A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby league, and rugby union.
A men's association football player (Karim Benzema)
A women's association football player (Marta Torrejón)
José Mourinho is a retired football player who post-retirement has worked as a football manager.
Pia Sundhage is a retired football player who post-retirement has worked as the football manager for the United States and Sweden national teams.
An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track and field and marathon runners but excluding e.g. swimmers, footballers or basketball players. However in other contexts it is used to refer to all athletics participants of any sport. For the latter definition, the word sportsperson or its gendered sportsman or sportswoman are also used. A third definition is also sometimes used meaning anyone who is physically fit regardless of whether or not they compete in a sport.
Jim Thorpe at the 1912 Summer Olympics
Runners, ceramics, S. IV a.C.
Athletes taking part in a race on a snowy park in the U.S.
