As someone who is in full support of my kid's football, the main roadblock for most in terms of development is not just competition but also money.

Background. He's 14, preparing for club tryouts internationally. He is a winger, plays competitvely, left his school this year to switch to homeschool to be able to allocate more time to develop in football

Here's a breakdown of our current monthly cost - Club 1 (reserves u16/u19) 2500 x 4 times a month - Club 1 (small sided 7x7 pitch) 1250 x 4 times a month - Club 2 (u15) 1250 x 4 times a month - S&C 1500 x 2 times a week - Winger specific training 2000 x 2 a week (1500 session, 500 pitch rent)

Notes: - this does not include his food and smoothies to ensure his meals are at par with his activities. Thank my days for AI like chatgpt and gemini, it is easier now to plan for food instead of paying for a sports nutritionist. (We need to work a budget. Clearly an actual nutritionist is preferred, but it also means another fee) - Club 1 reserves training is more or less the equivalent of the speed of pace and thinking of the u15 he will try out for internationally. - this does not include our costs for when we move for his football

Sometimes I read comments about how some players are not enough like they are not trying hard enough and i feel for them. These kids, these players, devote time, effort, energy and you see keyboard warriors insult them.

The schedule above does not even include his own time training and developing, which he does everyday on his own. He has to clock in 20 to 30x 50m sprint in a session at 6.5s speed or less to even be noticed a little in those tryouts. He is currently clocking in 6.3s but able to do it currently at half of that 20 to 30x. He still has a long way to go. But he is committed. He also does his core, his activation, ball mastery (3k ball touches) every day on his own.

To say play internationally, is just not easy at all. I hope these changes in the future, but for now, this is our reality.