What we’re seeing today is not the beginning of sport on LinkedIn. It’s the result of years of gradual change that has largely happened out of the spotlight.

Over the last several years, athletes from every corner of the world have been joining the platform and beginning to think differently about how they build their professional identities. What started with a relatively small group of athletes exploring opportunities beyond their playing careers has evolved into something much broader. Today, we’re seeing current athletes, retired athletes, coaches, executives, owners, investors and founders all becoming active participants in conversations that extend well beyond sport itself.

At the same time, sports organizations have also evolved in how they use the platform. Clubs, leagues and governing bodies are increasingly recognizing that LinkedIn provides an opportunity to tell a different story than the one traditionally shared on consumer-facing social media platforms. Rather than focusing exclusively on results, highlights and fan engagement, many are using LinkedIn to showcase leadership, innovation, commercial growth, community impact and the people behind the organizations themselves.

The same shift is happening on the business side of the industry. Brands are engaging with sport differently, athlete-led investment funds continue to emerge, and more athletes are building businesses, investing in companies and participating in conversations that were once reserved for boardrooms and industry conferences. The lines between sport, business, technology, media and entrepreneurship continue to blur, creating new opportunities for people and organizations that understand how to operate across all of these worlds.

What excites me most, however, is not simply the growth of sport on LinkedIn. It’s what comes next.

As more athletes and sports organizations arrive on the platform, there is a real opportunity to ensure that authenticity remains at the center of the conversation. The most impactful content will not come from carefully manufactured personal brands or generic motivational messaging. It will come from people sharing genuine experiences, lessons learned, challenges faced and perspectives gained throughout their careers.

Some of the most compelling stories in sport have nothing to do with what happens on the field of play. They are the stories of athletes becoming investors, founders, advisors and leaders. They are the stories of executives navigating growth, coaches developing people, and organizations building for the future. These are the human stories that have always existed within sport but historically have had fewer places to be shared in a meaningful and professional context.

At the same time, brands have an opportunity to deepen their relationships with athletes and sports organizations beyond traditional sponsorship models. The strongest partnerships are increasingly built around shared values, long-term collaboration and meaningful storytelling rather than simple logo visibility.

LinkedIn’s recent product updates suggest that the platform is paying close attention to these trends. New features that support creators, deeper audience insights and collaborative publishing capabilities are creating more opportunities for expertise, experience and professional perspectives to reach the right audiences.

For those of us who have been watching this space closely, the current momentum does not feel like a sudden moment. It feels like the continuation of a shift that has been quietly building for years.

The future of sport on LinkedIn will not be defined by how many athletes join the platform. It will be defined by the quality of the conversations they create, the reputations they build and the opportunities that emerge as a result

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Recently, I have shared a visual comparing two possible career paths for an athlete.

The first follows the traditional arc. Performance creates attention, attention creates visibility and, for a period of time, opportunity tends to follow. As the career begins to wind down, however, that visibility often fades. The media moves on, algorithms change, commercial interest shifts towards the next generation and the opportunities that once appeared regularly can become much harder to find.

The second path starts from the same place but develops differently. Sporting performance still creates the initial attention, but the athlete uses that period to build relationships, communicate what they care about, develop credibility beyond the field and create assets that can continue to hold value long after their final game.

The response to the visual has been significant, particularly from current and former athletes. I believe it has resonated because it puts language around something many athletes have experienced but have not always been able to explain. An athlete can spend years being highly visible without necessarily becoming well understood.

They can have a substantial following without building a meaningful professional network. They can be known by millions of supporters while remaining largely unknown to the executives, investors, founders and organisations that may shape their next chapter.

That is the distinction at the centre of what I am calling the Reputational Capital Thesis.

The argument is not that athletes need to become content creators or spend their careers thinking about retirement. It is that the attention created through sport is a temporary but unusually valuable asset. Used intentionally, it can become the foundation for relationships, credibility and opportunities that continue beyond performance.

Performance Creates Attention, But Attention is Not the Final Asset

A career in elite sport creates a concentration of public attention that very few people will ever experience. An athlete’s performances are watched, discussed and shared by people they may never meet. Their name can enter households, boardrooms and commercial conversations before they have developed relationships in any of those places.

At the height of a career, this attention can appear permanent. Media coverage is consistent, social audiences are growing, sponsors want access, invitations arrive without the athlete necessarily having to seek them out. The difficulty is that much of this attention remains connected to current performance.

The club or league creates the competition, broadcasters then distribute it, media organisations interpret it, social platforms circulate the highlights and conversation, brands participate because the athlete is relevant within that wider system. The athlete benefits enormously, but they do not control most of the conditions producing the visibility.

That is why the performance curve in the traditional model eventually declines. This is not a criticism of the athlete and it is not a failure of personal branding. It is the reality of elite sport. Careers are relatively short, physical performance changes, team selection becomes more difficult and public attention moves towards those who are competing now.

No athlete can prevent that curve from changing forever. The more important question is whether every other part of their value has to decline with it.

