Identification of sport talents through leisure activity: a pathway for achieving football commercialization

The study identifies how the sport talents of young people are identified through leisure activity, which supports them to achieve professional status. Through recreational specialization and network support, we understand how amateur athletes’ leisure participation evolved through realizing their professional sports dreams. Leisure and recreational specialization studies contribute to explaining players’ progression from their street football activity in communities. Semi-structured interviews and interactions with 19 former African professional players reveal that they relied mostly on networks of recreational intermediaries (e.g. agents, scouts) to reach their recreational specialization, offering them professional sports careers abroad. Former players experienced some challenges through their involvement in leisure behaviour as they sought to commercialize their leisure activity of football for socioeconomic benefit. This paper presents valued evidence for recreational managers or recreational intermediaries to support children’s leisure pursuits in identifying their talents and prospects for development to enhance their livelihood and well-being in the future.