A year abroad can change a 10-year-old’s game, but FIFA’s rules for registering minors mean the paperwork, not the talent, decides how much of that year he spends playing matches.

Child soccer training abroad is one of the best reasons to take an expat year, and one of the easiest to get wrong.

Picture a Canadian family that lands in southern Europe in late summer. The apartment is rented, the school is sorted, and their 10-year-old has found a club that trains four evenings a week. He has played rep soccer in Ontario since he was seven and he cannot wait to start. Then the club asks for something the family has never heard of: FIFA approval to register a child who is not a national of that country. Weeks pass. He trains with the squad and plays friendlies, and he watches the official league fixtures from the sideline.

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