Boost and pick up most of football team (7)
I believe the answer is:
hearten
'boost' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'pick up most of football team' is the wordplay.
'pick up' becomes 'hear' (synonyms).
'most of football team' becomes 'ten' (a football team has eleven players).
'hear'+'ten'='HEARTEN'
'and' is the link.
(Other definitions for hearten that I've seen before include "Be encouraged" , "Inspire anew" , "Make (someone) more confident" , "Inspirit" , "Comfort" .)