Former Aston Villa captain Petrov speaks with incredulity as he tells CNN Sport of gamers who would ask when the subsequent payday is.
“I used to have teammates who would speak to me before we actually get paid and my question would be, ‘You earn a great amount of money every single month, every single week … Why would you need to know when you get paid?'”
“They say: ‘Oh, everything I get, I just put it down. I’ve got a mortgage, payments, car, I’ve got my girlfriend.’ So at the end of the conversation, I was like: ‘What are you actually putting aside?'”
Petrov says his personal monetary training got here from teammates and buddies. He says that there are gamers, who regardless of incomes “incredible amounts of money,” now have to “go and beg for work.”
According to Petrov, when he was a participant, monetary advisors can be “in and out of the training ground.”
There have been “a lot of people promising so much, but they never deliver,” he says.
But once you’re younger and incomes good cash, generally it is troublesome to spot probably unhealthy investments.
“You’ve just got be so, so wary and at quite a young age,” cautions Simon Barker, Assistant Chief Executive of the Players’ Football Association and former Premier League participant for Queens Park Rangers.
“Sometimes in life, you have to experience problems to really understand and learn. And unfortunately, that’s what happens in life,” provides Barker.
Unfortunate turns of destiny
In early 2012, simply as he was negotiating a brand new contract with Aston Villa, Petrov was identified with acute leukemia and his profession was cut unexpectedly short.
While he was financially safe, Petrov wasn’t psychologically prepared to settle for the finish of his profession.
“Everything disappeared,” he stated, talking of his sickness. “I wasn’t ready, I wasn’t prepared. Physically, mentally it’s really tough … I didn’t have time to settle in, to think about what I’m going to be next. I just had to fight for my life, so for me it became even more difficult.
Petrov underwent two rounds of intense chemotherapy treatment over three years which took its toll.
“I was unfit to return to work, I was unfit to research … to do any type of energetic actions as a result of I wasn’t match sufficient.
“I had to take about six, seven years to make sure I’m going to go back to … who I wanted to be, what I wanted to achieve.”
According to Petrov, when gamers are having fun with taking part in and are in the highlight, they usually ignore the indicators that their careers are coming to an finish.
“We’ve got the ego, everyone talking about us. We’ve got the attention, everybody’s pushing us, we’ve got the adrenaline, we’ve got purpose,” Petrov says.
According to statistics from the world gamers’ union FIFPro, 72% of professional footballers should not have an training past highschool degree and simply 14% have accomplished vocational coaching. Only 12% having a college diploma.
In a sport the place the common contract size is simply 22 to 23 months, advocates say footballers ought to be considering extra about what they will do exterior of the sport.
There are alternatives to discover after a participant’s profession ends, says Petrov.
“We have great transferable skills which a lot of other industries are looking into former athletes to be part of them — with their leadership, communication, desire, work ethic. This is something a lot of players don’t think of,” stated Petrov.
The PFA Charity offered additional training funding to 1,397 people in the 2019-20 calendar 12 months, usually in the type of grants and bursaries to help prepare youthful professionals for later of their profession.
Retirement from soccer for Barker was nearly seamless as he segued into working at the PFA the place he has been ever since. His job consists of speaking with present gamers about retraining for a second profession.
“[The] transition over is a big issue, particularly for the first two years,” he says. “And the ones that seem to transition better to a second career are the ones that have got themselves in a position where they’re ready for it, so they’ve done courses.”
Football careers are short — between 10 and 15 years should you’re one in all the fortunate ones. Petrov’s boyhood dream was to turn into a footballer at the highest degree, however he nonetheless yearns for extra.
“I wanted to learn,” he says defiantly. “I wanted to give myself the opportunity to be somebody, to be something at some point.”
