Tenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

Transition models (Wylleman and Lavallee 2014 holistic career model) have framed a previous study to explain how the players transition through their football careers. The previous study examined the developmental experiences of female footballers within three age groups and from six different countries. Despite these complexities the players navigate through their careers, however there is little known about the player to why they continue playing football with all the challenges they face. This study aims to redress this, a case study narrative approach (Douglass and Carless 2006), has been adopted during this study to elicit the players own life experiences and to identify and evaluate the decision-making processes they go through, to play at the elite level. Two players from a previous study were interviewed five years on from their original interviews to explore how they have continued to navigate through the complex journey of women’s football. The stories gave a more in-depth insight into the player’s careers and about the player. Resilience and player identity emerged to why these players continue to play at the elite level. The themes of migration and having to combine an academic/ vocation and elite sporting career successfully continued to develop from previous studies.