Pride goes before a fall – The Holy Bible
There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads to good fortune; omitted… – William Shakespear
I wonder how soccer star Nikola Kalinic is feeling now, realizing that he could have been playing with Croatia’s team in the World Cup finals, were it not for a little pride.
Kalinic is a football player, and the World Cup finals is officially the greatest stage for football players to showcase their talents and earn greatness in the world. It comes around only once every 4 years. And many great players have only one chance to reach that stage in a lifetime.
But as the quote below shows, he missed that chance in 2022 due to pride and ego, something many great players have, but which has cost him big.
Croatia came to this World Cup with only two natural strikers. Mario Mandzukic, the guy who scored the winner last night was one.
The other was Nikola Kalinic.
Kalinic 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 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 achieved their greatest football achievement in history, reaching the World Cup final.
The remaining 22 players are national heroes. Their names forever inscribed in the hearts of generations.
Kalinic is not part of the winning team all because of minutes of anger, pride and bloated ego.
He may have regretted now 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 and dedication can all be shattered by moments of anger and pride.
Don’t be a Kalinic.
Good Day and Happy Weekend
What should Mr Kalinic do now? He has two options.
1. Dedicate the next four years to getting Croatia to the World Cup or Olympic Games finals.
2. Profit from his new notoriety by starting a Bill Clinton-style international motivational speaking tour, speaking to people on the dangers of pride. He should meet Kim Kardashian for advice on how to profit from one’s Big fall. He should use his example of fall-after-pride to get others not to fall-after-pride.
Pride comes before downfall
He’s not likely to get that opportunity again as Croatia won’t be able to get to world cup finals during his playing time.