What is a Soccer Champion? If you look up champion in the dictionary, it’s someone who excels above all others. Generally speaking, a soccer champion is someone who has won titles, championships and/or cups.
I can hear you demanding, how do I become a soccer champion? How do I succeed in Soccer?
Before I start lets clear the air a little. There maybe nothing more haunting than seeing severe disappointment, hurt, misery or total unhappiness in someone you love. Whether it’s your kids, players, team or even yourself. Don’t torment yourself because soccer, or lack of it plays a huge part in our lives. Have you ever admired a great player or even felt envious?
Don’t you think it’s funny that our parents dedicated a major portion of their lives to helping us, their children. To give us every opportunity to succeed and to become champions. My father once said to me when I was playing soccer,
“the greatest soccer player is himself, if you want to be a great player you’ve got to be honest with yourself”. ( I think that’s how it translates from Greek to English)
Anyway, the point is this, you can’t lie to yourself. You can’t fake it!
So with that said, put your honesty cap on and see if you can relate to the following.
Soccer Enthusiasm
To become a champion in any event, not just soccer, you have to really love what you are doing. If you can’t acquire a love for the game, an enthusiasm that burns into a must have desire, then it may be time to sit down and reassess your soccer goals. Am I being too harsh, I don’t think so. Remember this post is for champions. Do you want to become a Soccer Champion? Not a soccer player, coach, fan or manager. A soccer Champion!
Without enthusiasm, you will not have the passion required to maintain your focus or drive. Doing what you are passionate about it is not working. Players like Ronaldo report that they trained 12-15 hours a day when they were young. Is this work? Or is it passion, something he loves and a burning desire that needed to be answered. You could be the best athlete in the world, the strongest, the fittest, the most talented, but all that means nothing without passion.
Commitment
To become a Soccer Champion invariably means having to learn more skills, develop new strengths, learn new techniques and obtain more experience. But more often than not, when we try and learn new skills or techniques we don’t succeed at first. Do you give up? Do you have the commitment to continue against all odds? Have you ever seen Ronaldo practice his free kicks? To simplify things, repetition, practice, review, effort and feedback are all essential. Can you commit to these? Remember you should be wearing your honesty hat. Commitment to training is an absolute necessity to becoming a Champion.
Goals, Objectives and Plans
Since you’ve read this far I’m assuming you possess enthusiasm and desire. You are committed to becoming a soccer champion and are willing to train your arse off. So far, so good, so what!
Combine your desire, enthusiasm with commitment to training and your heading in the right direction. But this doesn’t guarantee you anything. All the desire and commitment in the world won’t do you any good unless you have a goal. All champions set goals. I remember a little kid in the slums of Argentina juggling a ball and announcing to the world that he was going to be the best player in the world. You might know him, Diego Armando Maradona.
Soccer Champions set goals based on their strengths and weaknesses. Their plan revolves around improvements and reaching new, higher levels of performance. They inevitably increase on their strengths and eliminate their weaknesses. Whether their goal is strength (weight training), dieting or even psychological training, champions know that to become the best they have to surrender themselves to their goals.
Spirit and Tenacity
At the end of the day, Soccer is a series of tests. We have to pass one test to move on to the next. As we climb the soccer pecking order, guess what? We take a greater chance of failing. Competition at the top becomes fierce and if you’re not up for the challenge, then the fall will be hard and long. One thing I learnt from my playing days is that the falls are always painful. But wait a minute, we are talking about being a champion. Champions learn to get up after every fall. Only by getting up can you continue on this road to becoming a champion. Don’t become part of the ever growing list of soccer “has beens”. Get up, get up and if I wasn’t making myself clear, GET UP.
Networking
No matter how good you are, no one today makes it to the top without knowing the “right people”. Remember the saying,
It’s not who you are, it’s who you know”
All champions surround themselves with supportive people. The strength of your people is crucial to achieving the goal of championship status. Your people or team can comprise of family members, friends, managers or your coach. Your team will propel you forward and keep you focused and driven when required. Your team will also focus on unearthing opportunities for you that might have been overlooked. When you have a team networking for you, the opportunities are only limited by the fact that you can’t be in 2 places at the same time. Think about it.
Before you can become a Soccer Immortal, you must find your desire and commitment and find your inner strength. That means you have to discover and work with yourself. Discover yourself! Looking back in time, the little piece of Greek wisdom my father gave me when I was young still rings in my ear today,
“the greatest soccer player is himself, if you want to be a great player you’ve got to be honest with yourself”.
For those of you that have read this and go on to become soccer superstars, your welcome. Just remember when you’re signing your next big contract that my cut is 10% (Wink).
Leave a Reply