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Soccer & Society

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From soccer to futsal: Brazilian elite level menplayers’ career pathways

Renato Francisco Rodrigues Marques, Astrid Schubring, Natalie Barker-Ruchti, Myrian Nunomura & Rafael Pombo Menezes

To cite this article: Renato Francisco Rodrigues Marques, Astrid Schubring, Natalie Barker-Ruchti,Myrian Nunomura & Rafael Pombo Menezes (2021) From soccer to futsal: Brazilian elite level menplayers’ career pathways, Soccer & Society, 22:5, 486-501, DOI: 10.1080/14660970.2020.1826936

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2020.1826936

Published online: 09 Oct 2020.

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From soccer to futsal: Brazilian elite level men players’ career pathwaysRenato Francisco Rodrigues Marques a, Astrid Schubring b, Natalie Barker-Ruchti c, Myrian Nunomura a and Rafael Pombo Menezes a

aSchool of Physical Education and Sport of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil; bDepartment of Food and Nutrition, and Sport Science, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden; cSchool of Health Sciences, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden

ABSTRACTMany Brazilian boys dream of a professional soccer career. During adoles-cence, however, many players move into futsal, a popular, less professio-nalized counterpart to soccer. To study players’ investment in a futsal career, this article aimed to understand how childhood socialization relates to players’ career development; to reconstruct the pathways players developed to become elite futsal athletes; and to identify reasons that led players to move from soccer to futsal. Semi-structured interviews with 18 Brazilian national team futsal players provided data. Bourdieu’s Theory of Social Fields helped to understand players’ investment in futsal. The results show that players experienced a fruitful social context and familial socialization that facilitated ‘ball-kicking capitals’; developed a habitus that better matched the futsal than the soccer subfield; and delegitimized soccer as a suitable environment to participate in. We conclude with critical implications for futsal and soccer stakeholders aim-ing to maintain/create attractive career environments in times of increas-ing professionalism.

Introduction

Soccer is deeply embedded in Brazilian everyday culture.1 It is practiced by 42.7% of the population, and children and adolescents are especially involved in this sport (58.9% of young Brazilians play soccer).2 Soccer also enjoys high social status and fame, despite the fact that 87% of professional players only earn Brazil’s minimum wage, or just above the minimum wage.3 Within this context of popularity, the professional soccer career is an attractive and accepted career option4 and it thus surprises little that the many boys that play soccer from a young age5 dream of becoming a professional soccer player.6

Developing a professional soccer career is not easy in Brazil and futsal provides an alternative possibility to this end.7 As a result, it is common for Brazilian boys who are not or are de-selected from soccer teams to move to futsal.8 Scholars have, however, paid little attention to players’ leaving soccer to build a career in futsal. Thus, the purpose of this article is to study Brazilian men players’ investment in a futsal career. Particularly, we aim to a) understand how childhood experiences and dispositions relate to players’ career development; b) reconstruct the pathways players develop to become elite futsal players; and c) identify reasons that led players to take distance from soccer and move into futsal. Addressing these three aims is important for several

CONTACT Renato Francisco Rodrigues Marques renatomarques@usp.br School of Physical Education and Sport of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP 14040-907, Brazil

SOCCER & SOCIETY 2021, VOL. 22, NO. 5, 486–501 https://doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2020.1826936

© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

reasons: First, the focus on career development will demonstrate how socio-cultural context and player experiences and dispositions interact to shape careers. Second, the longitudinal approach we adopt to understand this interaction over time, as well as the Bourdieusian framework we employ to consider how the players accumulated capitals to develop a futsal career, will provide novel insight into the decision-making players make as they develop careers. Third, our focus on Brazilian players generates a perspective from the Southern hemisphere, something that scholars have, by and large, missed.9 Lastly, the results of this article have potential to provide important implications for how soccer and futsal stakeholders can best manage and guide players’ career development.

This article begins with an overview of the development, the status and the career conditions of men futsal players in Brazil. We believe that this is necessary in order to contextualize our findings, but also to sketch differences and similarities between futsal and soccer as professional career contexts. We then present our theorization of career pathways based on Bourdieu’s sociological categories of field, subfield, capital, habitus, dispositions, and practice. Next, we outline our qualitative methodology and present our findings. We conclude by outlining implications for both soccer and futsal organizations.

Career and work conditions of Brazilian men futsal players

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) created futsal in 1989 from ‘Futebol de Salão’, which is a form of indoor soccer that is mainly practiced in South America, and from the ‘five-a-side’ game, which is more present in Europe.10 Today, futsal is a game governed by its own rules and is practiced globally.11 Despite distinct rules, soccer and futsal are similar in terms of the sports’ cultures and player actions, and indeed, it is common that matches of both sports are popularly called ‘soccer’.12 Many Brazilian clubs offer futsal and soccer teams, and it is common for players to move between these sports before reaching the elite level.13 Sometimes, the switching between the sports is supported by the belief that futsal and soccer training have complementary technical effects.14 In terms of participation, futsal is the fourth most practiced recreational activity that children and adolescents15 play, and the most practiced sport in schools in Brazil.16 Overall, this country has approximately 20 million informal male and female players and around 300,000 players registered by federations that participate in futsal.17

Internationally, Brazil has a prominent position in men’s futsal. This country has won a number of world titles18 and together with Spain, Italy and Russia, has one of the main men national professional leagues.19 Since the end of the 1990s, Brazilian futsal is undergoing a process of professionalization. It includes the creation of national leagues with a higher participation of clubs on management and commercial decisions, better labour conditions for players,20 and increased media coverage,21 which in sum is making the sport more attractive for developing a professional career. However, with regard to employment security at the elitel level, Brazilian futsal organizations not always offer secure and well-established work condi-tions to players.22 Consequently, clubs can engage players on their own terms and create any form of labour (e.g. regarding contract, social security, and health insurance). Thus, while futsal is gaining economic and media prominence,23 a number of players have begun to criticize federations and managers’ power and the professional conditions they are experiencing.24

In this context of ongoing professionalization, insecurity and criticism, little is known about professional futsal players’ career pathways, especially from a sociocultural perspective.25 This article will fill this gap by using Pierre Bourdieu’s theorization to understand how players’ career pathways are neither accidental nor pure personal choice, but are made possible through a connection of individual dispositions and sociocultural conditions.

