Control

It’s great that his father has goals and aspirations for his son. Football should not be the only thing your son does and your son should actually like it. If you can, try and talk to his father and support football for your son but also add some other things as well. Mix it up. Academic stuff like math, etc and music. This is a time when our children are curious and find out what they truly like.

I second what Nia said, also if anything introduce other sports like rugby, swimming, jujitsu, boxing, tennis etc and see what he likes. My son started football at 2 yrs old but also did swimming, rugby, gymnastics, boxing and tennis, but he stuck with swimming, rugby and football. He's now 6 and has chosen to concentrate on football and is taking it quite seriously, but this is because he loves it and he wants to get better and work his way up. My other half played rugby and American football so is aware of the sporting life but never imposed his own agenda or tried to live through our son (which is what a lot of dad's do unfortunately) My son is also smashing it at school which I think is more important! The important thing is finding a balance, sport is great for discipline and building confidence but he has to enjoy it and want it himself.

I think he should let y’all son decide on what it is that he wants to do as far as sports wise who knows he may not even want to play a sports but yeah, I think he needs to just make sure that academically he focus on that more so than football because who’s to say that’s what he would want to do in the future.

I agree with all the above, providing your child with an array of sports and allowing the space to choose what he enjoys most. Getting the balance of academia and sports to so important. So perhaps explain to Dad that you support him in wanting your son to play football but also explain your point of view as in balance in life

Thank you all for your messages - so I already enrolled my son on to kids football and that’s because my son asked too. At the minute I’m struggling to find other sporting things for his age in our area but when I have more time I will have another look. In terms of his dad- I have spoken to his dad plenty of times and he just says ‘we shall see’ in a way that tells me ( still going to push him). He is bothered about his academic side but football is still mentioned-he gets it from his own dad who would gladly sit and watch football all day 😪

But also- I’m not stressing out about him joining other clubs at the minute -he just started prep school so more focused on seeing if he enjoys and settles with this (which from the looks of it he loves it) l.