Does demographics play a part...

[Marky]

in the makings of a footballer?
Take Robbie Fowler, no disrepect intended here but he grew up in a fairly rough neighbourhood so as a result maybe he dedicated himself to football so as to make a better living in the future and what not. I’d say not, probably just his love of the game and his natural talent made him a professional footballer but it's an interestng topic in my opinion.
Likes of Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand all come from a working class upbringing but have gone on to be world class in there profession, do you think the demographics played a part in them becoming just that in the first place or is it just coincidental?

[thesilverfoxlfc]

Poverty and dictatorship in a country make great football teams i.e Brazil

[Darth Marty]

all things considered id say.....yes it does.

[honk]

in the makings of a footballer?
Take Robbie Fowler, no disrepect intended here but he grew up in a fairly rough neighbourhood so as a result maybe he dedicated himself to football so as to make a better living in the future and what not. I’d say not, probably just his love of the game and his natural talent made him a professional footballer but it's an interestng topic in my opinion.
Likes of Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand all come from a working class upbringing but have gone on to be world class in there profession, do you think the demographics played a part in them becoming just that in the first place or is it just coincidental?

I cant remember if it was Robbie or Stevie but one of them said in his book that they had nothing in life so they tried really hard to become footballers. They thought that kids from better backgrounds had things which distracted them away from football like a good education and had other interests also, which left little time for football.

[kanban111]

Since football has been taken away from the streets,football in this country at least has suffered for it,i'm 37 now & every young lad i knew played footy on the street,political correctness has put pay to that,how much of it do you see now,next to none i guess,sign of the times & not necesserally a good thing either imho,you don't see half as much football played in parks anymore either.George Best came from the streets,as did God,it's a poor reflection on society in general which is the problem,for every kid on the street there's 10 people moaning about it,i hate this country for those reasons,for a country that invented most popular sports,we do next to nothing to promote it.
Look,you,ve made me bitter now & all political but it pisses me off no end.

[Ron_Mexico]

Since football has been taken away from the streets,football in this country at least has suffered for it,i'm 37 now & every young lad i knew played footy on the street,political correctness has put pay to that,how much of it do you see now,next to none i guess,sign of the times & not necesserally a good thing either imho,you don't see half as much football played in parks anymore either.George Best came from the streets,as did God,it's a poor reflection on society in general which is the problem,for every kid on the street there's 10 people moaning about it,i hate this country for those reasons,for a country that invented most popular sports,we do next to nothing to promote it.
Look,you,ve made me bitter now & all political but it pisses me off no end.

you can see the difference in how uncomfortable players are with the ball at their feet. playing all the time in the street teaches you to control the ball in every possible way. it's where you learn to be creative. football is very rigid these days

and in answer to marky's question i think it does make a difference. kids that have everything handed to them dont have the same motivation as kids that have nothing to succeed. there are countless examples of rags to riches stories in every sport

[Mattshark]

Poverty and dictatorship in a country make great football teams i.e Brazil

You do know Brazil is not a dictatorship don't you. In fact I do not believe any currently successfull footballing nation is a dictatorship.


In regards to the original question, yes I do as in areas where there is little else to do kids play sport and they do so at a young age the leagues in say the South American leagues can not afford to keep their players and so younger plays constantly get the oppertunity to play. However coaching style and quality make a great difference.

[bazza76]

I think it does without question.
Has to make sense doesnt it, less work, less money, less to do, more football to play.
I know im not a pro footballer or anything, but i come from a working class background part of dublin, and there were times were i played football every day solid for years, where as the upperclass wouldnt be seen doing anything of the sort.

[Neil Young]

Since football has been taken away from the streets,football in this country at least has suffered for it,i'm 37 now & every young lad i knew played footy on the street,political correctness has put pay to that,how much of it do you see now,next to none i guess,sign of the times & not necesserally a good thing either imho,you don't see half as much football played in parks anymore either.George Best came from the streets,as did God,it's a poor reflection on society in general which is the problem,for every kid on the street there's 10 people moaning about it,i hate this country for those reasons,for a country that invented most popular sports,we do next to nothing to promote it.
Look,you,ve made me bitter now & all political but it pisses me off no end.

