8 Ways to Think Like a Footballer
Life-changing habits of pro footballers you can use
What if I told you that you’ve been selected to play the final of a major football tournament in four weeks?
Permit yourself to indulge in that incredible fantasy for a moment and think about how the way you live your life could change over the next four weeks leading up to the big game.
Football could be entertaining and exciting especially if your side is winning. But behind the frenzy, passion, and glamour is the grind and toil that define what happens on match day.
For the better part of my teenage years, I was actively dreaming of becoming a professional footballer. In the early to mid-1990s, I traversed the Lagos street football scene popularly known as “jeun-jeun”. I would show up anywhere there is a gathering of footballers and coaches (mostly uninvited). I frequently gate-crashed club recruitment and training sessions hoping my talent will impress and earn me a contract.
A nagging groin injury ruled me out of what turned out to be an ill-fated trip to gate-crash trials at Ivorian pro teams. In the pre-mobile phone world, it was a few months later I heard what my friends who made the trip experienced in their quest for professional glory. I was spared by a groin injury but that was the beginning of my early retirement.
By age 19, I gradually faded out of the “Lagos football dreamers” scene. Long story short, my football dream was stillborn. It took a while to get over that. But when the dust of failure settled, I started reflecting on the less glamorous and much less visible part of the game that could hold value for life outside the football arena.
There are many things you won’t see on live TV on match day that determine the outcomes. These things also determine life outcomes outside football. These are the things you need to prepare for your “fantasy match day”.
Visions and Goals
You don’t want to play a football game without a goal post. Even with street football in its raw form, we used stones, sticks, or any object with some shape or form to create the goal line. This is fundamental.
Without a goal to play to, the game could be chaotic and meaningless.
A goal is the measure of success and impossible to determine a winner without one.
A goal also guarantees progress. No team has ever won the world cup by playing out goalless draws up to the last minute. You must score either in open play or through penalties to move to the next round or take the title.
What are you aiming to achieve? Do you have a goal in view? Don’t play to the gallery without an eye for goal.
Training
To be able to run and jump for 90 minutes or more, you need a certain level of stamina and skills. Most lazy but skillful players hardly go far, and being able to run a marathon without skills would not cut it either.
Football training typically combines both. The physical training could involve a few or many rounds of jogging and other exercises depending on the physical philosophy of the coach. They also engage in skills training to reemphasize basic skills like passing and positioning.
To conclude the training, the coach will split the team into groups for a practice game to simulate match situations. This is when the coach starts thinking of who is fit to play the next game.
After this, some players stay back to practice extra skills that matter most to them while some head to the gym for weight training. This is where superstars leave the crowd behind in terms of physical and mental fitness.
This gruesome training regime is repeated twice a day in some pro clubs many times a week. No top performer was born with the level of skill and stamina they currently have. Those take work to acquire and more work to maintain.
Discipline
Training starts at 7 am daily! This is when serious players set themselves apart. There was a Nigerian player who is now retired. He was one of the least talented in his generation, but he had a long and glorious national team career. Anytime they asked coaches why this player was selected in such a star-studded team of that era, they always refer to the player’s level of discipline. I completely understood them because I knew this player when he was playing for a local club in Nigeria in the mid-1990s. He was humble and kind even to those of us who were mere spectators at club training sessions.
Discipline underlays everything else and often compliments natural skills and talents. Most times, talent is just not enough without applying discipline.
Integrity
What would football look like without integrity? Match-fixing start-ups will spring up everywhere. There would be more instances of the infamous “hand of god” like was the case in Mexico ’86 or South Africa 2010. There will be substance-enabled super-human performances. There would be more thoughtless tackles causing life-threatening injuries. A lot of things would go wrong.
Integrity guarantees the entertainment value and dignity of the game, otherwise, football games could become crime scenes.
What is a life without integrity? It could be brutal, brutish, and messy. So many things would go wrong.
Teamwork
There are some sports you can excel all by yourself. But not football. I tried my hands on boxing, so I know the difference. In football, you need eleven men on the pitch and a few more on the sidelines.
Even on the pitch, you can’t play both attack and defense for the entire duration of the game. You will burn out quickly.
Championships are won by teams with the most coordination and cohesion among the eleven men on the pitch.
You can bring your talent to the arena, but it takes collective efforts to win.
Leaders and mentors
Matches could be won or lost based on input from the bench. Throughout the history of the game, coaches have changed the outcomes of football matches through a decision or instruction. Likewise, one tactical error of judgment could ruin a game.
Coaches provide leadership, inspiration, and guidance. Eventually, they take responsibility.
Successful players leverage the power of leadership. So many young players have been nursed from academy to fame by the power of influence. Great talents have also fallen by the wayside for despising leadership and refusing help from mentors.
Many years ago, I got to know a young accountant when I was just starting college. I met with him during my holidays, and he would usually tell me what books to buy or read for the next set of courses I was taking in college. He was a strong influence in steering me towards starting professional accountancy training immediately after I graduated college. He is now a very successful professional and remains my mentor.
Find your technical adviser and follow through with what you learn from them on and off the pitch. That’s what makes champions.
Movement
It’s a game of movement, constant movement both on and off the pitch. To score a goal requires movement. To defend also requires movement. When things are not going well, a move will usually save the player’s career.
When I got stuck trying to get a professional contract in Nigeria, I along with a group of fellow dreamers started looking offshore. It’s common to see young players taking the risk and moving to foreign lands to take advantage of better opportunities.
So also in life, motion enables progress. Don’t sit on your move when it becomes necessary.
Fans and Supporters
They are always there. Their team could be rooted to the bottom of the league table, but they will still show up for the games.
We all need loyal supporters. We need people who can look through our struggles and failures. People who earn the right to celebrate our victories through the investment of their sweat and tears.
Find your loyal fans and offer them “season tickets” to your life games. You need such people in your corner of the arena. You will always need them — win or lose.
Now the fantasy is over. It’s time to wake up. You are not Messi or Ronaldo. You are just YOU — a man or woman trying to lead a meaningful and purposeful life.
But can you see how you could become a better YOU, with a clear vision, constant investment in personal development, and focused on being more productive in whatever you are called to do?
All you need is to think like a footballer, and you will be ready to play the best game of your life — every day.