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Theoretical framework

In order to understand futsal players’ career pathways as related to individual dispositions and sociocultural conditions, we draw on Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of field, subfield, capitals, practice, habitus and dispositions.26 Bourdieu understands society to consist of different and partially autonomous social spaces, which he calls social fields. Such fields have their own rules and history, which create specific relationships between individuals and groups of individuals.27 The fields can also involve a number of subfields, which respect the rules of the major field, but also present particularities.28 An example, which Bourdieu himself uses, is the field of sport.29 Based on this conceptualization of social spaces, we understand futsal and soccer as subfields within the wider field of sport.

In sport, as in any other social field, individuals and groups are positioned unequally. This positioning depends on individuals’ and groups’ possession of capitals that define their likeliness to gain recognition, legitimacy and power.30 In other words, capitals offer symbolic power to their owners, which less privileged individuals or groups within the field (dominated agents) recognize and respect as legitimate.31 Capitals are distinguishable in four ways: economic capital, which relates to the possession of money; social capital, which derives from the network of interpersonal relationships agents may have; cultural capital, which relates to knowledge and the possession of goods and certifications that have cultural value; and symbolic capital, which relates to agents’ social prestige within a specific field or subfield.32

Within and/or between different fields (or subfields), capitals can be converted. For example, economic capital can be converted to cultural capital through the access that monetary capital affords. Economic capital may also generate social capital as individuals become members of privileged groups. However, conversion of capital requires agents to aim for and work towards additional gains.33 For example, in the field of sport, the incorporated cultural capital related to some kind of knowledge and cultural background can be converted to (sport) symbolic capital in the same social space through the agents’ investment and work on that.

Other important feature of Bourdieu’s theory is habitus. Bourdieu defines habitus as a ‘structured and structuring structure’, which can be understood as a set of dispositions, ways of thinking, living and acting, which individuals acquire through socialization in a field.34 Habitus is thus not something ‘naturally given’, but a social product that relates to the rules and power struggles in social fields.35 Further, habitus provides individuals with a kind of boundary that will lead their agency and practice, a product that is generated by the dispositions embodied by agents and the objective structure within which they act.36

With relevance to our article, we understand soccer/futsal player career development to be influenced by the soccer and futsal sub-fields, players’ positioning and the capitals that they bring to and develop within these sub-fields, and importantly, the habitus that players develop in relation to these contexts and individual dispositions. Iellatchich, Mayrhofer and Meyer37 express this inter-play of structure and agency in their research on work-role transitions:

. . . the social context within which individual members of the workforce, who are equipped with a specific portfolio of field-relevant capitals, try to maintain or improve their place in the given and unfolding network of work-related positions through a patterned set of practices which are enabled and constrained by the rules of the field and, in turn, contribute to shaping of these rules.

In this sense, both futsal and soccer players’ career pathways heavily depend on the types and extent of capitals that they have or can develop, and the suitability of these capitals for either (or possibly both) the soccer and futsal sub-fields. The search for a better career position also involves the possibility of moving in and through sub-fields, according to the opportunities and the fit between the individuals capitals and the sub-spaces they participate in.38

Before we turn to examine how futsal players moved into and out of the sub-field of soccer to develop their careers in futsal, we present the research methods that produced futsal players’ career development data.

488 R. F. R. MARQUES ET AL.

Research methods

The research presented in this article is part of a larger qualitative research project about sport career development in Brazilian men elite futsal, entitled ‘Sport careers of men national futsal team players: sociocultural and pedagogical issues experienced by athletes’. The overall project was designed as a retrospective interview study to investigate sociocultural conditions that influence the career pathways and habitus construction of Brazilian men elite futsal players.

The project obtained ethical approval from the Research Ethics Committee of the first author’s university and all ethical criteria have been met.

Participants and recruitment

The criteria for futsal players to be included in the project were: (a) being a men elite futsal player; (b) having played at least one match in the 2014, 2015, or 2016 Brazilian men’s National Futsal League; and (c) having already played at least one match for the Brazilian men senior national team. Based on these criteria, the article’s first author contacted five managers of Brazilian men elite-level futsal clubs to invite players to interviews and provide possible dates and suitable locations. With this invitation, the clubs and players were assured that the research would conform to ethical standards and would not interfere with players’ training and/or competition activities. In total, 18 players were recruited. The players were assigned with the codes P1 to P18 to protect their identities.

