I'm looking to get my my brother a Christmas gift and am wondering if any of you have advice for what to buy. I'm wondering if there's anything between $10-$40 that a soccer player of that age would find really useful.

Liverpool is playing some good football under Arne Slot. Here is an analysis of one of their goals.

https://youtu.be/8bQ4M7H6QPY?feature=shared

When I'm watching the game on TV, what should I look for? I am new, so all I understand is Player A passed to player B to C. That's not very interesting. I know there's more to it, but I'm new to sports. How can I enjoy watching matches more at a deeper level. The commentary is also quite superficial.

So the past 2 weeks I've been in alot of soccer stuff (as gk) 2 weeks ago I had 4 practices last week I had 2 games a tournament and during the 1h brake I was being shot on by my teammates for round 40 misn straight. After the 7 hour school tourney we got 2nd and we had 2 more games this week to finish it off. On top of that I've been playing soccer at school for around 1h a day for 2 months on top of all that stuff and now my dad said my hips are out of place and so is my right knee but I'm able to play fine with it. Is This normal???

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/s/zoGvPZu6cw

Hello I’m trying to get more into football on the fan side of things I’m from London Ontario Canada. I tried supporting Toronto fc since it was my closest pro team but my god I hate the city of Toronto to much to commit to that. So I decide to turn to Europe like the rest of my friends and just can’t find a team that I connect to what so ever. I’m a gk as my position so I want a team with a good goalie I can watch and improve with but not on a top team as it’s not really my vibe (I’m die hard Anaheim Ducks fan and chargers fan). So any suggestions would be greatly appreciated also bonus if I can make a fun team on fifa with them

This is my first season playing club football and I haven’t scored once yet. My friend probably had less experience than me and he’s scored twice. When did you score your first goal and is it normal to not score in the first season?

Where can I watch this game online

Vinícius Jr. didn’t win the Ballon d’Or, and Madrid fans are losing it. Meanwhile, Chelsea fans watched Roman Abramovich leave, swapped owners like a reality show, and still quietly sip their tea like, we’re used to drama at this point. Try harder, universe.

The prestigious Ballon d'Or ceremony is taking place tonight at the historic Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, with football's biggest stars gathering to celebrate the year's achievements. For those looking to tune in, the ceremony starts at 7:45 PM GMT/3:45 PM ET and can be watched on Paramount+ in the US or YouTube internationally.

2024 Men's Ballon d'Or nominees

2024 Ballon d'Or Feminin nominees

About Jordi Roura Sola

Joined FC Barcelona at the age of 14, recruited by the legendary Carles Rexach. He spent six years living in the original La Masia, located on the grounds next to Camp Nou, where he lived alongside many players who became important to the club, such as Tito Vilanova, Aureli Altimira, Pep Guardiola, Guillermo Amor, and many others.

He played in all the youth categories of the club until reaching the first team under Johan Cruyff (Dream Team). A serious injury sidelined him from the field and forced him to retire at a very young age, but his passion for football led him to train as a coach. This journey took him to Japan as the assistant coach of the Yokohama Flugels’ first team, as well as to Terrassa FC, CE Hospitalet, and later to all levels of FC Barcelona’s youth system.

At FCB, he served as an analyst with Luis Enrique,  Pep Guardiola, and later as the assistant coach with Tito Vilanova’s team. He eventually became the head coach of FC Barcelona’s first team, a period during which they won numerous titles.

From 2014 to 2021, he was appointed the Director in charge of La Masia, FC Barcelona’s academy. During this time, he discovered, signed, and was responsible for the training and development of players such as Gavi, Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsi, Fermin Lopez, Ansu Fati, Alejandro Balde, Marc Casadó, Iñaki Peña, Hector Fort, Erik Garcia, Marc Bernal, and hundreds of other players. These players now represent over €3 billion in market value and play in professional teams across Europe and around the world, including Take Kubo, Xavi Simons, Riqui Puig, Carles Aleñá, Cucurella, Marc Guiu, Ilaix Moriba, Ilias Akhomach, Iker Bravo, Abde Ezzalzouli, and others.

Currently, he is a co-founder of Best Version 1, a digital platform focused on helping footballers of any level and from any part of the world understand the fundamental concepts of football—concepts that are taught to players at La Masia from a very young age. BestVersion1.com offers a membership that provides access to a course of 19 sections with videos. The last section includes an additional bonus of 96 PDF guides with training plans for different ages and positions. These courses are available in 12 languages

Who do you guys think would (no biase, and without PR) need to win the ballon d‘or?

