How media influence is perceived by professional soccer players: a qualitative case study in Portugal

Over the years, the relationship between soccer and the media has been changing and intensifying, given the professionalism of its organizations, the growth of the media and the impact they have in society. This study aims to analyze how media influence is perceived by professional soccer players, particularly on their sports performance. For this purpose, open and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 37 soccer players (aged between 18 and 36 years) belonging to nine professional soccer clubs of the first and second Portuguese division with subsequent content analysis using a process of a priori and a posteriori categorization. Our results show that the relationship between the media and soccer players was considered close and occurs spontaneously; the interviewees considered that the media influences their mood, can affect their performance and public opinion in general but not exactly the match results. It can be concluded that the influence of the media is perceived as relevant by professional soccer players, with a possible impact on their performance, which suggests the importance of developing psychological skills as a strategy to cope with that stress.