DON'T FORGET, YOU ARE THE HERO OF YOUR OWN STORY

“Heroes don't exist. And if they did, I wouldn't be one of them.”
― Brodi Ashton, Everneath

We all have our heroes who inspire us immensely. We like to talk about them animatedly… how they made it to the top the hard way from their obscure backgrounds. I think, a deep admiration for our respective heroes – be it from the field of Films, Sports, TV, Radio, Business, Politics, Social Work, Religion or Education whatever – helps us to shape our personalities… It motivates us to achieve our own goals in life…

The Law of Attraction is an age-old Law of success. It says, “What we deeply like and admire, we attract.” Thus, when we deeply like and admire our heroes, we attract their qualities in us.

Ritesh* is a young man doing his first year degree college. He is obsessed with football… He started playing football as a kid and played at many levels. However, he does not see his future in football, even though he breathes football by watching great teams play internationally. Like many young ones of his age, Ritesh, too, has his favorite countries, clubs and heroes in football. Whenever he talks about them, his face glows!

Ritesh’s dream is to get into IIM-A. It’s a goal post for a young man like him. I think, it is definitely achievable. So I ask him, “How deep is your desire? How determined are you?” I remind him, “If your goal is ‘definite’ and if you pursue it with burning desire and determination, you will surely succeed.”

As they say, every dream is realized twice: once, inside our mind. Next, outside… in reality. Ritesh has to ‘see’ it in his mind and ‘believe’ in it. Just to help him do that, I had encouraged him to write about two of his great football heroes, clubs and countries. Today, he had read out to me the write-up he had done on two of his football heroes. Here it is…

It's been several years since I started watching and following football. Over these years, I have read about many players of the past and present. The two players, who I admire the most currently, are Gabriel Jesus and Mohamed Salah.

Gabriel Jesus is a South American and belongs to the great footballing nation of Brazil. Today, at the age of just 20, he's playing for the best club currently in Europe and, maybe, all over the globe… and that's, for Manchester City Football Club. This guy has absolutely amazing stats and has been averaging at least two goals a match since his arrival at the Etihad.

Gabriel Jesus belonged to a very poor family which lived in the slums of Brazil. His father had passed away when he was barely a child. To our surprise, during the FIFA World Cup 2014, this lad was painting along the roads and walls and of São Paulo for the promotion of the World Cup!

Soon, Jesus  started off playing at a local football club in Brazil. In no time, he started making his playing time with the senior squad of that club itself. Scouts from huge European Clubs are always in search of youth talent in this continent as it's a promising one. After Jesus’ amazing performances, he led the club to a league title and then winning the gold medal for Brazil at the Olympics, too. During that time, he had scored 52 goals in 47 starts for the club and country at a tender age of 18. He was scouted by the scouts of Josep Guardiola and was soon conquered by him under the noses of other European Giants. His move to the city of Manchester was something of worth around 57 million Euros… and, now, he was one of the hottest prospects in football!

But, all this did not make Jesus arrogant. Even now, after being him provided with all the facilities by the club, his mom drops him off to the training facility, every morning. He is very religious and always prefers to wear the jersey which has the number 33, as that was the age when Lord Jesus was crucified! It is hard to find such humble stars in football nowadays and he's simply one them.

The other gentlemen about whom I'll be talking is Mohamed Salah. He's an African and is and Egyptian. He belongs to a nation which is not known to be a great footballing nation. He gave the trial for his boyhood club and was selected. The selectors were amazed by this lad's blistering pace on and off the ball. He spent a lot of years playing in the local league.

Soon after his hard work, he was transferred to the greatest football club of Switzerland FC Basel. He had a fruitful spell there. They had a UEFA Champions League fixture against Chelsea and, during that time, Jose Mourinho was their reigning manager. Then came up a big upset… Chelsea were defeated by Basel and Mohamed Salah had scored and assisted a goal, too. He had caught Mourinho' eye and the next transfer window itself, he arrived at Chelsea. The move was accomplished with much of determination and promises, but the club betrayed Mohamed racially and, for two seasons, he was just warming up the benches. They wasted a talent miserably!

After two seasons of disappointment, Mohamed Salah was loaned to Fiorentina and Roma. His move was made permanent by Roma as he was scoring goals regularly and was pretty much consistent. Then a came a day in the year, when he was transferred from A.S. Roma to Liverpool F.C. Mohamed was a record transfer fee signing for the club and has proved to be the best signing of the season as he has already bagged up 15 goals in 20 matches, assisted 3 and has won the ‘Player-of-the-Month’ twice, already.

There was a time when Mohamed Salah was racially put down by England; and, today, he is a fan-favourite and people have named him as ‘MO Salah’. Salah also helped Egypt, a weak footballing nation, to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup… He is a national hero of Egypt!

“If Gabriel Jesus was painting the streets of Brazil during the FIFA World Cup 2014,  just three years ago, and if Mohamed Salah had possibly everthing against him… and, if they could do it so big in football, do you think, you are incapable of getting into IIM-A?” I challenged Ritesh. “Heroes are made by the paths they choose, not the powers they are graced with,” I quoted Brodi Ashtron… and sealed it with one of Greg Boyle: “Don’t forget, you are the hero of your own story,”

 * Name changed

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic. 1: Anil Bedi 

Pic. 2 & 3: Internet