‘You’ve not made the grade, son’: de‐selection and identity disruption in elite level youth football

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to utilize in‐depth interviews to explore the experiences of young former elite footballers whose respective professional careers were prematurely ended as a consequence of deselection. To this end, the analysis focuses upon (a) the respondents’ development of a strong athletic identity, (b) the impact of deselection on the respondents’ sense of self, and (c) the respondents’ adaptations to life outside of professional football. The results indicated that the development of a strong athletic identity contributed to considerable emotional and psychological disturbances upon deselection, which included feelings of anxiety, fear, depression, anger and humiliation. While the majority of the participants are attempting to build new unified self‐concepts and alternative identities, they were critical of the limited social support that they had received from their respective professional clubs when making the transition out of professional football.

Notes

1. Grove et al., ‘Account‐Making’; Sparkes, ‘Illness, Premature Career‐termination’.

2. Webb et al., ‘Athletic Identity’.

3. Alfermann, ‘Causes and Consequences’; Crook and Robertson, ‘Transitions out of Elite Sport’; Sinclair and Orlick, ‘Positive Transitions’.

4. Drahota and Eitzen, ‘The Role Exit of Professional Athletes’, 263.

5. Sparkes, ‘Illness, Premature Career‐termination’.

6. Ibid., 13.

7. Sparkes, ‘Illness, Premature Career‐termination’; Jones, Glintmeyer and McKenzie, ‘Slim bodies’.

8. Brewer, Van Raalte and Linder, ‘Athletic Identity’.

9. Ibid.; Sparkes, ‘Illness, Premature Career‐termination’.

10. Adler and Adler, Blackboards and Backboards; Good et al., ‘Athletic Identity’. Wiechman and Williams, ‘Relation of Athletic Identity’.

11. Sparkes, ‘The Fatal Flaw’; Young and White, ‘Sport, Physical Danger’.

12. Lavallee et al., ‘The Experience of Loss in Sport’.

13. Brewer, Van Raalte and Petitpas, ‘Self‐identity Issues’.

14. Brewer, Van Raalte and Linder, ‘Athletic Identity’. Danish, Petitpas and Hale, ‘Life Development Intervention’.

15. Woods, Kirrane and Buckley, ‘Not Making the Grade’.

16. Lally, ‘ASE Framework’.

17. Sparkes, ‘Illness, Premature Career‐termination’; Jones, Glintmeyer and McKenzie, ‘Slim Bodies’.

18. Denzin, Interpretive Biography.

19. Ibid.

20. Dowling‐Naess, ‘Life Events’, 42.

21. Carter, ‘The Place of Story’.

22. Jones, Armour and Potrac, ‘Constructing Expert Knowledge’.

23. Denzin, Interpretive Biography, 73.

24. Cortazzi, Narrative Analysis; Denzin, Interpretive Biography.

25. Denison and Reinhart, ‘Introduction’; Jones, Glintmeyer and McKenzie, ‘Slim Bodies’.

26. Sparkes, ‘Narratives of Self’.

27. Jones, ‘Toward a Sociology of Coaching’.

28. Jones, Glintmeyer and McKenzie, ‘Slim Bodies’.

29. Wolcott, The Art of Fieldwork.

30. Sparkes, ‘Illness, Premature Career‐termination’.

31. Maykut and Morehouse, Beginning Qualitative Research; Sparkes, ‘Illness, Premature Career‐termination’.

32. Sparkes, ‘Illness, Premature Career‐termination’.

33. Jones, Armour and Potrac, ‘Constructing Expert Knowledge’; Jones, Glintmeyer and McKenzie, ‘Slim Bodies’; Sparkes and Smith, ‘Sport, Spinal Cord Injury’.

34. Wolcott, Transforming Qualitative Data, 36.

35. Sparkes, ‘Illness, Premature Career‐termination’.

36. Ibid., 18.

37. Brewer, Van Raalte and Linder, ‘Athletic Identity’; Athens, ‘Dramatic Self Change’.

38. Cassidy, Jones and Potrac, Understanding Sports Coaching.

39. Adler and Adler, Blackboards and Backboards; Good et al., ‘Athletic Identity’.

40. Athens, ‘Dramatic Self Change’.

41. Ibid., 571.

42. Stevenson, ‘The Early Careers’.

43. Donnelly and Young, ‘The Construction and Confirmation of Identity’; Stevenson, ‘The Early Careers’.

44. Adler and Adler, ‘The Glorified Self’.

45. Ibid.

46. Sparkes, ‘Illness, Premature Career‐termination’, 25.

47. Adler and Adler, Blackboards and Backboards.

48. Jones, Glintmeyer and McKenzie, ‘Slim Bodies’; Lewis, ‘Have You Seen My Childhood?’.

49. Baillie and Danish, ‘Understanding the Career Transitions’.

50. Marcia, ‘Identity in Adolescence’.

51. Jones, Glintmeyer and McKenzie, ‘Slim Bodies’; Sparkes, ‘Illness, Premature Career‐termination’.

52. Adler and Adler, ‘The Glorified Self’.

53. Ibid.

54. Cushion and Jones, ‘Power, Discourse, and Symbolic Violence’.

55. Lally, ‘ASE Framework’.

56. Cassidy, Jones and Potrac, Understanding Sports Coaching.

57. Brewer, Van Raalte and Petitpas, ‘Self‐identity Issues’; Linville, ‘Self‐complexity as a Cognitive Buffer’.

58. Webb et al., ‘Athletic Identity’.

59. Woods, Buckley and Kirrane, ‘The Role of Social Support’, 262.

60. Athens, ‘Dramatic Self Change’.

61. Woods, Buckley and Kirrane, ‘The Role of Social Support’, 262.

62. Frank, The Wounded Storyteller; Sparkes, ‘Illness, Premature Career‐termination’.

63. Athens, ‘Dramatic Self Change’.

64. Ibid.

65. Charmaz, ‘Struggling for Self’; Frank, ‘For a Sociology of the Body’.

66. Charmaz, ‘Struggling for Self’.

67. Ibid.

68. Ibid.

69. Frank, ‘For a Sociology of the Body’.

70. Sparkes, ‘Illness, Premature Career‐termination’, 20.

71. Ibid., 13–32.

72. Ibid.

73. Ibid.

74. Athens, ‘Dramatic Self Change’.

75. Sparkes, ‘Illness, Premature Career‐termination’, 20.

76. Athens, ‘Dramatic Self Change’; Sparkes, ‘Illness, Premature Career‐termination’.

77. Cushion and Jones, ‘Power, Discourse, and Symbolic Violence’.

78. Johns and Johns, ‘Surveillance, Subjectivism’.

79. Jones, Glintmeyer and McKenzie, ‘Slim Bodies’.

80. Jones, ‘Toward a Sociology of Coaching’; Lally, ‘ASE Framework’.

81. Jones, Glintmeyer and McKenzie, ‘Slim Bodies’; Sparkes, ‘Illness, Premature Career‐termination’.

82. Sparkes, ‘Illness, Premature Career‐termination’.

83. Petitpas, Brewer and Van Raalte, ‘Transitions of the Student Athlete’.

84. Sparkes, ‘Illness, Premature Career‐termination’; Woods, Buckley and Kirrane, ‘The Role of Social Support’, 262.

85. Frank, The Wounded Storyteller.

86. Jones, Glintmeyer and McKenzie, ‘Slim Bodies’.

87. Richardson, Writing Strategies.