3

Retirement from sport is a reality that every athlete needs to prepare for. Unlike traditional retirement, which generally comes after a long period of professional activity, it arrives for footballers at an early age and can be precipitated by a number of factors, such as injury or a drop in performance. In addition, the nature of sporting careers, which is ultra-competitive and demands total commitment, can exert an influence on footballers’ ability to prepare optimally for retirement. This article analyses this influence through the prism of the capability approach (Sen, 1996), and explores the strategies adopted by footballers to secure sources of income once they have hung up their boots. A qualitative approach was adopted and semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve footballers playing in Morocco’s professional football league (Botola Pro). The results reveal that footballers attach importance to planning their retirement. However, some of them confuse retirement planning with retraining after their sporting career. The results also indicate that all the footballers interviewed turn to the informal system to prepare for their retirement (Holzmann & Jørgensen, 2000), for cultural, social and religious reasons, but also due to a lack of resources (level of education, financial capacity) and a lack of conversion factors in the Moroccan sporting ecosystem. The sporting career therefore has a real influence on players’ “capability” to plan their retirement, hence the importance to provide a support and assistance mechanism to prepare for retirement.