Why Sporting Reputation Does not Always Transfer

Most athletes build a reputation during their careers, even when they are not consciously trying to do so.

Supporters, coaches, teammates and journalists begin to associate them with particular qualities. They may be known for consistency, leadership, resilience, professionalism, intelligence, creativity or the ability to perform under pressure. That reputation is real, but it often remains contained within sport.

Someone can be deeply respected inside a dressing room and still be largely unknown in the industries they hope to enter next. An athlete may be recognised by an executive without that executive understanding what the athlete knows, what they care about or how their experience could be relevant to a business, investment firm, governing body or community organisation.

This creates one of the most difficult challenges in athlete transition. A successful sporting identity does not automatically become a clear professional identity outside sport.

Former athletes are often told that they possess valuable transferable skills. That is usually true. They have worked inside high-performance environments, managed pressure, dealt with public scrutiny, adapted to changing teams and coaches, and learned how leadership and culture affect results.

However, experience does not become transferable simply because it exists. It must be understood, articulated and demonstrated in a context that other people recognise. Without that translation, the market sees what the athlete achieved but may not understand what they can contribute next.

The Traditional Opportunity Curve

The opportunity graph in the traditional route is deliberately uncomfortable.

It reflects the fact that many opportunities offered to athletes during their careers are connected to active status. Appearances, endorsements, media requests and commercial partnerships frequently arrive because the athlete is competing and culturally relevant at that moment.

When the career ends, some of those opportunities disappear because the mechanism that produced them is no longer operating with the same force. This can create a confusing experience for a former athlete. The public may still recognise their name. Their social following may remain large. Their career achievements have not changed. Yet the phone does not ring as often as it once did.

This is where visibility and professional opportunity become easy to confuse. Visibility means people know who you are.

Professional opportunity depends on whether the right people understand what you can do, trust how you operate and can see where you may create value.

A large audience can support that process, but it cannot replace it.

A Different Approach to an Athletic Career

The lower curve in the visual begins from exactly the same starting point.

Sport remains the priority. Performance still creates the original attention and credibility. The model is not asking an athlete to build an entirely separate career while they are still competing. It is asking them to use a small part of the access created through sport to begin developing a wider foundation.

Early in a career, this may be as simple as becoming more intentional about how they present themselves, what they share and who they build relationships with. It can involve identifying interests outside the game, learning about different industries and having conversations without expecting an immediate outcome.

The purpose is not to monetise every interaction. It is to prevent the athlete’s broader identity from remaining invisible until the day their career ends.

As the athlete moves through their growth years, those activities can become more substantial. They may begin developing expertise in a particular area, investing in businesses, supporting a cause, building a foundation, advising an organisation or participating in projects that reflect their genuine interests.

They also begin building relationships with people who know them through more than their sporting performance. That distinction matters.

A relationship based entirely on fame is often temporary. A relationship built through shared interests, mutual respect and repeated contribution has a much greater chance of continuing when the sporting context changes.

Reputation is Accumulated Evidence

Reputation is sometimes discussed as though it is another word for personal brand. I see it differently. A personal brand is largely concerned with how someone is presented and perceived. Reputation is built through what other people repeatedly experience. It is the accumulated evidence of how someone thinks, behaves, communicates and contributes over time.

An athlete may initially gain access to a room because of what they achieved in sport. Whether they are invited back will depend on what happens once they are there. Do they arrive prepared? Do they listen? Do they ask thoughtful questions? Do they follow up? Can they contribute without needing to be the centre of the conversation? Do they bring a perspective shaped by sport but relevant beyond it?

Those moments rarely attract public attention, but they are where reputational capital is actually built. This is also why opportunity can begin to compound.

One credible relationship leads to an introduction. One successful project creates evidence that the athlete can operate in a new environment. A thoughtful contribution causes someone to remember them when a relevant opportunity appears six months later.

Over time, the athlete is no longer being introduced simply as a former player. They begin to be understood as an investor, founder, advisor, executive, broadcaster, philanthropist or leader who also had an exceptional career in sport. Their sporting history remains part of their credibility, but it is no longer the only source of it.

Why the Lower Reputation Curve Continues to Rise

The reputation graph in the lower model continues growing after performance has peaked because the athlete’s credibility is no longer being produced by one activity alone. Their sporting achievements still matter, but they have been joined by a wider body of evidence.

People have seen how the athlete communicates. They understand the subjects they care about. They know which projects they have supported and how they have contributed. The athlete has relationships in different sectors and has developed a professional identity that makes sense outside the game.

This is not about trying to become relevant forever. It is about broadening the basis on which relevance is built. During a career, an athlete may be valued primarily for what they do. As the career evolves, they can increasingly be valued for what they know, how they think, who trusts them and what they are capable of building.

That is the transition represented by the rising curve.

Opportunity is a Product of Trust

The opportunity graph in the lower model rises gradually because meaningful professional opportunities usually take time to develop.

Posting online does not automatically create investment opportunities, updating a LinkedIn profile does not make someone ready for a board position, meeting influential people does not necessarily mean those people will trust them. Opportunity emerges when visibility is supported by credibility and relationships.

