Career Development of Successful Indian football players : Analysis of Media Materials

Abstract: Objectives of the study were 1) To investigate patterns of career development of two successful Indian football through media analysis. 2) To identify factors of career success in male v/s female Indian football players. Methodology: This is a career development narrative study where media analysis was used. Two famous Indian football players (Aditi Chauhan and Sunil Chhetri) were chosen based on he/she had represented India at National and International level and had an extensive career of 15-20 years. As the players were not available to be interviewed, several types of media data were retrieved and analysed.Narrative thematic analysis and Holistic form structural analysis was performed for the stories of the players. Findings: within first analysis, seven career development themes were identified; how their interest got developed in sports, their entry into Indian football, their settlement into their football positions, international level exposures received by each, barriers experienced & sacrifices made by each, career difficulties v/s career incline, and their journey towards transition v/s retirement in their careers. Underlining the career stories, three factors (athletic, psychological, and psychosocial) were identified followed by five themes(planning & goal setting, routine, mindset of the player, motivation, and support system) and six subthemes (fitness & diet, growth, internal motivation, parents, and family) of perceived factors of career success of the footballers. Within second analysis, types of narratives were identified. For Aditi it was sink or swim narrative and for Sunil it was performance narrative. Discussion: Both stories reflected the positive side and negative side of sports. From the whole person and whole career approach three major athletic career stages came up for the athletes’ stories which was initiation, development, and discontinuation stages. Media data focussed on whole athlete and whole career approach where training, competitions, and personal life events got covered. Thus, suggested that perceived factors of success played a key role in career development of Indian football players.