Small people who cry will be footballers (8)
I believe the answer is:
sweepers
'footballers' is the definition.
(sweeper is a type of footballer)
'small people who cry' is the wordplay.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'people who cry' becomes 'weepers'.
's'+'weepers'='SWEEPERS'
'will be' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for sweepers that I've seen before include "See 7" , "They clean up lotteries" .)