RE-LIFE: an educational perspective on reconstructing life after sport through the experience of former footballers

Introduction: retirement from elite sport was identified as a critical phase in an athlete's life, during which identity, emotional balance and life project were profoundly challenged. Objective: the study aimed to present the RE-LIFE (Reconstruction of Life after Sport) framework as a conceptual lens that built upon established psychological models of career transition and extended them into an educational framework of response, addressing three aspects underaddressed by existing frameworks — the educational processes of competency reconstruction, the sustained temporality of adaptation, and the role of narrative identity in biographical continuity. Methodology: a qualitative interpretive approach was adopted, combining theoretical synthesis with the analysis of five in-depth interviews with former professional Spanish footballers; data were analysed through an abductive approach combining reflexive thematic analysis with narrative interpretation. Results: findings were organised around six conceptual dimensions — self-awareness and self-regulation, training development and competence transfer, identity reconstruction, support ecosystem, comprehensive well-being, and social projection — and indicated that retirement involved not only psychological adjustment but also sustained educational processes of learning, identity renewal and social contribution; five emerging categories — delayed grief, meaningful mentoring, self-directed learning, renewed enthusiasm for life, and pedagogical transfer — enriched the original conceptual architecture. Discussion: the RE-LIFE framework was discussed as an integrative educational lens that complemented existing psychological approaches to career transition by foregrounding how athletes learn, adapt and grow through the transition experience. Conclusions: RE-LIFE provides a conceptual basis for facing themes such as the design of sport entities’ organization, coaches education, dual career programmes, or athlete welfare policies.