Qualifications
If you're kicking around the idea of becoming a podiatrist, you'll need quite a bit of training under your belt.
After high school, you'll be required to graduate with a four-year degree from a college or university in a field which prepares you for medical school, such as biology or anatomy, or one of the many specialized pre-med programs. After that comes four years of medical school, for which you will have to pass the standardized MCAT.
Successfully completing this will leave you with a shiny new Doctorate of Podiatric medicine degree. You'll then, depending on your specialization, begin a period of three to six years as a resident or intern, learning through hands-on (or foot-on), on-the-job training (and be infamously sleep deprived) (source).
With these qualifications, you're technically a podiatrist, but you're still unable to practice the art anywhere outside of small, desperate island nations. If you actually want to practice in the developed world, you'll need to earn your license and certification through a series of exams which vary by state and specialty. Many podiatrists also earn certifications by the American Board of Podiatric Surgery through work experience and more exams.