Data production and analysis

Data production involved one semi-structured interview with each player. In order to gain insight into the dialectic relationship between social context and players’ habitus and career development, the interview guide contained questions on players’ personal and futsal career backgrounds (e.g. can you tell me about your first experiences with futsal practice?) and questions that explored the social relations and structures that influenced the constitution of dispositions for futsal (e.g. can you tell me about the role of your coaches for your futsal career?). Thematically, the guide was structured into five sections: (a) Personal background information (e.g., birth date and place, education); (b) Futsal career characteristics (e.g., entry age, reasons and conditions of entry, engagement); (c) Leisure and sport experiences before futsal specialization; (d) Influence of social agents on players’ career development (e.g., family, coaches, managers, colleagues); and (e) Training and competition routines during different career stages. In addition to open-ended questions, probing was used to encourage exploration and in-depth narration.39 Interviews lasted between 30 and 60 minutes. Each interview was digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim, which produced 303 A4 pages of single- spaced text.

Braun and Clarke’s40 thematic analysis procedure was used to analyse the data. This entailed two steps: First, data of the overall project were analysed by the first author of this article using an inductive procedure to code ‘the data without trying to fit it into a pre-existing coding frame, or the researcher’s analytic preconceptions’.41 From 928 initial codes, five overarching themes were identified to be of analytic interest for the overall project’s aims: ‘Move between soccer and futsal’; ‘Intra-national migration process during youth’; ‘Futsal players’ dual career’; ‘Familial influence’; and ‘Varied sports practices in youth’ (see Figure 1).

Second, the analysis was more explicitly analyst-driven’42 and narrowed down to the data relevant to the study presented in this article, namely the theme ‘Move between soccer and futsal’. Particularly, the reasons the futsal players provided for why they left soccer to develop a futsal career sparked interest, not only to understand career development per se, but to provide implications to both soccer and futsal organizations for the loss of players from the former, and gain of players for the latter sport. In this second analytic step, line-by-line analysis conducted by the first author to re-

SOCCER & SOCIETY 489

code the ‘move between soccer and futsal’ data generated analytic categories related to the aim of this article and the Bourdieusian concepts of field, subfield, capital, habitus, dispositions and practice.

Preliminary drafts of themes, as well as data interpretations, were discussed back and forth in the author team using emails, digital meetings, and research visits. This iterative triangulation of researchers’ meaning-making43 led to a final condensation of data and the identification of the following themes and sub-themes: ‘Transforming the “ball-kicking games” habitus into futsal habitus’, which relates to how the players’ ball games habitus was built during childhood and transformed into futsal habitus, as well as the disposition to move into this latter sport; and ‘Investment in a futsal career’, which describes that after the accumulation of more futsal specific symbolic capital, and a period of investment in a futsal career and distancing themselves from soccer, they developed elite-level performance.

For the latter theme, two sub-themes of players’ investment into a futsal career emerged. The first sub-theme, ‘Three different pathways of investment in a futsal career’, reflects the similarities and differences in players’ career pathways, such as moving away from soccer to invest in futsal (similarity) and players’ individual pathway to a futsal career (differences). We could distinguish three types of pathways in the players: a) The failed soccer career; b) The later futsal career; and c) The early futsal career. This typology is based on a process of generalization, to allow for players’ descriptions to fit into one of these three groups. The second sub-theme, ‘Mismatch between the structure of soccer subfield and futsal players’ habitus’, referred to events that created distance between the futsal players’ habitus and the soccer subfield. Figure 1 presents an overview of this article’s themes and sub-themes.

As an important analytic step on sub-theme ‘Mismatch between the structure of soccer subfield and futsal players’ habitus’, we grouped the interviewed players into three types of career pathways: Players that failed to build a soccer career (‘failed soccer career’); Players that were able to invest in both sports and preferred futsal for enjoyment or economic reasons (‘later futsal career’); and a player that did not try a soccer career (‘early futsal career’). This typology illustrates the interrelation between soccer and futsal careers and reflects the cultural proximity of these two sub- fields in Brazil, where especially young players often engage in both. Table 1 details the players in each category and the average age when they invested only in a futsal career.

In the following section, we will introduce and discuss the article’s themes and sub-themes by giving insight into and interpretations of the player’s accounts. Where relevant, we include

Figure 1. Map of the data analysis process.

490 R. F. R. MARQUES ET AL.

representative quotations from the interviews with players. The first author of this article translated these quotations from Portuguese to English. Authors two and three revised the translated quota-tions and where necessary, adjusted for readability.

Results and discussion

Following, we present findings from the ‘Transforming the “ball-kicking games” habitus into futsal habitus’ and the ‘Investment in a futsal career’ themes. The themes interrelate to explain the construction of players’ dispositions for futsal and their career development. Responding to the article’s first aim, we start with presenting the findings on the players’ preferences of and identifica-tion with futsal, and their rejection of soccer as a good environment to participate in.

Transforming the ‘ball-kicking games’ habitus into futsal habitus

The majority of the participants had, at the time of the interviews, played and been socialized into both futsal and soccer during childhood and adolescence. The initial disposition to become a professional soccer player was, however, a recurring theme in their accounts. All participants used ‘playing soccer’ as a generic term to describe the habitual practice of performing diverse forms of ‘ball-kicking games’44 in their daily lives. Generally, the passion for playing ball games was raised as a part of the interviewees’ childhood habitus. The explanations provided by players 2 and 8 (goalkeeper) illustrate these experiences:

During childhood, there was a soccer field behind my home. So, I used to arrive from school at midday and hear the sound of balls bouncing on the floor. Immediately, I ran to the field. I did not mind whether I had had lunch or not. I used to play until 6pm, every single day. My life was just about this, playing soccer all day long.

My older brother was a goalkeeper and when he arrived at home, we used to play and train together. He taught me a lot. Then, I began to enjoy it. Sometimes, I didn’t go to school in order to watch my brother’s training session or to play with him.

