Is school even important in an athlete’s life?
An athletic career often seems like a luxurious lifestyle, but behind the glamour of medals and trophies lies an uncomfortable truth: most athletes will end their careers before the age of 35, with decades of working life still ahead of them. This is exactly where education stops being a “luxury” and becomes a necessity.
A short career, a long life
Research published in 2025 in the journal Administrative Sciences (Varmus et al.) clearly indicates that although sports represent a dream career for many young people, only a small percentage of athletes can make a living from it after their career ends – and even those who do succeed must one day find a new direction. Education is the key mechanism that enables them to do so.
A similar conclusion was reached by researcher Dawn Aquilina, who studied elite student-athletes in Finland, France, and the United Kingdom. Aquilina emphasizes that sports and education are not only compatible but also complementary to one another – which was an important contribution since prior research lacked sufficient evidence to back this up.
Dual career
In sports and educational circles, the concept of a dual career – the simultaneous development of athletic and academic competencies – is being discussed more and more frequently. According to research, athletes who pursue a dual career have:
- a broader social network
- a more balanced identity that is not exclusively tied to sports
- better time management skills
- easier access to the labor market after finishing their athletic career
- less stress upon retirement from sports
Of course, for a dual career to be possible, systematic support from society as a whole and from the athlete’s environment is required.
Financial reality: what happens without a degree?
Research has shown that in the United Kingdom, more than half of football and rugby players face financial difficulties immediately after the end of their careers. The average professional career of a football player (at various levels of professionalism) lasts only eight years. Retirement usually comes in one’s thirties, a time when athletes are starting and supporting a family. Once their athletic career ends, many athletes lack a stable financial income and find it difficult to maintain the lifestyle they are accustomed to.
FIFPro, the organization representing professional football players worldwide, estimates that about one-third of former players face depression and anxiety, and many do not think about retirement at all until it happens. Financial difficulties and psychological struggles are not separate topics here, because according to data from a British study of 800 former professional athletes, one of the biggest drivers of impaired mental health after a career is precisely financial worry.
More recent studies show that employers value the very traits athletes naturally develop – discipline, teamwork, resilience under pressure – but this must be built upon with formal knowledge and academic competencies for athletes to find their footing in the labor market.
Athletes who had a plan
Mario Ančić, one of our most successful tennis players, ended his athletic career at the age of 26 due to illness. Unlike many athletes for whom retirement is a shock from which it is difficult to recover, Ančić had a plan that he began building years earlier. While still an active athlete, he graduated with a law degree in Split, and in the years that followed, he completed a master’s degree at Harvard and earned a doctorate from Columbia University in New York. Today, he is a vice president at one of the leading American private equity funds.
Ančić himself explains it simply: the guiding principle of his family was always the question of what comes after sports. He adds that the discipline and focus he built on the courts did not vanish at the end of his career but followed him in everything he did afterward.
Another excellent example is Gordan Kožulj, who studied at Berkeley and then completed a postgraduate specialist study in business management at the Faculty of Economics and Business in Zagreb. He is currently a director in the business consulting department at Deloitte. For him, the end of his athletic career did not mean an end to progress and success.
School as a safety net and more
There is also a psychological dimension that we must not ignore. Athletes who identify exclusively with the role of an athlete find it harder to go through retirement – they lose their identity, purpose, and routine. Education builds a broader, more stable identity and provides an answer to the question: “Who am I when I’m not training?”
Aquilina’s research shows that athletes who consciously build an academic career alongside their athletic one are better prepared for life after sports. Furthermore, such a broader view of one’s own development can also have a positive impact on athletic performance itself, as it reduces the existential pressure carried by the thought “I have to succeed because I don’t have a plan B.”
A trophy that never grows old
Medals gleam, contracts expire, bodies age. But a degree, knowledge, and skills remain. Education for athletes is not a lenient alternative for those who are “not good enough” at sports. It is a strategy for lifelong success for all athletes, regardless of their level.
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Systems, institutions, and coaches who understand this are not only better for the athletes – they are better for sports as a whole. Because an athlete who knows they have a future off the field plays more freely, boldly, and happily.
Sources: Varmus et al. (2025), Administrative Sciences, MDPI; Aquilina, D. (2013), International Journal of the History of Sport; Gargalianos, D. (2014), Journal of Physical Education and Sport