All sports require physical and mental skills, and as the player practices more frequently and becomes more involved in the sport, he or she will acquire a number of health benefits in general, as well as personal skill development. Football is a sport that has the ability to foster personal growth, as it can stimulate the cognitive development of players, allowing them to have a greater ability to concentrate, make decisions under pressure and be creative problem solvers, as well as develop skills such as discipline, commitment, perseverance, resilience, empathy, leadership and emotional development.
The benefits for personal growth can be obtained at any age, but are most relevant in the early stages of life because this is when the personality develops. At an early age they can learn to play in a team and develop communication and social skills that are essential and necessary in adult life. Football for personal growth therefore offers immense potential for individual growth while creating strong community bonds with others who share similar goals on and off the pitch.
It also provides technical and cognitive skills that foster the player’s personal development. Football provides academic opportunities for the player to continue his high-level learning in the sport, while continuing his professional academic studies. There are a wide variety of universities around the world that offer sports scholarships. In the United States, young football players are highly valued, as reflected in the existence of more than a thousand universities offering football scholarship programmes. For example, in 2021, scholarships were awarded to more than 100 young Spanish footballers, with an average compensation valued at more than $23,000.
To obtain this scholarship requires a series of requirements such as sports level, not having played professionally, high school grade point average, having passed the SAT assessments which consists of science assessments such as mathematics, and written and linguistic comprehension, and the TOEFL which is an assessment of the level of English. In addition, you should prepare and submit your CV, which is recommended to include a sports video demonstrating your football skills and abilities.
On the other hand, the personal skills you have acquired over the course of your time in football and those you will perfect in the future, such as discipline, will be key for you to be able to combine your academic and football studies at a high level. Skills that must go hand in hand with certain values such as responsibility, and having your goal in mind.
NG players success story
In our academy we have trained and guided NG players so that after receiving the basic academic and essential football education with us, in their next stage they continue their higher studies in prestigious American universities and continue to develop as high-level football athletes. Among our main success stories are Pepe Cejudo, who earned a full athletic scholarship in football at Creighton University, representing the Creighton Men’s Soccer team, and graduated with honors in Business Administration at the end of his studies.
And Gino Vivi who also won a scholarship to study at the University of Central Florida, being part of the university’s official football team and studying Business and Communications with a specialisation in Digital Media, Vivi has now been signed to La Galaxy, a world-class Major League Soccer (MLG) club.