Why Charly Musonda Jr. Walked Away from 11v11 Football at 28 to Reinvent the Game.

Charly Musonda JR., in London 2025 lobbying for WFPA.

June 2025 — For most elite footballers, the age of 28 marks the prime of their careers. It’s when peak physical condition meets elite experience. Yet in June 2025, Belgian footballer Charly Musonda Jr., once a prodigy at Chelsea FC and a player of remarkable flair, made a decision that stunned the footballing world—he announced his retirement from 11v11 football.

But Musonda’s story isn’t one of walking away. It’s one of walking forward.

“This isn’t the end of my relationship with football,” Musonda clarified in a social media post that quickly went viral. “It’s the beginning of a revolution.”

That revolution is the World Football Players’ Association (WFPA), a groundbreaking initiative founded to rebuild football around its most essential pillar: the players themselves.

Musonda scores a brace in 2017, PL2 for Chelsea Football Club.

From Prodigy to Pioneer

Musonda’s journey is anything but conventional. After leaving Chelsea in 2022 following nearly four years sidelined by a devastating injury, he began questioning the deeper architecture of the sport he loved.

“The football world is built on systems that players don’t control,” he reflected. “You need a club to shine. Your story gets filtered. Your career depends on things you can't influence.”

By the time he was 25, he was already contemplating a different future—not just for himself, but for thousands of players around the world facing similar invisibility. The spark for WFPA was lit.

A Broken Model

According to FIFA, there are over 11,000 footballers registered as free agents every year. Many fall into financial hardship. Some never return to the game. Others remain undiscovered because they never entered the right academy or club system.

Meanwhile, football institutions continue to pile on games, prioritizing revenue over recovery. “The same systems that were built to control the sport now control the players,” Musonda said. “And they weren’t built with us in mind.”

In founding the WFPA, Musonda envisions an entirely new player-driven football ecosystem—where footballers can earn a living, go pro, and build their brand without relying on clubs or governing bodies.

The WFPA Model

At its core, the World Football Players’ Association proposes a radical rethinking:

Player-led competitions where the spotlight is shared and the income is player-first
Opportunities for unattached professionals to earn while they search for new clubs
A path for undiscovered talent to go pro without needing academy validation
Incentives for agents and scouts who invest early in real talent
Platforms to amplify players’ voices, stories, and identities

This is football flipped inside out—not controlled by institutions, but created by those who live it on the pitch.

Not Retirement. Reinvention.

“Charly didn’t retire,” one Champions League club owner said . “He pivoted. And in doing so, he’s plans which are out of the box will take time but will surely give all pro players a fighting chance and current pro players stories to be told and celebrated in unique ways.”

The WFPA’s first flagship tournament “VS1FC” is already attracting interest from players across Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia—players tired of waiting on clubs to earn, tired of being treated as assets, and ready to reclaim their future.

“The game has always belonged to the fans and the players,” Musonda said. “It’s time the players actually get to own a piece of it.”

A letter from Charly: Dear Players, Fans, and Believers,

In June 2025, I made a decision that raised eyebrows across the footballing world: I stepped away from the 11v11 game at the age of 28.

To many, that looked like retirement. To me, it was a beginning.

I didn’t fall out of love with football—I fell out of love with a system that was never designed for us, the players. A system where our careers are entirely dependent on clubs, on gatekeepers, on leagues and institutions who make decisions without ever wearing our boots.

I’ve lived it: years of injury, uncertainty, isolation. I’ve seen friends out of contract for 10 months, unpaid by clubs abroad. I’ve met incredible players who never made it because they didn’t come through the “right” doors. I’ve watched young kids forced to conform instead of being celebrated for who they are.

Meanwhile, the game kept growing—more matches, more revenues, more control by governing bodies.

So I asked myself: What if football was designed around the player? What if talent + hard work was truly enough? What if our stories mattered just as much as our stats?

That question became a mission. And that mission became the World Football Players’ Association (WFPA).

WFPA is here to build a new football economy—one where:

You can earn while out of contract
You can go pro without needing a club
You can be seen without having to beg for attention
You can own your narrative, your time, and your impact

This isn’t about walking away from football—it’s about stepping into a version of the game that finally sees us. A football where we are the engine, and not just passengers.

To every free agent, to every young baller overlooked, to every agent who believed in someone when nobody else would: this is your home.

It’s time to stop waiting.

Let’s create the future—together.

Sincerely,
Charly Musonda Jr.
President, World Football Players’ Association

WFPA Origins