Memories of Brazilian soccer players: between the profession of athlete and life outside of sport

This article aims to analyze the memory of Brazilian soccer players on the dilemmas between being a professional athlete and life outside the sport. We collected data through oral history, a research method characterized by interviews that allows one to understand a specific theme through the experience and approach of the individual to the investigated object of study. Five professional male soccer players were interviewed. These participants were between 25 and 35 years old at the time of the interviews. Most of their careers were in smaller teams in Brazil, and their professional activities started out in clubs in Curitiba, Brazil. The notoriety of these players in their respective social groups enhanced their feeling of accomplishment for achieving a professional level in a competitive career – thus denying the hypothesis that they would have failed for not reaching or remaining prominent in the upper soccer divisions.