The interview quotations point to how players through repeated engagement in ball-kicking games accumulated cultural soccer and futsal capitals, contributing to the building of their habitus. The key contexts this occurred in were the players’ neighbourhoods and families (the later which provided the access to cultural family inheritance45). In other words, being socialized into practicing ball-kicking games may have supported the players to convert the gained sport cultural and social capitals into sport symbolic capital, which made the development of a sporting career meaningful. This dispositional development provided the players with a solid foundation from where a professional career in the field of soccer/futsal could be developed. One significant example of how players converted social capital into sport capital is P3, whose father’s former professional soccer player status did not only provide his son with opportunities to learn from him, but also, and importantly, created social expectations as to his performance and game style.

Table 1. Futsal players’ career pathways.

Career pathways Players

Number of players

Age when started to invest only in futsal career (average ± standard deviation)

Failed soccer career

P2, P4, P5, P6, P7, P10, P13, P15

8 18,3 ± 2,7

Later futsal career

P1, P3, P8, P11, P12, P14, P16, P17, P18

9 15,9 ± 1,6

Early futsal career

P9 1 7

Total — 18 16,4 ± 3,3

SOCCER & SOCIETY 491

Only at my first tournament, I have played as pivot in futsal matches. My father was a professional soccer player; he was a forward, a striker. Then people thought, before I start to train, that I would be forward as him. I only played as pivot in this tournament, we were runner-up, but in the following season, I have developed good anticipation and defense skills, so the coach positioned me as a defender.

Although the players included in this study participated in both soccer and futsal, most of them aimed for a professional soccer career. This career perspective is illustrated in the following quote by player 6:

I didn’t choose futsal as the first career plan. I really liked to play it, but it was my second plan as career. To play soccer professionally is the dream of any boy. I had that dream. However, some facts influenced me to change my mind about a soccer career and to consider becoming a futsal player.

The reasons players gave for their initial dream of a professional career in soccer included the possibilities of fame and a large salary. The quotations below from players 12 and 15 illustrate the gains they hoped to make:

Why soccer? Because of the money. It’s not possible to compare [soccer] with futsal. The glamour and the fame are bigger [in soccer].

I’ve seen soccer players becoming successful, being known. The futsal players have less fame and recognition. It is not possible to compare them.

The hope for greater gains in economic, social, and sport symbolic capitals played an important role in steering the majority of the players’ initial dispositions towards a soccer career. A professional sport career may offer social upward movement and a way to gain national and international fame, as has been illustrated, notably in soccer.46

On the other hand, the majority of the players developed important futsal career dispositions during childhood and adolescence. An extreme example is player 9 who never thought about a career in soccer and focused only on training and competing in futsal. He stated that he preferred futsal because he considered it more dynamic, exciting and harder to play:

I’ve never enjoyed soccer. Obviously, I played for leisure, but it was not something that I liked to do. I have always preferred futsal. I also don’t have patience to watch soccer or play [soccer] video games.

Besides P9, nine other players (P1, P3, P8, P11, P12, P14, P16, P17, P18) declared the preference (for diverse reasons and in different periods of life) to play and invest in a futsal career. Examples are players 1 and 16 (goalkeeper) that highlighted similar reasons as P9.

I started [my sport career] in futsal. After that, I tried to play soccer. However, I love futsal. I have had the opportunity to invest in a soccer career in the same club that I became a professional futsal player. But I preferred futsal because of my identification with this game. My heart beats stronger for futsal, maybe because of the characteristics of this game. It is possible to decide [the result of] a match in a few seconds.

I started [my sport career] playing soccer. Yes, it is a good game. I like to play it for leisure. However, as I began to play futsal, I fell in love. Certainly, I prefer to play futsal. Soccer can be attractive for money, media, and fame. But futsal has improved in these aspects, and comparing them [soccer and futsal], I prefer futsal.

In addition, P3 described that the preference for futsal motivated him to invest in it, even if this involved contradicting his father.

I always preferred futsal. My father wanted that I play soccer and the decision [to play futsal] was my first as an adult man. It was the most important decision of my life. I contested my father to demonstrate that I prefer futsal.

Related to the differences between soccer- and futsal-specific capitals, several players stated that futsal, in comparison to soccer, required refined skills to play. Player 3 gave an illustrative example:

I think that futsal has greater tactical demands. To play futsal, I must make a move that will not disturb the move of my colleague. I need to know who is playing with me.

492 R. F. R. MARQUES ET AL.

These futsal-specific demands can be connected to the need to make decisions in a short period of time and within a small space.47 As outlined by the interviewees, futsal players need to develop a sport-specific cultural capital that differs from soccer. In other words, the sport symbolic capital players need in the futsal subfield is not identical to the one required in soccer, which results in players occupying different positions within each subfields’ career structures, according to the relative value of their capitals.48 This accumulation of futsal-specific capitals is a product of the players’ childhood experiences and cultural backgrounds from the lived sociocultural context, which contributed to construct their ball-kicking habitus.49

Despite the initial interests of the majority of the interviewees in being soccer players, all became elite-level futsal players in the end and were able to improve their futsal symbolic capitals and adopt valued social positions in the Brazilian futsal subfield. For most of the players, the investment in a futsal career started during adolescence, which involved the transformation of their ball-kicking games into a futsal habitus, and investment in a futsal career.

Investment in a futsal career

In this section, we present findings from the sub-themes: ‘Three different pathways of investment in a futsal career’ and ‘Mismatch between the structure of soccer subfield and futsal players’ habitus’. Responding to the second article aim, we first present the three types of futsal career pathways we could reconstruct from the players’ career accounts. Next, we answer to the third article aim by outlining how the players, on the one hand, legitimized futsal as a better subfield to participate in, and on the other, de-legitimized soccer as a suitable subfield.

