Someone told me it was 1 in every 9 thousand. Does anyone know the most accurate odds their are of player making the A league? I

Do the maths, number of pro players in a league divided by the number of participants

It would  be the reverse, Dirk - registered participant players at all levels in Aus, divided by number of Aussie HAL players in Aus.

One FFTas Tech Dir said it was about a tenth of one percent for footballers playing in leagues that weren't their local leagues.

That probably includes smaller states' players playing in the better NPLs, like NSW and Vic.

Odds get even larger if as a player you don't reach certain benchmarks - ie NPL, Rep Squads, HAL academies. other side of the coin odds drop significantly if player rwaches those benchmarks. Odds are still high though even if you play in a HAL academy is a youth player. probably still 50-1..

Then you need to ask yourself is playing a few games in the a-league enough for the bench marking. Maybe better asking what are the odds of going on to build a career in the a-league. 

Sobering but still better odd than being a successful tennis player or golfer. 100th golfer in the world made usd 1.2 million last year. 100th best soccer player probably made 15 million. The 1000 best soccer player probably made usd 1.2 million..(Fornaroli)

A lot of the a league players make a decent living wage for around 10 years or so. You’d imagine it to be an enjoyable path for a while but life after football is important. Not everyone can retire or become a TV pundit or join the coaching staff.

Based on the numbers thrown around above, sound like the odds can be from 1:6000 (rough estimate of HAL to participants) to 1:10000. Not bad if you have the talent.

I calculated a few years ago there were probably about 2000 players playing at the top level in the big five in Europe, the big two in South America and teams who regularly play in smaller  European leagues, but dominate  them and are regulars in the Champ League and UEFA League.

One can probably add the very cashed up teams  in the CSL too who pay huge wages to imports.

These guys should be pretty rich.

Amusing as it is to me, a few 442 members with a low level of critical literacy, speculate  you and I are the same person, Zoltan! 

Haha.....you seem nicer than me.....

I have a question...why post this ? Would this not apply to any elite sport in any part of the world ?

It could be.

A lot more people play football though. Then again there may be more opportunities at pro level in football.

A lot might play - but straight off the top, 99% have zero interest in becoming a professional footballer.
So you're really only talking about 10,000 players...maximum...at any point in time (maybe less if you are only focusing on those aged 13 to 23)

Or they don't even have the right opportunities at the lower levels. There is no shortage of stories about young talented players who rode the bench simply because their dad didn't know the right people, then eventually just took another career path.

The best player I ever saw played with me in the NSWPSSFA more than 50 years ago. The same comp Johnny Warren, Ron Corry, Tim Cahill and others started in. He was in an orphanage in Burwood and ended up working fulltime from the age of 15. Sadly never returned to football

In the same team was Ken Wark, a triple  Olympian who also competed at three World Cups in hockey - widely regarded as one of Australia’s greatest ever defenders. He was ny left CB and undoubtedly could have shone in football as well. Ken was from a hockey family so chose hockey over football.   

The best player I ever knew in my life was a kid in early high school who just played for fun, never played for a club, from a really poor family, but boy, he was hands down the best I've ever seen.

Your chances were fark all until Tuesday last week. Heather Reid made sure your chances as a male, were low.

I remember reading an article from England about academy players who go on to be professionals. Less than 1% go on to make a career out of football and 0.012% chance of making the EPL.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/michael-calvin-shocking-statistic-why-children-football-academies-will-never-succeed-soccer-sport-2017-6

I reckon thats pretty good odds..... 
1 one in a 100 chance of being a multi millionaire is good odds better then lotto Bahahaha 

As a bonus on top of the money you get loads of babes 

How does one explain Matt Simon 

You should see the 99 that didn't make it ;)

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Could be a bot

Our former football Tech Dir for Football Aus in Tas quoted these exact odds.

 It was about the chances of making pro football worldwide though.

Ok, that's starting to make some sense.
Worldwide increases the spots by 200+ (over and above merely the A-League).
Australians can make a decent living playing in a crap league like the Malaysian league.
So really, of those with the aim of making the A-League (in the age groiup of say 14 to 21), the odds are closer to one in 450.
If you throw in the odds of making a youth squad list, I'd suggest those odds halve.

Lets do some maths..... change the percentages or assumptions if you like but this is my take

In 2006 FIFA did their big count 270 million player world wide....massive growth since across Asia, Middle East & North America.. plus general population growth...

Say today 370 million players....

205 countries play and have a competition... assume 50 of these countries have professional leagues....

Lest assume across the 50 leagues we have 30 teams per country ... so 1500 teams with 25 players per team..

That gives us around 37, 500 lets say 40, 000 professional players  

40, 000 player divided by 370,000,000 is roughly 1 in every 9,250 will make it...

If you say the top say 100 clubs...

assuming 30 players per squad its 1 in 123,333

Just recently saw a video on player wages in the the EPL, Championship and Leagues 1 and 2.

Gee, the money dropped off a lot!

So even though all are pro footballers, the wage differential was amazing. EPL players average about $4 million a year, to League 2  earning a pittance in comparison.

So all are pro footballers, but some earn so much more than others.

Personally I think alot of players going to mid tier European and lower level English leagues would be better off staying in Australia.

Given the recent WC results, with Socceroos astonishingly finishing 11th, I totally agree.

The big issue here in Aus is the shorter season, although I've been told some Scandinavian seasons are only 26 games.

If players go to the big five UEFA leagues, and players are paid average $4 million a year in the EPL, with the lowest being the French league at just over $1 million, whilst the other 3 of the UEFA big 5 average $2 -3 million, it is very enticing. These are big bucks! The standard is also high - even with  mid ranked and lower ranked teams on the league tables. 

Playing in  Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, and maybe Switzerland and Turkey, is probably beneficial too.  

Next level down a much greater percentage play NPL football. Players in these leagues Australiawide, tend to be semi-pro or amateur, depending on which club and state one plays in.

The odds of getting to senior NPL level are much, much higher, particularly in this state. Hardly, any players I've  coached have played for the Socceroos, A League, or W League, but heaps have played NPL.

Also, according to a past forum member, who is a football scout, many of the best NPL players have knocked back 1 year A League contracts. That is because they earn a decent living in professions or trades, as well as playing NPL football. They think the short contracts are too tenuous.

It is the same in cricket. One of my former Ex Physios, is a captain coach of a state league, 1st  grade cricket  team. He plays with and against state team players. Yet he has no desire to  have a Shield or T20 cricket career, but would play if selected. 

Many former pros in any sports, struggle to adapt to life after being a player - the notable exception being successful coaches.

At NPL level,  players don't tend to have the fall from the high status of being a pro player, to being a sporting non-entity- who nobody in the sporting milieu is interested in the moment they retire, are cut from pro contracts prematurely, or become injured.