Being a professional athlete

This qualitative study investigates how elite footballers construct and navigate their professional identities, focusing on the interplay between public persona, resilience, and perfectionism. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and Latent Thematic Analysis (LTA), we analysed televised interviews with Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimović to explore the psychological processes underpinning their experiences at the pinnacle of sport. The IPA revealed that both athletes experience a complex tension between their carefully managed public images and private vulnerabilities, with their professional identities shaped by deliberate mental training and a relentless pursuit of perfection. Adversity and criticism are reframed as opportunities for growth, reinforcing their sense of self and elite status and contributing to significant psychological strain. The LTA provided further insight into how self-worth becomes entwined with performance, how emotional detachment and mental toughness serve as defences against scrutiny, and how external expectations from media and fans are internalised, heightening the pressure to maintain an image of invincibility. Resilience emerges as a means of self-validation and a core component of their athletic identity. Combining the IPA and LTA methodologically offers a holistic perspective, capturing the idiographic depth of individual experience and the broader sociocultural narratives that shape elite athlete identity. Reflexivity and triangulation were used to address the challenges of analysing secondary, public-domain data. The findings highlight the psychological complexity of elite footballers’ identities, and the dynamic strategies employed to manage the demands of professional sport.