An athlete might share an informed perspective that begins a conversation with an executive. That conversation may lead to a meeting. The meeting may reveal a shared interest, which later develops into an advisory role, an investment or a longer-term partnership. Very little of that process is visible publicly.

This is why the work athletes do away from the public feed matters so much. The conversations, introductions, follow-ups, meetings and moments of contribution gradually create a network of people who understand the athlete beyond performance.

When the sporting career ends, the athlete is not approaching a completely new world and asking to be let in. They are continuing conversations and relationships that have already been developing. The transition becomes less about starting again and more about shifting emphasis.

What Owned IP Means Within This Model

I used the phrase “owned IP route” in the original visual, but it needs to be understood more broadly than content ownership.

A LinkedIn profile is not owned intellectual property. Neither is an Instagram following. These platforms remain valuable, but the athlete does not control the algorithms, distribution or long-term access to the audience. The owned element is what the athlete builds through and beyond those channels.

That may include an original programme, a newsletter, a podcast format, an investment portfolio, a business, a community, a foundation, research, educational material, licensing rights or direct relationships with people who have chosen to remain connected.

The platform creates distribution. The athlete must still decide what that distribution is being used to build.n This is an important difference between gathering attention and creating an asset.

A viral post can generate a significant amount of visibility for several days. A trusted relationship may create opportunities for several years. An original idea can become a programme. A programme can become a business. A community can become a source of knowledge, access and long-term value.

Owned IP is therefore not the end of the athlete’s reputation. It is one possible outcome of it.

The Conversion at the Centre of the Thesis

The two routes in the image are not divided by whether an athlete uses one platform or another. They are divided by whether attention is intentionally converted into something more durable.

Performance can create attention.

Attention can create recognition.

Recognition can create access.

Access can create relationships.

Relationships create opportunities for an athlete to demonstrate value.

Repeated demonstrations of value create trust.

Trust, when it exists across a relevant network, becomes reputation.

Reputation increases the likelihood of future opportunity.

The important word throughout that process is “can.”

Nothing is automatic.

An athlete can be highly visible without being understood. They can meet powerful people without creating meaningful relationships. They can publish regularly without developing a clear reputation. They can also be respected without building anything that gives them genuine agency or ownership.

The role of strategy is to improve the likelihood that each stage leads to the next.

The Goal is Not to Escape Sport

This work is sometimes framed as preparing athletes for life after sport. I increasingly believe that description is too narrow. The aim is not to move away from sport as quickly as possible. Nor is it to suggest that an athlete’s sporting identity has less value once they retire. Sport will always be part of who they are. It gave them experiences, relationships and perspectives that very few people possess.

The opportunity is to make that experience useful in a wider context.

A former athlete should not have to abandon their sporting identity in order to be taken seriously elsewhere. They should be able to build upon it, translating what they learned into new environments while continuing to participate in sport in different ways.

For some, that will mean coaching, media or front-office leadership. For others, it will mean investing, entrepreneurship, social impact, governance or an entirely different profession. There is no single correct destination. The thesis is simply that the destination should not be determined entirely by how much attention remains after performance ends.

This is Not Solely the Athlete’s Responsibility

There is also a danger in turning athlete transition into another area in which the individual is expected to solve every structural problem alone.

Not every athlete receives the same level of attention, earnings or access. Careers differ enormously across sports, leagues, countries and genders. Health, education, financial security, family circumstances and discrimination can all shape what becomes possible. Clubs, leagues, player associations and governing bodies therefore have an important role to play.

Traditional transition support often begins too late. It is introduced when retirement is approaching, a contract has ended or an athlete is already searching for direction. Reputational capital needs a longer time horizon.

Athletes should be supported in developing interests, relationships and professional fluency throughout their careers, without being made to feel that doing so demonstrates a lack of commitment to performance. The best time to build a network is not when you urgently need something from it. The work is more effective when it happens gradually, authentically and alongside the sporting career.

The Real Meaning of the Two Curves

The traditional curve is not a prediction that every athlete’s reputation will disappear. The lower curve is not a promise that every athlete who communicates publicly will build a successful second career. They represent two different levels of dependency.

In the traditional route, performance remains the main source of attention, reputation and opportunity. When performance declines, the other measures remain vulnerable because they are closely connected to it.

In the alternative route, performance is still the starting point, but it becomes one part of a broader portfolio of value. Relationships, knowledge, reputation and owned assets begin supporting the athlete alongside their sporting status.

Performance will always have a peak. Reputational capital does not have to peak at the same time. That is the central idea behind the image and the wider thesis I want to continue developing.

An athlete’s career creates more than memories, statistics and moments of public attention. It creates access, experience, knowledge and a period in which the world is unusually interested in their story.

The question is what remains once the attention moves elsewhere.

For athletes who begin early, build genuine relationships and give people the opportunity to understand who they are beyond the field, retirement does not have to represent the end of relevance.It can represent the moment when the value they have been building becomes visible in a different form

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