Three different pathways of investment in a futsal careerAlthough most interviewed players’ primary plan was to develop a soccer career, they transformed their ball-kicking habitus into futsal habitus during adolescence and early adulthood. A commonly mentioned reason for this transformation was that they preferred to play futsal over soccer, and experienced greater satisfaction in playing futsal. Furthermore, interviewees were aware that good futsal players, or former futsal players, can gain recognition and symbolic power beyond the futsal subfield, as exemplified by Falcão50 and Ronaldinho,51 and suggested by literature.52

The career pathways of the interviewed players varied and were closely connected to career development and opportunities, as well as the dispositions players were able to develop through the accumulation of specific capitals. While the career pathways of the interviewed players varied, we could – as detailed in the analysis section – identify three types of career pathways, which we will present below: a) The failed soccer career; b) The later futsal career; and c) The early futsal career.

The players with the ‘failed soccer career’, independent of the reasons for their unsuccessful development of a soccer career, showed some frustration related to this. These players initially invested in soccer rather than futsal. However, the lack of success in the first sport, and the success in futsal, motivated them to change their pathways and goals. The appeal of economic and sport symbolic capitals (to be a national futsal team player) to be gained in the futsal subfield gradually influenced the players’ habitus, leading them to perceive a career in futsal as a possibility that could be worth to invest in. Illustrating this change in habitus, players 13 and 4 (both goalkeepers) said the following:

I started giving up the soccer career. I liked to play it [. . .], but [I was not tall and] just let in too many goals over me. It was obvious that I was not able to reach the goalpost. In futsal, I could fly and touch the bar, reach the ball. Then I said, ‘Dad, I want to play futsal’.

I would have preferred a soccer career. However, I have no regrets. I built a solid career in futsal. Only few players can say that they have played in the senior Brazilian national team. I can say this.

SOCCER & SOCIETY 493

Other reasons the players mentioned for moving from soccer to futsal included their game style, which suited futsal better than soccer (a consequence of the accumulation of futsal capital), as described by P2:

I was 18 years old, playing for a soccer club. Then an agent proposed to try to play futsal, because of my game style. He believed that I would adapt and perform better in futsal. I did it and got success.

In contrast to the players for whom futsal was the ‘second plan’ (‘failed soccer career’), the ‘later futsal career’ players highlighted their passion (read dispositions) for futsal as the main reason for creating a career in this sport. In this case, we highlight the players’ pathways related to the investment in futsal as the prior sport career, despite opportunities in soccer. Player 18 provided exemplary reasoning:

Futsal doesn’t have the same media approach in comparison to soccer, or the same money and fame. However, when I first played futsal, I fell in love. When school time was over, I used to happily go to the futsal training session. I played soccer during adolescence, but it wasn’t the same thing. The passion for futsal was bigger.

Another important aspect mentioned by the players with this career pathway was the potential to earn a good salary, which demonstrates the importance and influence of economic capital over habitus, but differs from the conditions of young soccer players in Brazil.53 The players explained that during adolescence, futsal clubs offered them wages and that these salaries were higher compared to those offered by soccer clubs. Player 17 narrated:

At 16, I received a proposal to earn US$ 350.00 per month to play futsal, with accommodation, food and private school paid for. In comparison, a soccer club offered me US$ 60.00.

Further, interviewees discussed the large difference among soccer players’ salaries. While few soccer players earn high wages, the majority earns relatively little. The players’ questioning of salary discrepancies in soccer is supported by literature.54 The interviewees further argued that while the best wages in futsal are not comparable to the best wages in soccer,55 an average futsal salary could still offer a comfortable lifestyle. Taken together, the quotations highlight marked differences between the economic capitals accessible for players in the futsal and soccer subfields, as well as differences in their distribution and accessibility to players within the soccer subfield.

The third career pathway, the ‘early futsal career’, was only taken by player 9. In this case, rather than to prioritize futsal, and differently from players from ‘later futsal career’, P9 had never experienced systematic soccer practice. He mentioned that his passion for futsal and lack of identification with soccer worked as decisive dispositions for investing in a futsal career. As illustrated earlier, player 9 recounted that he had never liked soccer:

I have never had that dream to be a soccer player. My childhood friends said: ‘You’re the only one that doesn’t play soccer’. I don’t like it.

Mismatch between the structure of soccer subfield and futsal players’ habitusThe interviewed players criticized soccer, describing discomfort with the structure of this subfield. This kind of manifestation can be read as a mismatch between their habitus (well aligned to futsal subfield) and values and practices in the soccer subfield. This kind of agency to legitimize one practice over another is common and expected from individuals within social (sub)fields.56

The interviewed players mentioned that they perceived soccer as a dirtier and more corrupt environment than futsal, a subfield they considered as a more peaceful and fair social space:

Soccer, during my adolescence, was a corrupt environment, full of roguery. It scared me. There was theft in the locker room (P17).

Soccer is dirty. There’s no way to live in that environment (P2).

494 R. F. R. MARQUES ET AL.

For these two players (P17 and P2), as for two others, the soccer subfield consisted of a context of exaggerated competition between players, where players’ status, career positions and opportunities did not always corresponded with the athletes’ skills and performance, making this sport a problematic environment to work in. Players 6 and 13 detailed:

Soccer is very unfair. It’s just about marketing. The main criterion for a player to sign a contract is to be supported by a career agent. This kind of thing made me get away from soccer and be closer to futsal. In futsal, players’ skill and talent are the main criteria. It’s fairer.

