Is it actually fun to play professional football?

This is one of those things where there's a danger of seeing it through your values and mindset. Everyone is a bit different.

Some players like training, some don't. Some like going for long runs, some don't. Some like playing matches - even coming alive for them when they don't show anything like that during training, some don't and shrink back from the levels they show in training. Some like structure and tactics, some just want to get their foot on the ball. There's a massive level of repeated selection that gets them to this point. You generally have a bunch of people who are self motivated (the reasons for that can be individual and varied), who can elevate themselves to a high athletic level (through a combination of natural attributes and dedicated training), and have a high level skill set. If they haven't got those things, they don't get to this point.

Some like playing matches, for some it's a thing to be got through. Some will go on to happily play all the way down the levels, even for the dog and duck into their late fifties (Waddle-a-like), some will quit and never want to kick a football again.

Modern football is slanted more to the training, and the taking on coaching messages, and less the loving the being on the ball thing. You don't train well, you wont get to play, and you get selected out. You might have the athletic side, but not grasp the tactical side well - the physical gets you to a high level, but the mental provides a ceiling (Burke). Football teams are machines...with cogs, widgets, and linkage's. If you get pleasure (and many do) from understanding the game and derive satisfaction from positioning, tracking runs, narrowing angles, shutting down options, reading intent, and taking control of the game with those attributes you can enjoy the game without touching the ball. It is entirely possible to have a good game, and not do anything on the ball. And feel good about that.

Generally high level athletes like the exercise based endorphins, and their competitive nature means they enjoy matches where they pit themselves against others. Doing it full time means that in training, as much as in matches, they get the fun on the ball that they might need. But at heart, the repeated selection process means they are fit for purpose, in exactly the same way that racehorses are fit for the purpose of running round in circles with a munchkin on their back.

On the whole players enjoy the process that gets them playing football (it's hard to reach those levels if you don't get something out of it), even if they don't much like football itself (and some don't). That enjoyment can be bitter sweet about some aspects of it. Life is like peanut butter.

I'd love to do it, but I'm a terrible athlete and trainer. I think I've started to reconcile myself to the fact that it's not quite going to happen for me.

There's a big part of fan thinking versus professional thinking that colours how people perceive the game and players within it. Fans, on the whole, tend to think a player who does one or two amazing things on the ball is an excellent player...but on a professional level, within the structure of the team, coaches may more look at the structural problems a player may cause the side, and cost of those one or two good things. It can lead to players being undervalued (John McGovern is a classic example here) or indeed overvalued, by fans.

On a tiny comparative scale I think about last nights game. It was a very busy game, and I got run over in possession a lot...although I managed a few little touches that pushed the ball into good areas as I was being swamped. Out of possession I covered a lot of ground. Spotted a few gaps early, and made long runs to fill a position, including a few really good runs that covered a ball on the way out to someone who would have had a clear run, getting there in time (because of the early departure, not speed), and turning them around (hugely satisfying, no pretty ball work). Also went man to man for a bit on their best player (the world champion dancer) and dampened his growing influence on the game. Did a lot of covering holes for people who went, so that we weren't exposed on turnover. Put in two or three balls for excellent chances (unconverted assists). Had a couple of the lads moaning about me being undisciplined, not knowing where I was playing, and being rubbish on the ball. I was quite happy. Had a good game. No showreel moments.

One of the hardest things to see in a football game is the thing that didn't happen, because a player shut it down before it came about...but they can be as important as a defence splitting pass. To a large extent the grandstand moments in football happen due to breakdown and failure. You can't exploit a weakness that doesn't exist. Professionals are working to the beat of that drum, as much as fancy dannery. There is often a fan assumption that isn't fun...but it aint necessarily so.

Players will often come off with the endorphin high of a good run around, and having enjoyed the competitive challenge - without the ball as much as with. Throughout the course of a match, even with the best of players, the ball is actually in physical contact with you for less than a couple of seconds. Far more time is spent running near it, or after it...or after someone else.