By Emmanuel Ebimoh
The 2018 FIFA World Cup came to an end on Sunday in Moscow, Russia. It was 31 days of the best of football, spanning through 64 breathtaking games, from 12 beautiful venues, among 32 teams in the world. For many who travelled to Russia, it was indeed a perfect holiday. While for about 2 billion people who viewed the games on TV around the world, it was an unforgettable one month of some thrilling spectacle.
Yesterday, the Les Bleus of France were crowned champions of the world after they overcame Croatia 4-2 in a final game that will be etched on the memory of football fans for a very long time. At the end of the game, the sky opened and poured out showers of tears, perhaps an indication that the heavens were sad the World Cup was ending.
Amidst the celebration and tears that accompanied the 21st edition of the most prestigious football competition in the world, there are a few life lessons we can take from the just concluded fiesta.
First, no matter what happens in life, whether good or bad, we should always find a reason to be happy. This seems like the most important lesson to be learnt, and as simple as it seems, it could be very vital in our journey to find happiness in life. Let’s look at one of the participants in the World Cup – Panama.
The Panamanian team went into the 2018 World Cup as debutants. It was the first time since the history of Panama, a country of less than five million people, to be competing in the World Cup. Of course, as supporters travelling to watch their team play in a major tournament, they’d expect nothing less than a win, regardless of the opponent. But when Panama played England in their second group game, it was a 6-1 thumping for the new boys, as the English decided to play to the gallery. However, as goals leaked in, instead of being dismayed, the Panamanian fans were having one big party in the stadium. It did not matter that their team was crashing out; they were just enjoying the whole experience.
We need to understand that we can still find happiness even in the midst of failure and defeat. We need to learn to embrace our mistakes as stepping stones to greater achievements, with a positive mind-set. Winning or losing in the game of life is relative, but the real winners are those who celebrate and enjoy every moment of life.
The second lesson to take from the tournament is the importance of humility and team work. We’ll use the Croatian team as an example. Croatia went into the World Cup with three strikers, Mario Madzukic, Andrej Kramaric, and Nikola Kalinic. In their first group match against Nigeria, Nikola Kalinic was on the bench. With about five minutes to the end of the game, the coach instructed him to prepare and replace another player. But Kalinic refused to play. He insisted he was good enough to start the game instead of being brought in with just five minutes to go as a substitute. He saw himself as a top player, perhaps better than the rest, so he was too proud to play as a substitute.
After the match, Kalinic refused to apologize, despite appeals from other coaching staff to get his apology. As a result, the coach evicted him from the team and he was sent home from Russia. Kalinic flew for holidays and even posted pictures of himself enjoying elsewhere.
Subsequently, the Croatian team, against all odds and for the first time in their history, got to the finals of the FIFA World Cup. They achieved their greatest football achievement ever, breaking the jinx in their footballing history. The players in the team, despite losing to France in the finals and coming second in the tournament, are now national heroes. All of them, except Nikola Kalinic who allowed pride get the better of him, will be celebrated. Their names will forever be inscribed in the hearts of generations. And yes, Kalinic failed to be part of the winning team because of his anger and pride.
In life, some people have lost big unforeseen opportunities because of a moment of uncontrolled anger or an over-bloated ego. They’ve lost friendship, trust, opportunities for success, and happiness because they were either too proud to say “I’m sorry” or too angry to make peace. It’s important that we let go of pride and anger in our pursuit of happiness and success in life.
Also, it is worthy to note that to make it to the top of the ladder in life, one will need the help of other people. No one has ever made it in life as an island regardless of how smart or intelligent they are. As seen in Nikola Kalinic’s Croatian story, to succeed in life, you need to be ready to lower your ego and play with other people with the same purpose as a team.
The third lesson we can take from the World Cup is that sometimes, the fastest man might not win a race, and even the strongest might fall in battle. If a man is favoured he can become the best from the last. During the tournament, we saw many shocking results as the supposedly ‘big guns’ were either eliminated in the group stage of matches or in the second round. By the quarter final stage of the competition, top teams like Germany, Argentina, Spain, and Portugal had been eliminated.
By the semi-final stage, five times world champions had been kicked out of the competition. Surprisingly, Croatia, a team that had never gotten to the finals of the world cup, emerged second, ahead of the ‘giants’ in world football. At the beginning of the competition, no one would have given Croatia the chance of getting to the semi-finals, but then, they did it. They were not the strongest team, they didn’t have the fastest and most skillful players, they were arguably not a big threat, yet they made it to the finals, a stage where other bigger teams had dreamed of.
You see, sometimes in life we see mountains and oppositions that we think are insurmountable and we give up even before we begin. We belittle ourselves in our mind when we are supposed to stand up and face our fears. There’s a place for hard-work, preparation and determination, like we saw in all the teams that participated in the World Cup, but there’s also a place for grace, like we saw in the Croatian team at the tournament. So while we make up our mind to conquer the world, we should also remember that grace can locate the least amongst many and catapult them to a place beyond their wildest imagination. Ask for that grace.
Emmanuel Ebimoh is a writer and social media strategist. You can reach him on Facebook as Emmanuel Ebimoh. Email: emmyebimoh@gmail.com
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