Supporting Scholars & Young Professionals: A Guide for Parents & Guardians

Supporting a child on a scholarship or as a young professional footballer means focusing on their wellbeing, relationships, and long‑term development, not just short‑term success. The aim is to help them stay grounded, resilient, and independent as they face loans, first‑team exposure and potential injuries.

🎧 Audio version click here 👉

Your Role: The support system behind the football system

Young footballers thrive when the adults around them understand the journey they’re on. This handout highlights the core themes from our workshop and offers practical ways to help your child navigate life as a scholar or young professional.

The biggest challenges parents tell us about

Parents commonly share concerns around:

Balancing football, education, and life
Managing expectations and uncertainty
Understanding the football business
Supporting emotional wellbeing
Navigating social media and public scrutiny
Knowing when to step in and when to step back

You’re not alone in these challenges, it’s like being on a rollercoster navigating the emotional ups and downs of the football system. Every family is learning as they go.

Life and Football: What Young Players Experience

On The Pitch

Supporting your child as a scholar or young professional footballer can be challenging, as this stage brings both huge opportunities and pressures.

As your child moves into a full time and more competitive stage of football, it’s important for both players and parents to remember that friendships and relationships remain essential. Here are other things to consider in helping make this transition smoother:

Encourage your child to be supportive, respectful, and focused on their own development, rather than comparing themselves to others.
Remind your child that relationships and reputation travel with them; they will meet the same coaches and players again.
Encourage a team‑first mindset: be respectful, adaptable to new positions or roles, and supportive of teammates who are selected ahead of them.
Help them avoid comparisons with others by setting personal goals around growth, consistency, and professionalism.

Stepping up: Loans and first team opportunities:

This is a stage where many players experience their first loans and these can come up very quickly . For a club it is an important insight into how professional and independent players are, both on and off the pitch. Loan spells can feel isolating, with less supervision, and are often a test of how they handle football and life.

This is also the stage where some players may get contact with the first team. It may not last long, so encourage them to make the most of every opportunity, learn from experiences, and be themselves, they have been given an opportunity for a reason.

Be aware that under-18 players may not be allowed in adult changing rooms but are still expected to engage with team culture and banter. Fines can be a part of club culture and opportunity for the team to raise money for charity or team events. These fines for all sorts of things can feel high relative to young players earnings. However, the culture from club to club is different, so this might not be factor in every club your child experiences on their journey.

Give your child space:

Spending time around the first team can be very different for your child, especially when it comes to feedback. Unlike the academy, where feedback is regular and parents are often involved, your child may now receive very little information from coaches and you won’t always be part of those conversations.

Because of this, try not to put pressure on them by asking too many questions, particularly when they may not have many answers themselves. What they need most at this stage is encouragement.

Focus on supporting their resilience, consistency, and work ethic. Be there to listen, offer reassurance, and step back when needed. Help them work through challenges while also recognising and celebrating their effort and progress. This calm, balanced support helps your child build confidence and independence at an important stage in their journey.

Dealing with injury

At this stage an injury can be a lonely and isolating experience for young footballers, and it’s important for parents to be a steady source of support. While injuries are challenging, they can also be an opportunity to focus on physical development and rehabilitation in ways that full-time training doesn’t allow. Here are some things to consider as a parent during these difficult times:

Serious injuries can mean missed loans, delayed moves, or lost first‑team chances; Be open about how tough this period can be. By listening and validating your child’s feelings, you help them feel understood and supported, not dismissed.
Frame rehab as a phase to work on strength, movement quality, and mental skills that are harder to develop in full‑time training.
Stay in regular contact with the medical team so you are informed about assessments, tests, and progress, and check that appropriate contract and injury protections are in place.
Encourage your child to stay connected with the group while they recover.

Watch the full interview with Lilly and Mikey here

Off The Pitch

Young footballers are growing not just as players but as young adults, so life off the pitch matters as much as what happens on it. This stage is a chance to help them build character, independence, and healthy habits around money, driving, and decision‑making that will support them long after football.

Young players need an identity beyond football. Encourage your child to invest in friendships, social life, and interests outside the game, such as hobbies, clubs, or other passions. Education and career planning should sit alongside their sporting ambitions so they have options and confidence for life after football, whenever that comes. Supporting your child to be a well‑rounded, “3D human” helps them become someone who can thrive both in football and in everyday life.

Encourage friendships and social time away from football, including non‑football friends and activities.
Support interests such as music, gaming, volunteering, or part‑time study that give them balance and perspective.
Talk regularly about education, qualifications, and possible careers beyond playing, so they never feel football is their only option.

New Young Drivers: Be Aware!

Driving offers independence and freedom, but it also comes with serious responsibility. It’s important you understand and you to talk to your child about car insurance and the need to give accurate information. Even if they are a scholar, being paid by a club may mean they are classed as a professional player, and failing to declare this can invalidate their insurance.

Make sure they understand how insurance works and why honesty about their playing status and car use really matters.
Discuss common risks such as carrying teammates, speeding, and giving in to peer pressure. These situations can feel normal but can have serious consequences.
Set clear expectations about safe driving, including who they are allowed to carry, when they can use the car, and how it should be driven.
Finally, explain that taking shortcuts such as paying someone else to take penalty points can have long-term consequences, damaging their career, reputation, and future opportunities.

