Qualifications
Back in the day, an aspiring soccer player could simply join a friendly neighborhood game on a whim, catch the interest of a woman who plays for a local women's team called the Houndslow Harriers, and within a couple days get offered a position on the team by the manager and designated love interest, Joe.
Wait, no. That doesn't sound right. That sounds more like the plot to Bend It Like Beckham than it does to any real life event, ever.
So how does one become a real-life soccer player? Well, no one's about to hand you a starting position with Manchester City, that's for sure. You have to start young and spend all your free moments practicing in parking lots, shooting against garage doors, and using your younger sister as a cone to dribble around, if it comes to that (source).
And then you need to play throughout high school and college (source). Actually, scratch that. You need to do a whole lot more than "play" soccer. You need to outshine everyone else on your team. Your brilliance and virtuosity on the soccer field needs to cast such a pitch-black shadow over your teammates that scouts and coaches are convinced you're literally the only player on the field. That’s what you need to do.
Professional coaches have recommended that the average athlete play twenty hours per week, which adds up to nearly 10,000 hours of soccer over a decade of your life. This is commitment on a whole new level.
Sound like a tall order? Yeah, it is. So turn off the TV, because watching Bend It Like Beckham for the seventeenth time isn't going to get you the technical skills or physical fitness that you need to be a real contender. The only thing that will do that is playing harder on the soccer field, and working just as hard in the classroom.