In soccer, the competition between players is fiercer than in futsal. It is disloyal, because each one is struggling for his own place. The relationships aren’t good. In futsal, the social environment is wonderful. There’s a feeling of collectivism, because more players participate during the matches and all of them have the chance to play, this differs from soccer.57

The players’ contrasting descriptions of the two subfields may partly relate to the above descriptions of a more equal distribution of salaries in futsal, and a more professionalized labour market in soccer, in relation to the wages’ values, legislation, and the merchandising of players.

Although the futsal men players’ professional careers in Brazil are increasingly becoming regulated and formalized by labour relations and better working conditions, their management is still unclear.58 Players commented that in comparison to soccer, there are less career agents supporting futsal players, and the relationships between different stakeholder groups (e.g., players, coaches, managers) were experienced as more solidary in futsal. The players also mentioned that in the futsal subfield, players’ symbolic (sport) capitals were more important for a successful career pathway then the social capitals that could be gained (or lost) through contact with player agents or marketing strategies. As the labour market for futsal elite players is economically limited, it is less common for them to be able to count with the support of a career agent to negotiate their transfers. Thus, futsal players have more autonomy than soccer players to choose between clubs and employ-ment conditions. However, some players indicated that having a career agent can be an advanta-geous social capital for an international career pathway. Player 11 commented:

I started to play professionally at the age of 20. I’ve never had the support of a career agent. Normally, clubs come to me and we negotiate contracts. However, I’ve just signed an agreement with an [career] agent. He is a good person that is working hard in futsal. He has been supporting many players. Many young players are playing abroad because of his work.

At the same time that the futsal players’ professional career conditions are improving, career agents are earning more symbolic power within this subfield. This process can, in the future, have similar consequences for players’ marketing to those in the soccer subfield, which can be compared to an industry of players, heavily dependent on marketing actions59 to improve their economic, social and sport symbolic capitals. However, futsal stakeholders still have the opportunity to drive the professional career conditions through a more player-centred approach, considering players not as commodities, but as workers that deserve autonomy to manage their own career pathways.

Although the action of career agents can add symbolic and thus marketing value to young players,60 the interviewees described that managers and career agents limit players’ autonomy and empowerment to manage their own careers, a problem also addressed in others’ sport sociological studies.61 As examples, P14 and P15 described their problematic experiences with agents in soccer:

The agent said ‘They [club] want to hire you. How much money do you want?’ [. . .] We talked about it and I was hired. However, the club didn´t pay me the whole salary. They used to pay 30%, then after two weeks 40% . . . There was a problem! [. . .] Then I talked with him [the agent] and he didn´t do anything [. . .] He used to say ‘I don´t know anything about it’, but obviously he knew [. . .] actually, no agent is trustable. I know a lot of them. All they want is to earn money [. . .] They [agents] organise a contract, take their money and disappear. Don´t want to know if you are ok, if you are earning your wage.

SOCCER & SOCIETY 495

The agent said that he would help with the costs for travel and accommodation in Italy. However, the soccer club said that this agent asked as payment five times the amount of money he had invested [. . .] the club agreed, and after the signing of the contract, this agent disappeared. I was 17 years old and have been three months there. I was illegal there, alone, without help from anybody, especially from this agent. He abandoned me [. . .] After some time, the club paid a flight ticket so I could get back to Brazil.

P7 also criticized the need for young players to have an agent in order to have a chance at signing a playing contract:

I did several tests for soccer clubs [during young age]. I was selected by one, but the manager said that I should pay all my costs with accommodation and food. I couldn´t afford that. As I didn’t count with an agent as intermediary [to pay for that, or to negotiate with managers], I would never have a chance to play for a soccer club.

The quotations exemplify that some players also experienced loss of autonomy over their career development in soccer with career agents having the power to decide and influence their profes-sional lives. Agents’ deceit and abandonment of players can be interpreted with Bourdieu’s concept symbolic violence.62 The interviewed players’ rather negative attitudes towards career agents may thus be the results of both bad experiences with agents in the soccer subfield, and experiences of autonomous agency when successfully negotiating their own job agreements with clubs in the futsal subfield, where career agents are less present.

Summary and implications

The purpose of this study was to investigate Brazilian men players’ move away from soccer to invest in a futsal career. Bourdieu’s theory of social fields allowed us to theorize players’ career pathways as influenced by habitus, capitals and previous social positions occupied in the soccer and the futsal subfields. More specifically, our results demonstrate that social context and familial socialization are key factors that influence players’ access to and accumulation of capitals in ball-kicking games during childhood and youth. We further identify how players’ generic ‘ball-kicking habitus’ developed into a habitus that better matched the futsal subfield, a process which at some point resulted in the players’ investment in a futsal career. Within the whole group of 18 elite futsal players, we could reconstruct three different types of career pathways ranging from ‘early futsal career’ to ‘later futsal career’ and ‘failed soccer career’. While we are aware that further types of career pathways may exist, knowledge of the identified pathways can support stakeholders in the elaboration of more diversified player development programmes.

When it comes to the reasons that led players to take distance from soccer and move into futsal, we could identify the following causes to play a key role: Players’ dispositions to enjoy playing futsal over soccer; players’ experience of the futsal subfield as a fairer environment to live and develop a sport career in; and players’ perception of futsal as a more profitable practice at the beginning of a sport professional career.