Money Management is Essential

Helping your young footballer learn to manage money wisely is crucial, especially during scholarship years when accommodation and food are often covered and it is easier to save. Encourage thoughtful spending, avoiding impulse splurges, and planning for the future, and ask host families or guardians to keep an eye on parcels or deliveries if needed. Show them how to read pay slips, check tax codes and benefits‑in‑kind, and understand the basics of any contracts they sign.

Help them set up a simple budget and a regular savings habit while their living costs are low.
Talk through big purchases before they commit, especially frequent online orders or high‑value items.
Go through their pay slips together so they understand what each line means and can spot errors or unexpected deductions.

Have open, honest conversations about gambling, and other risky financial behaviours. Explain how easy access to money and time can make these temptations feel harmless, but how quickly they can damage finances, focus, and wellbeing. Normalising these conversations early helps your child recognise warning signs and seek support if they begin to struggle.

Listen to Troy talk about the challenges his son faced with his mental health as a young professional, trying to find his way:
🎙️ Click here to listen

Young footballers can face peer pressure around substances such as snus, nitrous oxide, cannabis, alcohol, and other recreational or performance-linked drugs.

These pressures often come from teammates, older players, or social circles, and can feel hard to resist. As a parent, it’s important to have open, non-judgmental conversations about the health risks, legal consequences, and the impact on performance, recovery, and their career.

The goal is to raise a grounded, independent young adult who happens to play football, not a footballer whose whole identity depends on the game. By guiding them in relationships, driving, money, and decision‑making, you give them the tools to handle both the opportunities and the pressures that come with their football journey.

Social Media & Context

Young players are growing up in a world where every moment can be shared, judged, or misinterpreted. Social media can be a double-edged sword for young footballers, so it’s important for parents to help manage their online presence. Avoid oversharing personal information or constantly posting about your child, as it can create pressure and make football their only identity which can be very difficult if things don’t go as planned.

Encourage your child not to seek validation through likes or comments, and help them understand that keyboard warriors critics, trolls, and unsolicited opinions exist at every level of the game. Teach them who to listen to: coaches, mentors, and trusted advisors, rather than strangers online. Be vigilant about direct messages from agents, strangers, or people with questionable motives, and act as the eyes and ears for your child.

Understanding the Football Business

Football is a passion but it’s also a huge multi-billion pound industry. Young players and parents often feel unprepared to navigate it and it can be complex and sometimes risky, so parents play a key role in guiding their child.

This side of the industry is often hidden, but it drives many of the decisions that affect your child’s development. At academy and professional level, football is not just about talent and hard work, it’s also about contracts, budgets and long-term planning. Conversations about contracts, releases, loans and new signings usually happen behind closed doors, so parents rarely see the full picture.

Club staff such as managers, sporting directors, scouts and coaches are constantly reviewing the squad, looking at who to keep, who to bring in and who might leave.
These decisions are influenced by football reasons and business reasons: club finances, wages, transfer fees, age profiles, and pressure to achieve results.

This means that:

Your child’s game time, contract offer or release may be affected by factors you will never fully know or control.
A new player might arrive, sometimes through a strong agent or staff relationship and suddenly your child has more competition or loses their place.
A change in manager or coach can quickly change opinions on players, regardless of what was said or promised before.

For parents, it helps to:

Remember that football at this level is a business first, and not always a fair system.
Avoid spending too much energy trying to work out “why” every decision was made – you may never get a clear answer.
Focus on supporting your child through the uncertainty, helping them understand that many decisions are business-driven, not a reflection of their value as a person.

Industry Insights: Big Questions Made Simple! Check out our full series of resources and videos on the basics of football contracts, agents, insurance, money, tax and more, in our Industry Insights series. We ask business professionals to break down the lingo when it comes to what we need to know as parents and guardian, so we can help our scholars and young professionals start off on the right foot.

See our Industry Insights Series

Be aware of agents and other representatives while many are legitimate and professional, some may have questionable motives and try to influence your child (and you!) by offering perks or promises. Know the club’s expectations, the pathways and transitions available, and the processes around release or re-signing, so you can help your child navigate these decisions with confidence. For more support in this area join our next Finding the Right Agent Workshop, and see our other resources on agents.

Video: Top Tips from Sports Lawyer Daniel Geey

Remember these tips when finding an agent…

Don’t feel pressured
Do your research
Ask questions
Get support
Trust your gut

When the time is right teach your child to understand the basics of contracts and negotiations, including what they are signing and the long-term implications. If you don’t understand it then seek independent legal advice. Click here to see some of No1Fan.club approved partners who can help direct you in this area, and may be able to offer an initial free consultation.

Join Our Support Network

Our community is here to support you every step of the way. If you have any further questions and would like peer‑to‑peer support, simply post in our community forum to hear from other members. If you prefer a private conversation with one of our parent mentors, click here to find out more about our 1:1 Support Call service. Don’t forget you can also bring your questions along to our next Live Q&A session – it’s FREE for Community Members.

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