The Answer: Both.
Football is not just a game played on the pitch. Football is life itself. Just as we have goals in life, we also have goals on the field. Just as we fight through challenges in life, we also fight on the field. Football is the rehearsal of life, teaching discipline, patience, focus, and the ability to make the right decisions under pressure.
Football is the rehearsal of life, teaching discipline, patience, focus, and decision-making under pressure.
Priorities at young ages
Until the age of 15, what matters most is not tactics, but psychological and physical preparation.
- Psychological: learning to focus, building confidence, developing resilience.
- Physical: proper running technique, strength development, flexibility, and injury prevention.
Of course, tactical knowledge should be introduced, but the foundation must be built on character and physical readiness. Without that base, even the best tactical plan will fail in the long run.
The 1% reality
We all know the truth: only about 1% of kids who start playing football ever make it to the professional level. That is a harsh but real statistic.
But that doesn’t mean the other 99% are wasting their time. Every player who grows through football with the right guidance becomes a more disciplined, responsible, and resilient person — qualities that serve them for life.
At the same time, if you want to be in that top 1%, discipline is non-negotiable.
- The chance of reaching the top is perhaps 1%.
- But without discipline, the chance of failure is 99%.
Coaches: the other 1%
It’s not only the players who face this reality. We as coaches must also aim to stay in the top 1%.
- If we want our players to push their limits, we must push ours first.
- If we expect discipline from them, we must model it ourselves.
- If we want them to believe in the plan, we must first believe and invest in it.
Being a coach is not just about knowing tactics — it’s about being a leader. A leader who constantly learns, adapts, and motivates. Because if we as coaches stop growing, we can never help our players grow.
Being a coach is not about tactics alone, but about leadership, growth, and inspiring others to believe in the plan.
Parents and the “investment” illusion
One of the biggest issues in American soccer is that many parents see the money they spend on clubs as an investment. They expect immediate returns. The mindset often becomes: “If I’m paying, my child must play, and he must succeed.”
But this approach creates pressure at every level:
- Children stop enjoying the game and play under constant stress.
- Coaches lose the freedom to make objective decisions.
- Clubs shift focus from development to “customer satisfaction.”
In the end, the child’s love for the game is sacrificed for financial expectations. Talented players stop being creative individuals and start moving like robots, afraid to take risks or make mistakes.
The “robot player” problem
Players raised under pressure become:
- Afraid to make mistakes.
- Afraid to take risks.
- Afraid to play with freedom.
This strips away the creativity and joy that football is supposed to give. True potential is never revealed in a robotic environment.
Winning or developing?
So here’s the big question: Is winning more important, or is developing?
The answer is simple: Both.
Because you cannot win without development, and you cannot truly develop without learning how to win.
- Short-term victories achieved through pressure often kill long-term growth.
- Players who don’t enjoy the game cannot learn.
- And players who don’t learn will never grow.
Football is a profession
We must never forget: football is a profession.
- When done right, it brings huge rewards.
- But just like every well-paid profession, it comes with equally high pressure.
- Learning to manage that pressure is the only way to survive at the professional level.
And that ability to manage pressure begins at a young age. The discipline seeds we plant today may grow into multimillion-euro footballers tomorrow.
Football should not only aim to produce winning teams — it should also produce confident, disciplined, and resilient human beings.
As coaches, our responsibility is even greater:
- To guide children with patience and belief, not with pressure and fear.
- To constantly improve ourselves, so that we remain in the top 1% of coaches, capable of leading the next generation.
Maybe we cannot guarantee that every player will make it into that top 1%. But we can guarantee this: those who learn discipline, focus, and resilience at a young age will succeed — on the pitch or in life.
Because in football, just like in life, true success is never built on pressure alone — it is built on joy, discipline, leadership, and growth.
