When I overhear people talking(soccer players) about playing or being pro, I have to always think to myself–”Take it Easy, don’t get mad they are young”. Do you know why?? The reason is that many of these kids don’t even know the level of work they have to do to become even a semi-pro, let alone a pro. They dream about getting free shoes, or Nike/ Adidas sponsorship. Its a lot harder than everyone else thinks.

I remember I went to this Keeper school over this last summer. At the end they had you write down 3 goals: What you want to accomplish right now, What you hope to accomplish, and what your dreams are for the future. Out of all my fellow keepers, I think I had by far the most realistic dreams: Play soccer for as long as I can at the best level possible. Some guys wrote down stupid stuff like playing in the English Premier, La Liga, the list goes on and it got more annoying after talking to each person.

The Coaches responded to everything we wrote but talking to them was a whole different thing. One of the Coaches gave me the best thing to remember and its the most Simple thing to remember when thinking about being pro:

“When you wake up every morning, you need to ask yourself, how bad do I want it and what am I going to do to make myself better than anybody else. If someone else on any team is more fit, has more endurance, or is faster than me, then I have to work 10x as hard as that person. Honestly it is something simple which will make you pro if you do exactly that and prove it by your work ethics.”

So There you have it. But here is some realistic layman’s terms:

• Work out harder and more than all your teammates.
• Beat all your teammates easily.
• Get your mile, 2-mile times down to a track team level.
• Practice soccer everyday, whether its with a team or individual training.
• Play soccer year around, meaning, never stop.
• Play on as many teams as allowed or with a competitive enough team that plays enough to cover as many as 2-3 teams worth.
• Never tell yourself you are the best.

Finally, this is how pros make it to be pros. They have that desire to become the best and be the best. If your willing to do all this, then by all means, boast and be proud of yourself when you’re there-standing on the pitch and playing for a professional team-until then please be modest. I don’t know everything, but if I were to give my best answer for the ever so complicated question of: How do you become pro? That would be my answer with other commentaries.