Beyond the World Cup-V

Letter V: The Long Road to Greatness
My dear Parth, Viyanka, and Veyd,
Today I want to take you somewhere that no television camera ever shows.
It is not the dazzling stadium where thousands of people cheer. It is not the grand stage where a captain lifts a glittering trophy. It is not even the famous football clubs whose names are known across the world.
Instead, let us visit a quiet training ground on an ordinary morning.
The sun has only just risen. The grass is still wet with dew. One by one, children begin to arrive, carrying their football boots over their shoulders. Some have travelled from nearby streets, while others have come from distant villages and towns. Their jerseys are plain, their footballs are worn, and no one outside their families knows their names.
Yet each child carries something precious.
A dream.
As I watch them, I realise that every great footballer you have ever admired once stood exactly where these children stand today. Lionel Messi, Lamine Yamal, Kylian Mbappé, Cristiano Ronaldo, Aitana Bonmatí, Alexia Putellas—none of them began their journey before roaring crowds. They all began on mornings very much like this one, when success seemed impossibly far away and the only reward was the joy of playing.
Their coaches gather them together. There are no exciting matches yet. The day begins with simple exercises—running, stretching, passing the ball, learning to balance, learning to control, learning to think before kicking. The children make mistakes. A pass goes astray. A shot flies over the goal. Someone stumbles and falls. The coach does not become angry. He smiles, asks them to try again, and reminds them that every beautiful goal the world applauds is built upon thousands of ordinary passes that no one ever sees.
That, perhaps, is the first secret of greatness.
It is built quietly, long before the applause begins.
As the months pass, the training becomes more demanding. The children learn how to dribble through narrow spaces, how to defend without fouling, how to pass accurately even when they are tired, and how to trust their teammates. But the finest coaches know that football is teaching something even more important than skill.
It is shaping character.
A child who refuses to work hard soon discovers that talent alone is never enough. Another who blames everyone else for a defeat learns that excuses never improve performance. Slowly, almost without noticing it, the children begin to understand the deeper lessons of the game. They learn to arrive on time, to respect the referee's decisions, to encourage teammates who are struggling, and to accept both victory and defeat with quiet dignity.
In other words, they are learning how to become good human beings.
Around the world, some football academies have become famous because they have nurtured generations of remarkable players. You may remember that in an earlier letter I mentioned La Masia, the celebrated academy of FC Barcelona. It was there that Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, and, many years later, Lamine Yamal learned not only how to play football beautifully but also how to think, cooperate, and remain humble.
The academy of Ajax Amsterdam in the Netherlands has long been admired for encouraging young players to play with imagination and intelligence. In Portugal, Sporting CP gave a young Cristiano Ronaldo the opportunity to grow into one of football's greatest stars. Similar academies exist across Germany, England, France, Brazil, Argentina, Japan, and many other countries. Most of the children who enter them will never become famous, but every one of them leaves richer in discipline, confidence, and self-belief.
You may wonder whether these young footballers spend all their time with a ball at their feet.
Not at all.
They study at school. They learn about healthy food and proper rest. They exercise to make their bodies stronger and more flexible. They watch recordings of their own matches so that they can understand their mistakes. Above all, they learn patience, because improvement comes slowly, almost too slowly to notice from one day to the next.
Life, I have discovered, grows in exactly the same way. Whenever I think about these young players, another picture comes into my mind.
Imagine that all of us are standing at the foot of a great mountain.
Far above us, hidden among the clouds, lies the summit. That is where the champions stand. Looking up from below, the climb seems impossibly long. Some people look once and decide it is too difficult. They turn away before taking even the first step.
Others begin climbing.
The path is steep. Sometimes they slip. Sometimes they become tired. There are days when rain falls, when the wind is cold, and when they wonder whether the summit is worth all the effort.
Yet they keep climbing. One careful step after another. One ordinary day after another. Then, almost without realising it, they look back and discover how far they have already come.
I think greatness in every field is much like that mountain.
No scientist makes an important discovery on the first day in the laboratory. No musician gives a wonderful concert after a week of practice. No painter creates a masterpiece with the first brushstroke. And no footballer lifts the World Cup simply because he or she is talented.
Excellence grows quietly through perseverance.
Perhaps that is why I admire young footballers so much. They remind us that dreams are not achieved by wishing. They are achieved by returning, day after day, to the work that the dream demands.
My dear children, whether you one day become footballers, doctors, scientists, artists, teachers, engineers, writers, or choose any other path in life, you too will stand at the foot of your own mountain.
Do not be frightened by its height. Do not become discouraged if others seem to climb faster than you.
The important thing is not to race ahead. The important thing is never to stop climbing.
Many years from now, when people admire what you have achieved, they may think that success came to you naturally.
Only you will know the truth. Only you will remember the early mornings, the small failures, the quiet practice, the patient teachers, and the countless ordinary days that slowly carried you upward.
And perhaps you will smile, because you will know what every great footballer already knows. The summit is reached not by one giant leap, but by thousands of faithful little steps.
With all my love,
Dadu

(Uday Kumar Varma is an IAS officer. Retired as Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting)