How I'd Make Money as a Young Footballer Starting From $0

A young footballer can fund a professional football career from zero through one of two routes, building useful attention and monetising it with affiliate marketing, or learning a skill and selling it directly as a service.

By Alan Deriard, Football Agent, Elite Football

Short Summary

If I was 17 again, trying to become a professional footballer and I needed money, I would do one of two things. Neither requires you to already have money or expensive gear.

All you need is a decent phone, a laptop if you can get one, and persistence. I know this works because I did it before Elite Football became what it is today.

Key Takeaways

• Two routes. Build useful attention and monetise it with affiliate marketing, or learn a skill and become the service a business already pays for.
• You do not need a huge audience. While this was already working for me, I had fewer than 1,000 subscribers on that channel.
• Service work suits a young footballer because you already have boots, a phone and access to a football club.
• There is no shortcut. Gambling, crypto and drop shipping are not a plan for funding a football career.

Why I'm Writing This

Before any of this I was at Kmart, stocking shelves and working the back of the warehouse, eventually full-time casual doing 6am to 3pm Monday to Friday. I hated my life.

I had already quit football at around 20, which made it worse. I had spent years believing football was my life, and suddenly I was waking up at 5am for a job I hated.

Eventually I quit, tried university, got good grades, realised it was not for me and quit that too. Then I went all in, building Elite Football while running another business with my best friend around YouTube and social media content creation.

For the first two years I made zero from Elite Football. The other business taught me how to make money online, and that is the one I think you can replicate.

Why a Young Footballer Needs Their Own Money

To train properly and look after yourself you need flexibility, and flexibility costs money. Most of you cannot rely on your parents forever, and a skill buys that freedom.

Route One: Build Useful Attention

Step One: Pick Something You Actually Care About

My content in that other business was about finance. How to invest in stocks, how platforms worked, basic investing, all deliberately aimed at beginners.

That is the first lesson. Do not pretend to be someone you are not. I liked finance, but I was 20 and no Warren Buffett, so I stayed in my lane and made beginner-friendly videos.

You do not need to be an expert, or to teach someone ten years ahead of you. Just teach the person two years behind you. That is also how you avoid imposter syndrome, which happens because people pretend to have more experience than they have.

If you are 18 and have played football your entire life, thousands of 13-year-olds know less about football than you do. The industry does not matter, but you have to enjoy it. It took me more than a year at around 30 hours a week before I made my first dollar online.

Pick one subject you could make about 50 pieces of content for, then write 20 questions beginners usually ask. For a football channel I would write things like:

• How do I ask my coach why I am not starting?
• What is the number one skill every centre-back needs?
• What should I eat before a game?
• How do football trials actually work?
• What do I wish I knew when I was 15?

Step Two: Produce Useful Content Consistently

Do not overthink the structure. Find a question, answer it immediately, explain why, give an example, move on. Just post.

You still need to learn editing, hooks, thumbnails, writing, basic marketing and some sales. It feels hard because you are learning several things at once, but you have an enormous advantage over when I started.

Step Three: Turn Attention Into Affiliate Marketing Income

Affiliate marketing is simple. A company pays you because you helped them acquire a customer.

Imagine a company selling grip socks for $200. They spend $1,000 on advertisements and sell 20 pairs, so each customer cost them $50. Send them a customer through your content instead and it makes sense to pay you some of what they would have spent anyway.

Make a list of 20 companies in your niche, then search each website for affiliate program, partner program, referral program or creator program. Apply to the ones that make sense, then compare three things:

• How much do they pay?
• What does the customer need to do for you to get paid?
• How valuable is one customer to that company?

Focus on businesses where a new customer is worth a lot. If I only make $20 profit on a sale, I cannot pay you $300 for a referral. If I am a service business and a customer is worth $5,000, there is far more room.

How Affiliate Marketing Actually Paid Me

We worked with about five companies through the finance content. Two were investment apps, both very large today. With one I negotiated roughly 75 AUD plus a free stock for each qualifying customer we sent.

Don't Be Afraid to Ask for More

Then another company came along, and this is my second lesson. Once you have built even a small audience, companies start selling themselves to you rather than you convincing them.

Eventually he asked what I wanted to be paid, and I highballed him. With a straight face I said $400. As a 20-year-old I thought there was no chance. He hesitated and said they could do that.

Then the agreement came through saying 400 AUD. I took another shot. I emailed sounding slightly confused, said I thought there was a typo, and that I was under the impression we had been talking about USD. We absolutely were not.

They pushed back. I held my ground for a few days and they accepted. At the exchange rate, one conversion could effectively be worth about 1,000 AUD. I went from 3,000 a month to 10K a month.

Then I found another lever. If a conversion was worth 1,000 AUD, I could give the customer 200 for signing up through my link and keep a healthy margin. This was finance, so there were compliance hoops, and later finfluencer regulations would likely stop that today. Follow the rules in your market.

Eventually that one avenue was making me more than $30,000 a month.

Why a Small Audience Was Enough

Forget finance. The industry is not the point. While this was already working I had fewer than 1,000 subscribers, and that channel only passed 10,000 before I stopped it.

I was not making entertainment videos. I was answering specific questions for a specific group. If you have 5,000 viewers who all have the same problem, that is worth more commercially than 100,000 tuning in to be entertained.

What Route One Looks Like in Football

I would make useful content about the sport I already spend my life doing. Football vlogs, beginner skills advice, training, recovery, boot reviews, advice on talking to coaches, position specific videos, even documenting your journey.

Then I would list the businesses that want those viewers. Football gear, grip socks, training equipment, recovery companies, football apps, boot retailers, football academies and pathway companies. You could even promote Elite Football, since we run an affiliate program for people who send us suitable players.

Route Two: Become the Service

The second route is quicker if all you care about is making money now. Instead of selling another company's product, you become the thing somebody already pays for. Learn a useful skill, find somebody with a problem, and charge them to solve it.

1. UGC, or User Generated Content

A company pays you to make content for them. You do not need an audience, because they are not paying you to upload it, only to make it.

I have paid my own athletes 50 or 100 dollars a video for TikTok style content, and companies that struggle to produce content would pay two to five hundred per reel.

Make three to five example videos using products you own, and now you have a portfolio. Then message companies. Do not say you would love to collab. Give them an idea for their product and a similar video you can make.

2. Managing Club Social Media

Look at your local football club's Instagram. There is a decent chance it is not good, and you are already there several times a week with access a business would struggle to get.

Offer to create their reels, match day graphics, TikToks, training content and interviews. Maybe the first club pays 200 a month. Do a good job, then approach another for 400 and another for 500. I think 1,500 a month from one club is realistic.

One rule. Do not sell yourself on how long something takes. Sell the outcome. If the content improves and you deliver what you promised, the fact that AI helped you do it in 10 hours instead of 40 is your advantage.

3. Editing Football Highlights

Every footballer needs highlights and everyone hates making them. Learn CapCut and make your own. Do one for a teammate, do another free, and now you have examples.

Start charging 50, then 100, then 150. Do not spend weeks making a website and a logo you do not need.

4. Coaching and Video Analysis

In person this is closest to a 9 to 5, which is why I like it least. Still, if you are a decent 18-year-old footballer, there is a 10 or 12-year-old whose parents would pay for private coaching. You do not have to be Pep Guardiola. If you can help a younger player with first touch, finishing or positioning, you are providing value, and over time you can move into video analysis or online coaching.

The Skill I Would Learn First: Sales

Sales is my favourite answer. It helps with how you talk to people, and those who make the most money understand it very well.

Businesses constantly need people to follow up leads, message inquiries, book appointments and close sales. Appointment setting can be done remotely with basically zero capital. Get good and you can move into closing, where your earning potential skyrockets.

There is no reason that after a few months at 20 hours a week you are not making at least 4,000 to 5,000 a month.

How to Get Someone to Give You a Chance

This is where young people overthink. You do not need a perfect portfolio, the perfect DM or years of experience. Two examples from my company.

Mitch does marketing for Elite Football and has been full-time for almost two years. He cold DM'd me on Instagram offering an email marketing service I did not need, with no real experience. He was hungry, so I took a punt, then moved him into what I actually needed.

Juan is now one of my head agents. He cold DM'd me three times before I responded, then went through two of my PAs to get an interview. He had no experience either, just hunger.

Your first DM is going to suck and your first pitch will get ignored. Do not lie about what you know, but do not wait until you feel ready, because that day never comes.

How I'd Get My First Client

• Club social media manager: find 20 football clubs within travelling distance, pick the five with the weakest content, use footage they have posted publicly or film a training session on your phone, and make one example reel.
• Highlight editing: message 50 footballers you already know.
• UGC: make five sample ads and message 50 brands.
• Appointment setting: find 50 businesses that need leads and offer to follow those leads up.

Send the club that reel and say you are a local footballer learning social media and editing, you want to show how professional the club is, and you will make the first two reels free.

Give people no reason to say no. You need one person to say yes, then do such a good job that the second client comes from the first.

Common Mistakes and What I'd Avoid

• Chasing what feels like easy money. I do not believe any shortcut exists.
• Gambling, or building a plan around crypto because somebody online promised easy money.
• Drop shipping because someone standing next to a rented Lamborghini called it passive income.
• Expensive courses promising something unlikely. A lot of that industry makes its money by extracting money from people who desperately want to make money.
• Using your age as an excuse. Some affiliate programs require you to be over 18, so get a parent involved for those.

Practical Advice

Learn something undeniably useful. Editing, content, sales, marketing or coaching. Then either build attention or sell the skill. Those are your only two options.

If you need money quickly, become the service. If you can be patient and enjoy making content, build attention and monetise it. Start with what you already own.

Final Thoughts

I was the kid making more money than his parents at 20, and the kid who quit Kmart and walked away from successful businesses to go all in on Elite Football.

The insecurity about being too young lives and dies in your own head. The person you are pitching is not thinking anywhere near as much about your age as you are.

My skills came from years of making bad videos, sending messages, negotiating and failing. When I felt like I was failing, I was just learning. This stuff works, but none of it works unless you do.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can a young footballer make money with no money to start?

You need a decent phone, a laptop if possible, and persistence. From there you either build useful attention and monetise it through affiliate marketing, or learn a skill and sell it as a service. UGC, club social media, highlight editing, coaching and appointment setting need close to zero capital.

How does affiliate marketing actually work?

A company pays you because you helped them acquire a customer. Every business already spends money acquiring customers through advertising, so if your referral brings them one instead, it makes sense to pay you part of that. You build attention, recommend a relevant product, and earn commission when someone buys through your link.

Do you need a big audience to make money online?

No. While my affiliate income was already working I had fewer than 1,000 subscribers, and that channel only passed 10,000 before I stopped it. You need the right audience, not a huge one. Five thousand viewers who share a problem can be worth more than 100,000 tuning in to be entertained.

What skill should a young footballer learn first?

Sales would be my first choice. It helps with how you talk to people, it carries into any business or job later, and the people who earn the most understand sales well. Appointment setting can be done remotely with no capital, and closing raises your earning potential sharply.

How much can you earn managing a football club's social media?

A first club might pay around 200 a month. Do a good job, use the results to approach another at 400 and another at 500, and you can reach 1,000 to 1,500 a month from work that fits around training. I think 1,500 from one club is realistic if the content is good.

TLDR

If I was a 17-year-old footballer who needed money, I would pick one of two routes. Build useful attention and monetise it with affiliate marketing, or learn a skill and become the service a business already pays for.

Route one means picking a subject you care about, teaching the person two years behind you, and applying to affiliate programs in that niche. Pick partners where one customer is worth a lot. I negotiated roughly 75 AUD plus a free stock per customer with one investment app, pushed a second deal from 400 AUD to 400 USD, and eventually made more than $30,000 a month with fewer than 1,000 subscribers.

Route two is faster. UGC for brands, managing a local football club's social media, editing football highlights, private coaching and video analysis, and sales or appointment setting. Sell the outcome rather than your hours.

Avoid gambling, crypto, drop shipping and expensive courses. Learn something undeniably useful, do not use your age as an excuse, and remember that people only care about the value you provide.

Watch the Full Video