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A sporting career is a dream for a lot of people. However, a career in sports doesn’t last forever, and at some point, you will have to consider what to do after your sporting days are over. Athletes often have to retire at a young age, sometimes just because they’re getting older or have been injured badly enough to prevent them from competing at a professional level. Sports come with a lot of risks, so it’s important to be prepared.

If you’ve had to retire due to an injury, you may be able to get a compensation payout, which will give you time to decide what to do. Contact a lawyer who knows how to deal with this, such as NFL disability lawyers. 

If you’re ready to find a new career path, you will need a few skills to make a successful transition. It’s important to have resilience, relationships, and education if you’re going to make a change. 

Anyone who has made a career out of professional sports already has resilience, optimism, and confidence. You already have a strong internal drive, which will help you to make a career after sports. You can develop these traits with coaching and support. 

To have a career after sport, you’re going to need formal education and some marketable skills. Those who continued their studies before going into sports will have a better chance of transitioning, than those who dropped them in favor of playing. You can also market the skills you learned in sport, such as leadership and team building, both of which can be easily transferred to another industry.  

You’ll also fare better if you have a strong network of personal and professional relationships. You’ll find it easier to make a big change if you have a strong social network to help you find new opportunities and experiment with a new role outside of the world of sport. Your professional connections can help too; this is why sports stars often move into positions in coaching, sports management, or sports agencies. 

It can be hard to know where to go after your dream career ends, but retiring from professional sport doesn’t have to be the end of your career altogether. You have skills that you can transfer to another industry. You already know you’re determined and driven, which will serve you well as you move to a new career direction. Use the skills you learned during your professional sports career to help you forge a new path. It can be a good idea to stay in formal education as long as you can, so you have some professional qualifications to fall back on after your time playing sports is over. If you have already left education, you could consider taking some courses or classes outside of your sports career to make progress outside of sports easier. Take a course in management if you’d like to be a sports manager or study something that interests you if you want to change to something completely different.