It is important to recognize that the participants at the time of this study were successful futsal players, who had not only embodied a ‘futsal way of life’ as habitus, but also enjoyed the status of a legitimate and recognized elite group in Brazilian futsal. This status was reflected by a consensual feeling of pride to be elite level futsal players. Players stressed the value of their sport symbolic capital and even those that failed in soccer did not present regrets about their professional career in futsal. We interpret players’ de-legitimization of soccer as a reflection of their futsal habitus and agency in struggling for a better position within the field of sport.

In order to further advance the sociocultural research on futsal players’ career development, we recommend future studies to focus on career pathways of women players and to pay attention to the career realities of sub-elite players. Our results further highlight the increasing professionalism in the futsal subfield as exemplified by recent associations between players and career agents. While this process can lead to increased media coverage and marketing actions, and may increase young

496 R. F. R. MARQUES ET AL.

players’ interest in futsal, it can also result in reproducing the issues evident in professional soccer. Critical research is needed to accompany futsal’s professionalization process and to provide stakeholders with theoretical and empirical information about prerequisites of successful career development in futsal to avoid problems that can detract young players as the interviewees recounted for the case of soccer.

The interviewed players’ career pathways showed different stages of professionalism and market-ing between soccer and futsal subfields. Based on our results, we consider it as important for futsal stakeholders to make this sport less symbolically linked to soccer, creating conditions that offer interesting career opportunities to young players. Besides that, the findings contest a common perception that futsal would be simply a game that can help to develop soccer players’ skills.

For soccer, we suggest that stakeholders pay attention to the issues described by the futsal players in our study, especially the exaggerated competitiveness between young players, the influence of career agents on young player’s career opportunities and success, the perceived unfair sporting environment, especially due to the amount of money involved in youth and elite levels, and the large gap between professionals’ salaries. Based on this article’s results, we want to stress the considerable difference between Brazilian soccer and futsal subfields regarding their social structure, players’ agency (the practical actions within these subfields), and opportunities to accumulate capitals. This can result in mismatches between player habitus and subfields, which can lead to players moving away from soccer and/or prefer a career in futsal.

In conclusion, our study highlights that the investment and career success in a sport field is not simply a product of players’ rational will or choices, but tied to familial socialization, previous experiences, cultural backgrounds, and habitus development, which together produce dispositions and career pathways. This insight calls for critical reflection on child and youth sport activities and the possibilities of development of dispositions for practice that will influence individuals’ future agency in the sport field.

Notes

1. Gaffney, ‘Virando o Jogo: The Challenges and Possibilities for Social Mobilization in Brazilian Football’; Damo, ‘Training Soccer Players in Brazil.’

2. Brasil, ‘Diesporte: Diagnóstico Nacional Do Esporte.’3. Ig Esporte, ‘Metade Dos Jogadores No Brasil Ganha Só Um Salário Mínimo. E Isso Não Deve Mudar.’4. Ribeiro and Dimeo, ‘The Experience of Migration for Brazilian Football Players.’5. Damo, ‘Training Soccer Players in Brazil.’6. Rial, ‘Rodar: A Circulação Dos Jogadores de Futebol Brasileiros No Exterior’; Soares et al., ‘Relationship

between formation of young players in Brazil and education’.7. Tedesco, ‘“Feet Exportation”. Brazilian Futsal Players in Italy and Transnational Networks’; Sá et al., ‘A

Influência Do Futsal Nas Posições de Atletas de Futebol Do Santos Futebol Clube.’8. Cavichiolli et al., ‘O Processo de Formação Do Atleta de Futsal e Futebol: Análise Etnográfica.’9. Graeff et al., ‘Capable, Splendorous and Unequal: International Media Portrayals of Brazil during the 2014

World Cup.’10. Futebol de salão was created during the 1930s in South America. It is a game based on football rules, but was

adapted to the basketball court size at the time. Similarly, ‘five-a-side’ is a version of football played on a small field.11. Moore and Radford, ‘Is Futsal Kicking off in England? A Baseline Participation Study of Futsal.’12. Scaglia, O Futebol e as Brincadeiras de Bola.13. Cavichiolli et al., ‘Formation proccess of indoor and outdoor soccer athletes: an ethnographical analysis’.14. Yiannaki, Carling, and Collins, ‘Could Futsal Hold the Key to Developing the next Generation of Youth Soccer

Players?’; Travassos, Araújo, and Davids, ‘Is Futsal a Donor Sport for Football?: Exploiting Complementarity for Early Diversification in Talent Development.’

15. Brasil, ‘Diesporte: Diagnóstico Nacional Do Esporte.’16. Voser and Giusti, O Futsal e a Escola: Uma Perspectiva Pedagógica.17. Bello Junior, ‘Futsal Uma Reflexão Pedagógica.’18. The Brazilian men senior national team has won seven world titles. Two of them in 1982 and 1985, on Futebol

de Salão, when world championships were organized by the now folded Federação Internacional de Futebol de

SOCCER & SOCIETY 497

Salão (FIFUSA). The Brazilian men futsal world titles were won in 1989, 1992, 1996, 2008 and 2012, all of them in championships organized by FIFA.

19. Marques and Marchi Júnior, ‘Media Coverage on Brazilian Men’s Futsal: National Senior Team Players’ Perspective,’ 2019.

20. Marques and Marchi Júnior, ‘O Futsal Brasileiro Após a Mudança Na Gestão Da CBFS: Transformação Da Estrutura Social e Do Habitus Esportivo’; and Marques and Marchi Júnior, ‘Migration for Work: Brazilian Futsal Players’ Labor Conditions and Disposition for Mobility.’

