Uruguayan Soccer: Youth Professionalization – Opportunities & Risks

The published photos have professional editing, there are videos of their goals, tracking of their statistics and it is promptly announced when and against whom the next match will be. In the texts you can read words like “intense”, “dreams” or “strengths”. It could be the description of any professional athlete’s Instagram profile, but it is Matias Mendezan 11-year-old boy who has played in the Peñarol children’s team since 2023.

He has more than six thousand followers, a figure higher than that of several footballers in the First Division. For example: Gino Santilli, who was chosen as the best goalkeeper of the local tournament in 2025, has fewer accounts following him. It also has its own website: elmatiasmendez.com. But what is behind all this? How can a child so far from professionalism coexist with the image of being a paid soccer player? Are there threats? Can you find strengths? In this report Ovation will try to clear up these doubts. Or, at least, a percentage of them.

Matías was born in Rivera on March 6, 2014 and, according to his father Walter, from a young age he showed his love for the ball: “At three and a half years old he couldn’t stop kicking and we put him in the little soccer school in La Rinconada,” he told Ovation. Méndez is given away by his very strong border accent. “It’s been almost a decade since we came to Montevideo,” he says.

The boy came to the AUFI world at the age of 4, when he went to Rentistas and played with higher categories. In 2021 he moved to Danubio and was Uruguayan champion; The following year Peñarol offers him a scholarship (they do not charge him the monthly fee) and takes him but, due to a bureaucratic issue, he only started playing for Carbonero in 2023.

Since then he defends those colors. “They are the current three-time champions,” says Walter, who is the coach of the 2015 category. “And if you add the one who won with Danubio, Matías is a four-time champion,” he says proudly.

Photo: Ignacio Sánchez/El País Archive.

He is a forward and this year he was the scorer: he sent it to save 52 times. This is what he says on his Instagram profile (@elmatiasmendez), which since August has been managed by the company One Move, whose manager is the Brazilian. Saulo Pereira Da Costa. The content became professional and his communication became very similar to that of a “real” player.

It has exclusive photos and they are preparing future material: for example, more than 1,000 images were taken in the Champion of the Century. “To have material from now to the next few months,” says Walter, who also collaborates on his son’s Instagram.

“Ready for another important game,” he posted on November 18. “We remain focused.” This is just a sample of what may appear in your account. “I am a pastor and I contacted a Brazilian friend to make me a logo for the church. That’s when it occurred to me to do something similar with Matías, to have his brand,” Walter explained, clarifying that, for obvious reasons, he has a lot of influence from Brazil: “It is very common for these things to happen there.”

In this way, in a short period of time, the 11-year-old boy became a kind of celebrity in the microworld of children’s soccer. On August 3, he published a video with his goal against Nacional and it had more than 1,000 likes.

Photo: Ignacio Sánchez/El País Archive.

Bruno Moserle He is a psychologist with a postgraduate degree in sports psychology. He is 32 years old and works in the formative of Montevideo City Torque. Although he does not want to talk about individual situations, he cites studies carried out to comment on some guidelines. “Social networks in adolescents (and in this case children) are a super important area, where they forge their sense of belonging, the construction of identity and the need for recognition,” he begins. “In childhood it is difficult to find beneficial aspects of showing oneself with a professional profile; it is an initiation stage in which there should be more contact with enjoyment,” he says.

This is not a fear for Walter, who assures that for Matías there is no threat in this new way of showing himself in the digital world: “He is a child, he has a lot of fun with all this.”

For Moserle, the (few) benefits that there may be from an early exhibition go hand in hand with the motivation “to try to sustain a message, an objective.” He emphasizes, however, that the alerts should never stop being issued: “Childhood is a time in life in which self-esteem is built and exposure can cause one to be very dependent on external validation.”

He also assures that “a very important aspect is to let them know that there are alternatives to sport, such as the value of studying or forging bonds.” Walter says he is very clear about this: “Matías knows very well that he will never stop studying. With his mother we make an effort and send him to a private school.”

“He is a very healthy guy, he likes to train, he is disciplined and he eats little sweets,” he describes him. “He is a Christian.”

Matías receives the ball in the area and crosses the ball to score a goal against Danubio in the final. He lifts his shirt and shows a T-shirt with the inscription: “The glory belongs to God.” Days before they had lost to the same rival and a message of resilience was published on Matías’s profile. More than 5,000 accounts tightened the heart.

The father of the professional child makes it clear that he does this “thinking about the future” of Matías. “Instead of making a DVD with his goals, I’m putting this together,” he remarks.

Federico Czesli He is 44 years old, he is an Argentine anthropologist and has carried out research in the training of soccer players. Based on his experience, he comments: “The soccer career not only involves technical, tactical and physical development, but at the same time the image of a professional athlete is built. What the youth show in their networks is the attachment to the classic values ​​of soccer, which are discipline, daily effort and goal orientation.”

Photo: Kindness.

According to Czesli, they do this because “the career is so uncertain” that they need to attract potential future recruiters: coaches, clubs and, of course, representatives.

Enter the scene Rodrigo Lopezagent and partner in GBG Football Agencydirected by Pablo Boselli. “They are very complex issues,” he clarifies at the outset.

Although he conceives of social networks as “a good letter of introduction”, “useful sports information” cannot be found there, he warns Ovation. “You see that on the field,” he says.

The recruitment of youth footballers is something “that takes hours to explain.” “There is an orderly process of evaluation, knowledge and working together,” he describes.

Matías’s family does not have anything signed with any player representative although they do have a verbal agreement with TMA, but Walter prefers not to rush: “He is still very young,” he insists.

Always looking ahead to the coming years, Walter knows he will be able to attract sponsors. Given this, Czesli analyzes: “Today, for youth, the possibility of being sold, of having value, is no problem. On the contrary, it is a reason for status, for pride.”

Given this, a conflict may arise, which is highlighted by both the psychologist and the anthropologist: the stress or frustration that not achieving the objectives can generate, which would distance the child from the pleasure of playing sports for such a young child. Once again, Walter appears calm: “Matías knows that at some point he is going to lose, or he is going to be a substitute,” he says. “I talk to him a lot,” he insists. “Although, according to what those who see him play every weekend say, today he is irreplaceable,” he says.

Today Matías was invited to the inauguration of the children’s soccer stadium in Rivera, a city where last Friday he gave a small press conference to tell what his year in Peñarol was like. When Ovation He asked him what his future expectations were, or if he saw himself playing in the Primera del Mirasol, the little boy did not have much to say; He barely shook his head from side to side. Finally he raised his childish gaze and spit out his dream that had a tone very close to certainty: “I’m going to play for Real Madrid,” he said. And he went to do botija things.