This thesis is based on a socio-ethnographic work conducted on three football clubs of contrasting federal levels: one operates at the county level (District), the second at the regional level (League) and the last at the national level (Federal). All three clubs are amateur sports associations affiliated to the French Football Federation and are situated around a medium town. The study is based on a quantitative survey, conducted by questionnaires, to which responded most players in these three clubs (6 to 18 years, n = 397). A qualitative survey consisting of 91 interviews, 71 observations and 18 aptitude tests and physical gestures, complete and weight the results obtained by questionnaire. The thesis studies the formation of tastes, aptitudes and skills of the amateur players of these three clubs. The analysis of the practices, of the representations of these footballers in training, of their teachers and parents, reveals how the socialization of these football players gradually focuses on the practice of the club. The players' disengagement from other practice contexts is accompanied by an intense and lasting investment of the players in the federal culture and practice, and results in the acquisition of individual and collective skills diverse in quantity and quality, products of this long socialization.
