The Model of the effect athletic identity and social support network with problems of retirement from professional soccer in Iran

A special type of transfer, withdrew from the event. The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between identity and social support network team to retire from professional football’s problems and provide a suitable model in this field. Population was professional players who hold more than five years from the date of their retirement.384 football players formed the final sample. Retiring from professional sports questionnaire Ceicic (2003) was used for data collection. Structural equation modeling results indicated that athletic identity with personal problems had significant positive correlation with the standard ratio is (0.21). But athletic identity with, social and professional problems showed no significant relationship. Structural equation modeling results indicated that social support network and no significant direct relationship with individual problems. However, the social network has a significant relationship with psychological, social and standard problems (0.25), as well as with professional problems with standard coefficient (0.21). In general, in order to reduce the personal, professional and psychosocial problems of footballers, two players of the social support network and sports identity should be considered.