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More than one in
every five footballers in Germany will face an uncertain financial
future after the end of their careers, the German union of contracted
footballers (VdV) warned on Friday.

Days after Schalke
04 Coach, Felix Magath, urged teenager Julian Draxler to drop out of
school and focus solely on football, VdV’s managing director, Ulf
Baranowsky, told Reuters the sport may offer financial rewards but the
pitfalls are many. Draxler scored a sensational winner a minute before
the end of extra time to send his team into the German Cup semi-finals
over Nuremberg last month. The 17-year-old, the youngest Schalke player
to compete in the Bundesliga, was told by his coach he “did not need
the high school graduation diploma anymore”.

Baranowsky, who has
called Schalke’s action “irresponsible”, said it takes more than a good
few seasons to secure a player’s future. “It is questionable if you can
do without education just because you are a professional football
player,” he told Reuters in an interview. “More than 20 percent of
players, maybe even more, will face financial problems at the end of
their careers.” Only one out of 10 players, mainly those in big clubs
with long international careers, will have a guaranteed good financial
post-playing future. “The top 10 percent of the pyramid are secure,
that is players who play for the national team and European
competitions,” said Baranowsky.

Luxury lifestyle

Many others will
pay the price for a luxury lifestyle during their playing days, a lack
of education or bad investment choices that will leave them struggling,
he said. “The pyramid gets very wide lower down. There are huge
variations of salaries. In many cases, players at the end of their
careers have nothing left or even debt with no education or training
skills and that is a very dangerous situation.” The VdV is offering
members financial coaching and advice with some 20 percent of players
choosing to return to further their education or training skills. “Some
20 percent educate themselves further after the end of their career but
this figure needs to be much higher,” said Baranowsky. “Many start
thinking about it when they see the end of their careers approaching
but that is already too late because your career can end with the next
kick.”

Baranowsky said apart from the millions that top Bundesliga players
earn, a third or regional division player gets as little a few thousand
Euros a month. A few seasons in the lower leagues are not enough to
create a solid financial buffer. “We want to avoid the player having to
receive state aid,” he said. “But a lot depends on him and his family.
Players from families with education put a lot of emphasis on that for
the end of their career. Then there are those parents who do not want
to hear about education or that their son could fail in the sport. That
is dangerous because all their money is on football. There are a lot of
dark shadows in this profession, especially when a young man’s dream
bursts.”