccer trials because what matters most in soccer at the end of the day is not just the intensity of play but the number of goals scored.
The first impression matters a lot
The way you dress and appear in a trial match says a lot about you and would seriously affect your chances of getting signed to a soccer team.
Apart from having the right attitude, wearing the right soccer jersey and gear will show everybody that you are very serious about the situation at hand.
Some amateur soccer players might act stubborn and boorish before, during, and after a trial match not minding that important people are watching.
Soccer managers are wary of stubborn players because of their tendency to corrupt other players in the team—even when they have exceptional skills and talent. Like we said earlier, an arrogant player will always encounter a lot of setbacks.
Displaying a high level of obedience and willingness to learn during a trial match can help you excel during the selection process even when you don’t get to score goals.
Be responsible
During tryouts, take responsibility for your actions and ensure that your teammates behave appropriately too. The fact that someone is in your team doesn’t mean that you can’t question their character or behavior on the pitch.
Being responsible doesn’t necessarily mean that you should act like you know it all. You are only expected to act more like a leader and not a boss or a lord over others.
Leading by example is the best way to show responsibility during a trial game. Without being self-centered, you are expected to help your team members in the most ways possible.
Give constructive corrections during the match and also be ready to receive corrections when given. Being a responsible player can increase your selection chances by a good percentage.
Play in your best position
Playing in a position that you are already accustomed to during trials will help you play your best game. Always make sure that the coach is aware of your best position before the match commences.
Sometimes out of fear and timidity, players allow themselves to get assigned to positions that they know nothing about. This will eventually cause them to play below average by struggling throughout the 90 minutes of the match instead of enjoying the game.
Playing in positions that you are familiar with will increase your visibility and help you contribute positively towards the victory of your team.
It is good to get familiar with more than one position on the soccer pitch so that you wouldn’t be at a disadvantage when your favorite position is assigned to another player.
Arrive early to the venue
Arriving early at the tryout venue will help you acclimatize to the environment and socialize a little with a couple of other participating players. You will have time to exercise and stretch your muscles a little when you arrive at tryout venues early.
Leaving the house early for the venue will save you a lot of traffic delays which is synonymous with big cities. Arriving late gives the coaches and authorities a bad first impression about your personality—even when you manage to impress them during the match.
Soccer is a game that works with time. So, if you don’t know how to manage your time effectively during your early days in the sport, you will find it very difficult when you get signed to big teams.
Conclusion
Skills alone will not get you into a professional soccer team without adhering to other aspects and requirements of the game. Even with your outstanding skills, you can be eligible to get overlooked during tryouts.
Big tryouts can often be scary and overwhelming to amateur soccer players, particularly when they don’t have prior experience.
We understand that some people might have told you a lot of scary things about your dreams of playing for a professional soccer club before you found this article.
This article is written with you in mind. Reading it and following the listed steps methodically will help you excel in soccer beyond your wildest imaginations.
Hi there, I’m Jay.
Soccer is everything in my life! My friends and I have created this blog with all our enthusiasm, passion, and understanding after years of playing pro soccer. Hope you will enjoy it!