Department of Sports Science, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany.
Department of Sport Science, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
J Sports Sci. 2021 Apr;39(8):903-914. doi: 10.1080/02640414.2020.1851449. Epub 2020 Dec 9.
Retiring professional athletes face multifaceted changes and potential issues of adjustment, occupational development, and well-being, which raises concerns around the world. The study systematically reviewed the available research investigating professional soccer players' sport retirement from social sciences perspectives. The literature search in electronic databases and a "snowballing" procedure yielded 17 eligible studies investigating > 2,200 retired professional soccer players. The review followed the PRISMA statement. Nine studies focused on an early transition phase to retirement period; four studies investigated later periods of ten years or longer after retirement. Around half of the players reported involuntary retirement, often associated with declining performance and/or injury. Studies suggest issues of adjustment and mental health during early years after retirement, while psychological issues had apparently declined around 1-2 decades after retirement. However, available studies had notable limitations including lack of evidenced representative samples, report of measures' reliability, and control for confounders. Furthermore, while theoretical models emphasise a holistic perspective, quantitative research often took a narrow rather than holistic perspective. In summary, available knowledge is fraught with some uncertainty regarding reliability and representativeness of the population of retired professional soccer players. We offer future directions to advance the development of a theory of sport retirement.
退役职业运动员面临多方面的变化和潜在的调整、职业发展和福祉问题，这引起了全世界的关注。本研究系统地回顾了从社会科学角度研究职业足球运动员退役的现有研究。通过电子数据库搜索和“滚雪球”程序，共检索到 17 项符合条件的研究，涉及 2200 多名退役职业足球运动员。本综述遵循 PRISMA 声明。9 项研究集中在退役过渡期早期；4 项研究调查了退役 10 年或更长时间后的后期。大约一半的球员报告说他们是被迫退役的，这通常与表现下降和/或受伤有关。研究表明，在退役后的早期几年存在调整和心理健康问题，而大约在退役 1-2 十年后，心理问题显然有所下降。然而，现有研究存在显著局限性，包括缺乏证据支持的代表性样本、报告的措施可靠性以及对混杂因素的控制。此外，虽然理论模型强调整体视角，但定量研究往往采取狭隘而不是整体视角。总之，关于退役职业足球运动员群体的可靠性和代表性，现有知识存在一些不确定性。我们提供了未来的研究方向，以推进运动退役理论的发展。