21. Marques and Marchi Júnior, ‘Media Coverage on Brazilian Men’s Futsal: National Senior Team Players’ Perspective,’ 2019.

22. Marques and Marchi Júnior, ‘Migration for Work: Brazilian Futsal Players’ Labor Conditions and Disposition for Mobility.’

23. Marques and Marchi Júnior, ‘Media Coverage on Brazilian Men’s Futsal: National Senior Team Players’ Perspective,’ 2019.

24. Marques and Marchi Júnior, ‘O Futsal Brasileiro Após a Mudança Na Gestão Da CBFS: Transformação Da Estrutura Social e Do Habitus Esportivo.’

25. Moore et al., ‘A Systematic Review of Futsal Literature.’26. Bourdieu, Sociology in Question; Bourdieu, Practical Reasons: On the Theory of Action; Bourdieu, Outline of

a Theory of Practice; Bourdieu and Wacquant, An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology.27. Bourdieu, Sociology in Question.28. ibid.29. Bourdieu, ‘Program for a Sociology of Sport’; Bourdieu, Sociology in Question.30. Bourdieu, ‘Program for a Sociology of Sport’; Bourdieu, Sociology in Question; Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social

Critique of the Judgement of Taste; Bourdieu, Dauncey, and Hare, ‘The State, Economics and Sport.’31. Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste.32. Bourdieu, ‘The Forms of Capital’; Bourdieu and Wacquant, ‘Symbolic Capital and Social Classes.’33. Bourdieu, ‘The Forms of Capital.’34. Bourdieu, Sociology in Question.35. Bourdieu, Practical Reasons: On the Theory of Action.36. Ibid.37. Iellatchitch, Mayrhofer, and Meyer, ‘Career Fields: A Small Step towards a Grand Career Theory?’, 732.38. Iellatchitch, Mayrhofer, and Meyer; Schubring and Thiel, ‘Growth Problems in Youth Elite Sports. Social

Conditions, Athletes’ Experiences and Sustainability Consequences.’39. Smith and Sparkes, Qualitative Research Methods in Sport, Exercise and Health: From Process to Product.40. Braun and Clarke, ‘Thematic Analysis’; Braun and Clarke, ‘Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology’; Braun

and Clarke, ‘Reflecting on Reflexive Thematic Analysis.’41. Ibid., 83.42. Braun and Clarke, 84.43. Flick, Qualitative Sozialforschung: Eine Einführung [Qualitative Research. An Introduction].44. Scaglia, O Futebol e as Brincadeiras de Bola.45. Bourdieu and Passeron, Os Herdeiros: Os Estudantes e a Cultura.46. Müller, Simons, and Weinmann, ‘Beyond Crowd Judgments: Data-Driven Estimation of Market Value in

Association Football.’47. Grieve and Garrido, From Futsal to Football: Everything You Wanted to Know about Coaching Futsal. . .and

How Can Use It to Develop Better Football Players.48. Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste.49. Bourdieu, Sociology in Question.50. Falcão is a Brazilian former futsal player named by FIFA as the World’s Best Futsal Player in 2004, 2006, 2011,

and 2012. He was also hired as professional soccer player by São Paulo FC in 2005.51. Ronaldinho is a Brazilian former professional soccer player and former futsal amateur player. He has been

named by FIFA as World’s Best Soccer Player in 2004 and 2005.52. Dimeo and Ribeiro, ‘“I Am Not a Foreigner Anymore”: A Micro-Sociological Study of the Experiences of

Brazilian Futsal Players in European Leagues.’53. Soares et al., ‘Relationship between formation of young players in Brazil and education.’54. Ribeiro and Dimeo, ‘The Experience of Migration for Brazilian Football Players’; Berlinschi, Schokkaert, and

Swinnen, ‘When Drains and Gains Coincide: Migration and International Football Performance.’55. Many under-20 team players have close contact with senior players in the clubs, especially during training

sessions. Young athletes thus easily access salary-related information through informal talks.56. Bourdieu, Sociology in Question.57. Futsal rules permit that all teams’ players can participate in the match. There is no limit to substitutions

among line-up and bench players, in contrast to soccer. Because of this, it is very common that the majority or even all futsal bench players can play regularly.

498 R. F. R. MARQUES ET AL.

58. Marques and Marchi Júnior, ‘Migration for Work: Brazilian Futsal Players’ Labor Conditions and Disposition for Mobility.’

59. Poli, ‘Understanding Globalization through Football: The New International Division of Labour, Migratory Channels and Transnational Trade Circuits’; Roderick, ‘Domestic Moves: An Exploration of Intra-National Labour Mobility in the Working Lives of Professional Footballers.’

60. Soares et al., ‘Relationship between formation of young players in Brazil and education.’61. Roderick, ‘From Identification to Dis-Identification: Case Studies of Job Loss in Professional Football’; Giglio

and Rubio, ‘Professional football: football market and athletes freedom to voice their opinions towards the structure’.

62. Bourdieu, Practical Reasons: On the Theory of Action; Moore et al., ‘A Systematic Review of Futsal Literature.’

Acknowledgments

We thank all interviewed players, clubs’ managers and staff that made this study possible, and also the reviewers for their contributive feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This work was funded by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development – CNPq [442478/2014- 3], Brazil.

ORCID

Renato Francisco Rodrigues Marques http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7807-3494Astrid Schubring http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8436-7149Natalie Barker-Ruchti http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3918-7904Myrian Nunomura http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3669-0571Rafael Pombo Menezes http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4842-641X

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