I'm a bit surprised you haven't tried to blame political correctness for your rant. Don't you think that the ten-fold increase in car ownership since 1950 and fifteen-fold increase in the amount of journeys in the same period have made the streets rather less safe to play in than when you or I were children? That's caused lots of problems for sure but to use the catch-all, vague term of political correctness is both lazy and unhelpful. Let's blame consumerism, successive government's transport policies, even ourselves maybe...

If you're making a point about how young people are stigmatised today for doing things that were accepted in the past then I'd agree. And I think what the Thatcher, Major and Blair governments have done in terms of selling off playing fields for development is shameful.

As for the question, I agree with the consensus on Marky's point.

[einar]

The people in charge are building these all over the place and they are open to all all the time. And they really work to improve the kids playing skills. They are almost always in use, despite the weather.

This is Iceland by the way.

http://www.seltjarnarnes.is/media/frettir/medium/spark3.jpg

I agree that it does matter what your motivation is.

[The Glove]

Since football has been taken away from the streets,football in this country at least has suffered for it,i'm 37 now & every young lad i knew played footy on the street,political correctness has put pay to that,how much of it do you see now,next to none i guess,sign of the times & not necesserally a good thing either imho,you don't see half as much football played in parks anymore either.George Best came from the streets,as did God,it's a poor reflection on society in general which is the problem,for every kid on the street there's 10 people moaning about it,i hate this country for those reasons,for a country that invented most popular sports,we do next to nothing to promote it.
Look,you,ve made me bitter now & all political but it pisses me off no end.

Every house has a car outside it now so you cant use walls for goals. Thats nothing to do with people moaning about it, thats a fact of life. You also cant really let your 5-10 year old kids wander off down the park on thier own can you? Well I wouldnt anyway.

In general football is a working class sport hence most footballers coming from such backgrounds, they play it at the local cmprehensive were as in schools which are more midle to upper class, Rugby etc get more of a playing.

[Parm]

I'm a bit surprised you haven't tried to blame political correctness for your rant. Don't you think that the ten-fold increase in car ownership since 1950 and fifteen-fold increase in the amount of journeys in the same period have made the streets rather less safe to play in than when you or I were children? That's caused lots of problems for sure but to use the catch-all, vague term of political correctness is both lazy and unhelpful. Let's blame consumerism, successive government's transport policies, even ourselves maybe...

If you're making a point about how young people are stigmatised today for doing things that were accepted in the past then I'd agree. And I think what the Thatcher, Major and Blair governments have done in terms of selling off playing fields for development is shameful.

As for the question, I agree with the consensus on Marky's point.

couldnt have put it better myself.

[redblood]

in the makings of a footballer?
Take Robbie Fowler, no disrepect intended here but he grew up in a fairly rough neighbourhood so as a result maybe he dedicated himself to football so as to make a better living in the future and what not. I’d say not, probably just his love of the game and his natural talent made him a professional footballer but it's an interestng topic in my opinion.
Likes of Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand all come from a working class upbringing but have gone on to be world class in there profession, do you think the demographics played a part in them becoming just that in the first place or is it just coincidental?

Marky that's a very good point one which Eamon Dunphy raised during the World Cup last year while being a pundit on RTE.
He stated that he felt that players had to much that kids had to much these days and that the poorer countries would rise in footballing terms.
I have to say it has been proven over the years that this is the case the best have come from serioulsy impoverished backgrounds.
Unfortunately whats happening now is that when they do make it some forget where they came from and lose that edge to their game.

[thesilverfoxlfc]

You do know Brazil is not a dictatorship don't you. In fact I do not believe any currently successfull footballing nation is a dictatorship.

Poverty was the Brazil example

[PLY]

Kaka is middle class so there's a pretty good argument aginst the theory. If you were talking about boxing then I would agree but I'm not sure that it is totally relevant anymore with football.

Besides working class families can afford to but their kids different leisure items now such as Gameboys and Playstations , so even working class kids don't play as much as they used to