Being a youth footballer in Argentina. Origins, schooling, housing, feelings and expectations of athletes in the formation of a professional football club.

Abstract

This article proposes to draw a socio-demographic profile of soccer players in training in Argentina from the analysis of multiple dimensions of the life of these young people, who massively deposit their dreams and wishes in soccer, developing intense and uncertain socioprofessional careers in soccer clubs. Usually, the clubs deal exclusively with performance variables (physical, technical, tactical), ignoring issues such as origin, family, schooling, housing, feelings, opinions, consumption, and other dimensions that make up the comprehensive training of young people. The article proposes a quantitative and descriptive approach to these dimensions, based on 6 surveys carried out in 2018 to all youth soccer players (between 13 and 20 years old) of an Argentine First Division club.