Nikola Kalinic

लौट आता हूँ वापस घर की तरफ… हर रोज़ थका-हारा,
आज तक समझ नहीं आया की जीने के लिए काम करता हूँ या काम करने के लिए जीता हूँ।
बचपन में सबसे अधिक बार पूछा गया सवाल – “बङे हो कर क्या बनना है ?”
जवाब अब मिला है, – “फिर से बच्चा बनना है.

Today it is a world cup final between France vs Croatia. Since last few weeks football world cup mania was all over the world, almost 3.2 Billion people watching this bonanza. Amongst many, one story that caught everyone’s attention was Nikola Kalinic. It’s been widely published all over media and many of you have probably read it but it is an important lesson to understand the choices and the decisions we make that changes our lives forever.

“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. He was on the bench for Croatia’s first game against Nigeria. With five munites 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 munites. 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 seems 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 forever inscribed in the hearts of generations.

Kalinic should have been part but minus him. All because of minutes of anger. Minutes of pride and bloated ego.

He may have regretted now. He may have realized his silliness 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”