So this is a shit season for my 15 year old. (Sorry this is complicated and long). My son who is French and American played on the highest level (non-pro club) team in France R1 up to U15. He is born in France. In our u15 season we had issues with a crappy coach (who later got fired as he did not take it seriously and we were down to 2 trainings a week). Long story short France didn’t let my son transfer from this team mid season (the blocked his transfer) so we had the idea to transfer to Germany where they can’t block transfers internationally. So we found a great Regional level team in Germany and had tournaments in Switzerland, all over Germany, Spain and were living the dream! Son was playing #9 and started every game and did very well.

Now this year he started high school and French hours are LONG!! He has 3 trainings a week in Germany but has to miss one because Germany has very short school days and practices are during our school hours one of the 3. Couple this with a NEW coach this season who doesn’t speak French or English (my son does okay with German but he is far from fluent!). Last year we had a great coach who managed to communicate well in English, and the boys on the team too. This year’s coach makes zero effort to try to use other boys to translate. 🥲

The bad news is that the new coach gave my son’s starting spot to a much weaker player. My son has only been getting 15-20 minutes/ game but in each game he did more in those minutes than the starting striker!!!! By far! He scored 2 goals last game in 10 minutes and today he assisted and almost hit a beauty that went right over the crossbar on a volley. It was hard to do a one touch but he got a great shot off! I don’t think the starting striker had a single shot in 65 minutes.

The coach told an English speaking assistant to tell my son that he doesn’t get playing time because he misses one practice each week. We confronted the club last year before resigning and they told us as long as we made 2 of the 3 it would be workable. Now with this years coach says he does not accept it. And punishes our son even though he is better.

The coach makes zero effort to communicate and the language barrier is big. My son loves the German soccer game-style and really fits in on this team. He loved last season. Now it is all crumbling. Should we go back to France? He could easily get on an R1 team, but mid season he might find it difficult to get a spot if the team is already in motion and might have to switch to a R2 since it’s very unlikely they would have an open transfer spot. (Transfers are limited to 4 per season and they most likely all have 4). French practice hours will ALL be workable because they train much later with the longer school day. Germany had REAAAAAAALY early training times thus our problem.

Do we wait it out? How should I approach the coach? I need to use someone to translate because I can only speak French or English. I’m so sad for my son. He is such a great player and really needs to have a coach that appreciates that he is doing all he can within our school limits! It’s just not possible to be at the training, but he does run a 45 minute 10 km that day. I understand missing a practice is unfair to others but he also plays better. The coach seems to be making zero effort to communicate with him and is just denying his existence… and at this point I just want to leave. 🥲 What would you do?

I was wondering because I saw this happen in a game and it was not called offside but the coach was screaming he was 5 feet offside.

I'm 18 year old girl and I just started playing football/soccer after 8 months of not touching the ball (previously however I have just 5 months of experience) I see myself back in the same position that I was in, on the first day of football. I actually seemed to have developed even more fears. I fear ball hitting my glasses, I fear jumping up because I might look awkward being the only girl there, I fear the ball...and none of these fears were there before. I rejoined thinking I wanna take it professional, if you guys could give some advices I'd like to work on them!

Hi,

What countries are good places to start my pro soccer? I know Europe's top 5 league countries are really competitive, but other than them, I was thinking of smaller countries like Ireland, Iceland, Belgium, Luxemburg (lol), just anywhere. Even qatar with the middle east becoming big on football.

I am a 21-year-old aspiring pro. I live in the United States right now. I never played in any academy, and it's been quite a step up from trying to run on just raw talent. I play in the UPSL (men's 4th division), and I am also in my final year of college. I am looking to move back to Europe after graduation in the summer of 2025 and pursue a career in professional soccer. I have a European passport (I was born in Ireland). I have a pro trial showcase in January 2025, but my mom and dad suggested I should reach out to clubs early on now, so I have one for when I graduate.

the plan is to get into any division, get my foot in the door, and work my way up. I'd like to be in every competitive league where I am training 4-5x a week, preferably in the morning cause that's when I function best and then just moving up the ranks.

I need:

-an agent

-highlight videos (working on that, hence why I joined the upsl (short term goal)

-some connections in the footballing world (managers etc)

I've forged an email template to send to coaches, I will be able to track them down. When there's a will there's a way, but what countries should I shift my focus to

any and all advice is appreciated. Anyone with this experience please let me know

Would i be a glory hunter for ordering a Barcelona jersey, even if i support man city (dont judge me for that)? I have already been supporting barca for idk 5 years by now and really love what they are doing. I considered ordering a jersey but i dont know if my friends believe me that i already support barca since like 2020 before messi left. idk if they reckon my support for barca as a mancity fan.

