Wow! Croatia came to this World Cup with only two natural strikers. Mario Mandzukic, the guy who scored the winner in d match against England.
The other was Nikola Kalinic, He was on the bench for Croatia's first game against Super eagles of Nigeria. With five minutes to end that game, their 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 other 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 seem to imagine, Croatia won't go anywhere in the tournament. But without him, the team managed to win their matches.
Croatia has achieved their greatest football achievement in history, reaching the World Cup final. The remaining 22 players are national heroes. Their names will forever be inscribed in the hearts of generations. Kalinic should have been part but now its minus him. All because of minutes of anger, Minutes of pride and bloated ego.
He may have regretted now; as his other team mates were today adorned with FIFA Silver medals. He may have realized his foolishness. 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 ultimately, learn to accept challenges and situations.
Years of SWEAT and DEDICATION can all be shattered by moments of ANGER and PRIDE.