A gift for a young footballer: what to buy by age and budget

The best gift for a young footballer is something your child will still use a week after unwrapping it. You choose it to suit their age and whether they play at a club or mainly support a team. Equipment for practice at home and a ball in the team's size work well. Don't buy boots or the club kit blind.

In this article: 9 sections

1. What should you buy a young footballer?
2. A gift for a fan or for a player?
3. What gift for a footballer aged 6-14?
4. Gifts for a footballer up to 10, 20 and £40
5. What should you ask the parents before you buy a gift?
6. What shouldn't you buy a young footballer blind?
7. How do you stop a gift ending up in the wardrobe?
8. When should you order a gift for Christmas, St Nicholas' Day and birthdays?
9. What to remember from this article
10. Questions

What should you buy a young footballer?

The safest bet is a gift your child can use on their own, between training sessions. A club usually offers two or three training sessions a week, and children have most of their free time at home.

Ideas that work at any age:

• a ball in the size the team plays with (see the table below);
• a mat for practice at home with areas and paths that set the task;
• non-slip socks for training without shoes on the mat and the floor;
• a water bottle or a drawstring bag for training, so your child can pack for sessions on their own;
• goalkeeper gloves, if your child is going in goal more and more often;
• going to a match together, ideally with you.

Before you buy, check three things: will your child use the gift on their own, will it be useful between training sessions and does it suit their age. Three times “yes” is a good sign.

A gift for a fan or for a player?

These are two different gifts, and it's good to know which one you're buying. A fan watches matches, collects cards and knows the line-ups. A player trains at a club and wants to play better.

• For a fan: football trading cards, a sticker album, their favourite player's shirt, table football or a football game for a console.
• For a player: things for practice that your child will use between training sessions. The rest of this article is about them.

Many children are both. Then a combination works well: something for the fan to unwrap and a ball or mat for everyday movement.

What gift for a footballer aged 6-14?

Your child's age tells you which ball their team plays with and which gift makes sense. The ball sizes come from the Polish FA (PZPN) table in the document Unifikacja organizacji współzawodnictwa i szkolenia dzieci i młodzieży w piłce nożnej (Standardising the organisation of competition and training for children and young people in football). Age categories are based on year of birth, so the ages we give are approximate.

Age	Club age group	Ball size (PZPN)	What works well
6-7 years	U6-U7 (skrzat)	size 3	playing with the ball, a mat with coloured areas, small goals for the garden
8-11 years	U8-U11 (żak and orlik)	size 3 or 4	a mat with the app, a task and a record to beat, a training bag
12-13 years	U12-U13 (młodzik)	size 4	a mat for intensive drills, non-slip socks
14 years	U14-U15 (trampkarz)	size 5	equipment for working on their own, tickets to a match

The club may play with a different ball from the one in the table. Before you buy, ask the coach or a parent which size the team plays with.

6-7 years: fun comes first

At this age, the winners are things a child can use straight away, without having the rules explained. The FOOTBALL MAT football mat has coloured areas and numbered paths, so the task is right there on the floor. It costs £38.99.

8-11 years: a task, a result and a record

Children in the U8-U11 age groups want to practise like footballers: with a task for today and a result they can improve. The mat marks out the space, and the FOOTBALL MAT app gives the drill on video and records the result. The mat is printed and doesn't measure anything, so everything to do with results happens on the phone.

A gift that needs no wrapping is a Premium Package code for the app. Your child enters the code from a purchase on the website in the app, in the Shop tab. The app works without a mat, including with a mat from another brand. Subscription periods and prices are on the pricing page.

12-14 years: working on their own

Teenagers usually know what they want, so ask them directly. For intensive drills there is FOOTBALL MAT Premium: smaller at 85 × 60 cm, more flexible, with a non-slip base across its whole surface. It costs £47.99. For training without shoes, non-slip football socks in size Junior 36-39 are a good match, for £12.99.

Gifts for a footballer up to 10, 20 and £40

In our shop, a football gift costs from £6.99 to £64.99. This is how the products fall into budgets:

Budget	Gift	Price	Who it's for
up to £10	FOOTBALL MAT water bottle, 750 ml	£6.99	any age, for training and matches
up to £20	Non-slip football socks	£12.99	foot size 36-39, training without shoes
up to £40	FOOTBALL MAT football mat, 100 × 60 cm	£38.99	6-14 years, training at home
over £40	FOOTBALL MAT Premium, 85 × 60 cm	£47.99	intensive drills, slippery floors
over £40	ActiveKids MAT	£64.99	fitness, agility and coordination

Each mat also comes in a bundle with the Premium Package for a month, a year or for life. Bundle prices are on the mat product pages.

What should you ask the parents before you buy a gift?

If grandparents or an aunt are buying the gift, four questions to the parents will save you from a gift that misses the mark.

1. Which age category does the child play in, and with which ball size? Skrzat, żak, orlik or młodzik (see the table above). The coach knows the ball size.
2. What is their foot size? Boots and socks depend on it. Our socks come in size 36-39.
3. How much space is there at home? The football mat measures 100 × 60 cm, Premium 85 × 60 cm. Measure the patch of floor before you buy.
4. Does the child already have a mat or the app? The app works with a mat of any brand, so if there's already a mat at home, a Premium Package code makes a better gift.

What shouldn't you buy a young footballer blind?

Football boots, the club kit and a ball in a random size. This is where it's easiest to get a gift wrong.

• Football boots. Studded boots for natural grass, astro trainers for artificial surfaces and indoor shoes for the sports hall are three different types of footwear, and your child needs the ones for the surface their team plays on. Go and buy boots together or give a voucher.
• Club kit. If the club has its own kit with its badge, it's ordered through the club. Ask the coach before you buy a shirt.
• A ball in the wrong size. Check the size in the table above and with the coach.
• A gadget that just sits on a shelf. A football lamp or a mug with the club badge will please a fan. Your child won't use them to play.

How do you stop a gift ending up in the wardrobe?

Do the first training session with the gift on the same day. Fifteen minutes is enough.

1. 5 minutes: toe taps, which means touching the top of the ball with the right and left foot in turn.
2. 5 minutes: tick-tock, which means passing the ball from foot to foot with the inside of the foot.
3. 5 minutes: colours on call. You call out the colour of an area on the mat, and your child touches it with the ball.

After that, 15-20 minutes three times a week is enough, on days without club training. The full plan of eight drills for a metre of floor is in the article Football drills for kids at home. We explain why short and regular works better in the article Why twenty minutes a day changes the game.

Practice at home won't replace the pitch or the coach. It adds what there is little time for at the club: calm repetitions with the ball at their feet.

If you're not sure whether your child will keep coming back to the drills, start with the free version of the app. A new account gets ten days of Premium. You can add the mat for a birthday or Christmas, once you know the drills have caught on.

When should you order a gift for Christmas, St Nicholas' Day and birthdays?

Ideally well in advance, because December is when couriers are busiest. A parcel with a mat takes 2 working days within Poland. A birthday is a good moment for a bigger gift, for example a mat bundled with the Premium Package. At the end of the season, a mat or a ball lets your child practise during the summer holidays, when the club takes a break.