Although Croatia lost to France at World cup final 2018 final, there is a lot to learn from the Croatian side than what meets the eye.
“Croatia came to this World Cup with only two natural strikers. Mario Mandzukic, the guy who scored the winner in the match against England.
The other was Nikola Kalinic who was on the bench for Croatia’s first game against Nigeria, With five minutes to end that game, coach instructed him to dress up and replace another player.
Kalinic angrily refused to play, in protest of being left on the bench.
He saw himself a top player, and wouldn’t come on for just five minutes. The coach turned to another player Pjaca for the substitution.
After the match, Kalinic refused to apologize, despite appeals from other coaching staff.
The coach then sacked him from the team, and sent him home from Russia. Kalinic flew for holidays, and even posted pictures of himself enjoying elsewhere.
After all, he seemed to imagine, Croatia wouldn’t go anywhere in the tournament. But without him, the team managed to win their matches.
Croatia has achieved their greatest football feat in history, reaching the World Cup final.
The remaining 22 players are national heroes. Their names will forever be inscribed in the annals of the country’s history and in hearts of generations.
Kalinic should have been part but minus him the team beat all odds to reach the finals. All is a result of Minutes of pride and bloated ego.
He must be regretting now. He may have realized his tomfoolery. But it is too late. These stories about life are quite familiar to us, but do we really learn lessons from them? As they profoundly apply to all spheres of life?
Learn to CUT PRIDE. Learn to control anger and DEFLATE EGO and ultimately, learn to say SORRY.
Years of SWEAT & DEDICATION can all be shattered by moments of ANGER and PRIDE.
DON’T BE A KALINIC”
