Benjamin Franklin once claimed, "Leisure is the time for doing something useful". Indeed, plenty of research suggests leisure is the time when we must do something useful. But what does leisure look like for young players in or on the verge of the academy system at a professional football club?
Sacrifice
If you are a parent or guardian reading this, you will have probably seen this in your child already, however, a lot of sacrifices come with this career. These will start early and will impact a young person's leisure time. Many players spoke of how they had to sacrifice friendships to focus on professional football from an early age.