Hey guys, I am selling Real Madrid vs Barcelona tickets for 28th October. Kindly DM if you are interested :)

Away fans in the stadium

Just wondering here. Is there a rule on how many and where the away fans should be placed in the stadium for champions league matches ? I started wondering because in yesterdays Madrid vs Dortmund match, on the lowest level all 4 sides of the stadium were Madrid fans. While that is superb morale boost for the home team, the away fans were crammed in the farthest corner of the stadium, leaving the morale boost of the away team hanging and up to luck. It felt like there’s no way the away fans could boost them up from so far away. I have usually seen one of the two goalkeepers end or one of the corners around the goal keepers end with away fans. And usually the away team celebrates with the away fans after a goal. You can check the post-goal celebrations of yesterdays match the away team had no way of celebrating with the away fans.

It’s just an observation, but what do you folks think about this ?

Hi all! Watching a lot of soccer recently and I'm wondering why we get a thousand stats for number of cards, goal difference etc... but we don't get a stat about their relative position on the league table. Does anyone know if there's a site where I could look at all the matches and see if the team that's ranked 1nd/2nd/3rd always beats the 10th/11th/12th? I'm imagining a number for each game like "oh, this game is a 5 point difference, it's 4th placed Brighton vs 9th placed Nottingham".

Is this too noob a question? Thanks for your help :D

Why don't referees wear GoPro chest straps? A "referee cam" could stream live, giving fans a first-person view of the game, similar to what we see in FC24 fouls. To be able to see puskás winning goals from a cinematic angle would just be awesome. It’s not overly expansive and it doesn’t affect the sport or the person who wears it…

Normally I practice GK and play it very well with good positioning, diving and reflexes but there is also ST which I don't play often but I find I am pretty good at the position. Good shooting, accuracy, pace and dribbling but I don't practice it and now I'm stuck not knowing which one I should stick too any suggestions?

So I was just curious why some people believe that Ronaldo is better than Messi, I personally believe Messi is better as the way he plays is just beautiful and both his solo plays and team play is much much better, I definitely agree that Ronaldo has better athleticism than Messi but that is about all I can think of?, Messi statistically has more long shots out of the box than Ronaldo so him being a better shooter is no question, less penalties as goals, Messi is the clear better passer he has a different type of vision, higher G/A per game total than Ronaldo as well, although people still argue ronaldo has higher goals even though he played more matches how is this a fair argument shouldn’t we be looking at G/A per game instead of total goals as Messi has less total games? I don’t quite understand but can Ronaldo fans elaborate I must be missing something as I do not quite understand why this is still a debate, I don’t mean any hostility by this I love Ronaldo as a player and he is amazing in his own right, but can anyone elaborate?

Hi everyone,

Been lurking on this sub for a few months now and everyone has been extremely helpful. I coach modified (middle school) boys.

Is it weird to have co-captain(s)? I haven’t announced one yet because we haven’t had a ref for 5 games. Today we did and asked for one and I sent one of the kids over that is a front runner for captaincy. One or two kids keep asking me about it. One kid would be in the running too.

Should I announce to the team who captains are? Or rotate? I’ve coached at higher levels so it’s a little more cut and dry.

Thanks in advance.

Does anyone know if there will be a restock for Colombias 100th anniversary kit? I just found out they were being sold by adidas yesterday but all sold out and resale prices are ridonkydonk. F you if your reselling for twice thrice or fife times the amount

Hey I’m trying to buy a 2011/2012 ronaldo jersey. What places are the best to buy from? (please help 😭🙏 i do not care about pricing i just want to buy a good quality one)

So me and my cuzin have been having an argument of which accomplishment is more difficult and i would like to hear your guys opinions.

And a big caveat is that it can't be a match involving a team you support or a direct rival, because that's a bit too easy!

For me it would be the 2018 World Cup Final. I think a lot of us fella in love with that Croatia team and it would have been massive if they'd have been able to get it over the line.

I'm not a mod (obviously) but seeing the amount of posts of 'how should I start playing,' etc., I decided to put together a list of frequently asked questions and some general advice for those just starting to play football in various positions. I politely request that the mods consider stickying this post to the top of the subreddit to avoid needless repeat questions, if it gets enough upvotes. Feel free to correct me in the comments if you want changes made to this list, or items added. I do think I'm missing a few things.

Generally, I've categorized players into the following groups, taking inspiration from the CEFR proficiency standards for language learning, a simple and useful tool.

