Looking for a keeper: why one is always missing, and how to stop begging

"Need a keeper for tonight, 8pm" is one of the most-sent messages in this country's WhatsApp groups. It goes out late, it goes out rushed, and half the time it ends with an outfield player reluctantly stuck between the posts.

People aren't being difficult. The position doesn't pay

In a pickup game the keeper touches the ball less, runs less, scores nothing, and carries the goal conceded. Everyone else came to enjoy themselves; the keeper came to work.

Framed that way it stops being an attitude problem and becomes an incentive problem. And incentive problems get solved by changing the rule, not by pushing harder in the group chat.

The three fixes that work

1. Agreed rotation. The goal rotates on a timer or on goals conceded — every 10 minutes in 5-a-side, or every two goals. Agreed once, and it stops being a weekly negotiation. It's the most common fix and the cheapest.

2. Whoever goes in goal doesn't pay. If the pitch is split between everyone, the keeper is exempt and the rest cover that share. In a group of ten, splitting one person's share across nine is a small increase each — and suddenly there are volunteers.

3. A regular keeper from outside the group. There are people who genuinely like keeping and don't have a group. Finding one and looking after them — messaging them first every week, treating them as part of the group — is worth far more than raffling the position off every Tuesday.

What doesn't work: leaving it until match day and hoping someone offers. By 6pm you're not organizing anymore, you're begging.

The message matters

A vague message gets ignored. A specific one gets an answer, even if the answer is no:

⚡ Tuesday pickup game — need a keeper
Tuesday 20:00 · pitch in Curridabat
5-a-side, one hour, casual level
The keeper doesn't pay for the pitch

Anyone in?

Date, time, place, format, duration, level, and whether they pay. Seven facts in six lines. Without them, the person has to ask three questions before they can decide — and almost nobody does.

Keep two, not one

Keepers get sick, work late, and drop out like everyone else. A stable group has two people willing to go in goal and alternates them, instead of depending on one and landing back at square one the week they can't make it.

Every sport has the equivalent position

This isn't only football. In padel it's the fourth player, whose absence unbalances the pairs. In volleyball it's the setter, without whom the whole game changes shape. In basketball it's whoever ends up only defending.

The fix is the same everywhere: turn the awkward position into a group rule — rotation or compensation — instead of a weekly negotiation.