• A1: an absolute beginner. You've likely never played before, and you're just starting out.
• A2: an intermediate/advanced beginner. You're getting comfortable with the game and learning its rules.
• B1: a lower intermediate level player. By this point, you can probably start joining a community, amateur, or Sunday league team. You are familiar with the laws of the game and are relatively comfortable with the ball and completing basic dribbles, passes, shots, and skill moves. (If you are a goalkeeper, you are likely comfortable with catching and handling the ball.) You should also be getting increasingly more secure with your weaker foot.
• B2: a higher intermediate level player. Depending on where you are in this category (closer to C1 or closer to B1) you might want to consider being evaluated for a more competitive team (or if you are young enough, the academy of a higher-level professional team). You should be confident in your ability to distribute, shoot, and dribble the ball. (Goalkeepers should be confident in their diving, catching, and handling, and be able to distribute and communicate well in addition to that.) Game experience will also contribute to this. You should also have a general idea what position(s) you would like to further develop your skills in.
• C1: a lower advanced level player. You should be comfortable with 1v1 situations and set pieces, as well as have a good idea what position(s) you feel most comfortable playing, and should be focusing on developing the skills for your specific position(s) instead of general fundamentals. You should be relatively comfortable with "creativity" on the field and have good vision.
• C2: a very advanced player. You should be confident in your abilities to perform all of the skills listed above, plus a high amount of positional awareness, etc., and be able to use both feet almost equally well.

What equipment do I need?

• A1: a football, a flat surface, and a wall.
• A2: cleats (grass), shin guards, football socks, a goal (any size, or could be makeshift); goalkeepers - training gloves
• B1: cones/markers, cleats (indoor/turf); goalkeepers - match gloves, should be the same cut/similar model as training gloves - read this article for more info: https://renegade-gk.com/blogs/the-renegade/how-to-cycle-your-goalie-gloves-and-save-money

What are some basic drills that I can do to improve my skills?

Running and fitness exercises for conditioning. Strength training. Dribbling around cones. Shooting with both feet into a goal of any size from multiple distances and angles.

How can I improve my tactical awareness?

Watch football! Read tactical analyses, such as The Athletic and The Guardian, and learn about positions and space. This channel does an excellent job of simplifying tactical concepts: https://www.youtube.com/@Tifo/featured

As someone just beginning to watch football, what's a good starting point?

Watch major international events like the World Cup, the Copa América, and the European Championship. In terms of clubs, the globally popular Premier League is a good starting point for finding a team to support or at least begin the experience of watching professional leagues. Elsewhere in Europe, Spain's La Liga (Primera División), Germany's Bundesliga, Italy's Serie A, and France's Ligue 1 make up the "big five leagues."

How can I go professional or join an academy?

If you do not live in Europe or South America, opportunities for joining the academies of professional teams are fairly limited.

It is easy to forget how ruthless academies really can be; former Germany captain Ilkay Gundogan of Manchester City described how he was released from the academy of his local club, Schalke 04, at the age of eight - https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/ilkay-gundogan-manchester-city-premier-league-soccer

In general, players (especially youth players) should not consider "going professional." It can be a dream, but not an expectation. (As up-and-coming Real Madrid midfielder Federico Valverde once remarked, "For every one kid who succeeds moving overseas, you don’t see the 100 who fail.") It's not easy in any way to become a professional.

How old is "too old" to start playing?

No age is really "too old," but if you are considering a fairly competitive/high level, players over the age of 10-13 might struggle to be accepted into an academy or similar level team.

What advice would you give to yourself if you were just starting out?

• "Football is a game you play with your brains." - Johan Cruyff, legendary Barcelona player and manager who revolutionised the tactical game (awarded European Player of the 20th Century by IFFHS in 1999).
• "Find the player whose attitude and motivation no longer comes from the coach, this is key in building success." - Marcelo Bielsa, Uruguay national team manager known for his intense and demanding coaching style
• "It took me 17 years and 114 days to become an overnight success." - Lionel Messi, Argentine national team and Inter Miami captain
• "The struggle is always worth something. The years of failure is what made the victory so overwhelming, and so sweet." -Ilkay Gundogan, Manchester City midfielder

Sundays I play 11s with a group. We are about 35-43 years old. Still very fast pace. I can keep up because I’m athletic. I play basketball and run track. I only started playing soccer in 2022… meanwhile everyone else has at least 15+ years of playing. I’ve been watching soccer since 2008. So I am well versed…. I’ve just never played before.

My biggest issue is my first tough… receiving the ball. The game is fast paced and I know what areas to go in to receive the ball but 4 outta 5 times I just have terrible touch receiving the ball. That leads to guys not getting me the ball which makes my next pass to me even less effective….. and so on and so forth.

What are some solo drills I can do in order to better my touch and be prepared to effectively receive the ball in game. I have started juggling almost a month ago and I think that has been helping… in another month I will be juggling consistently. Any other tips, drills, would be much appreciated.