Are Footballers Born or Made?
by “Food for Thought”
In soccer, there are no "born" greats. It is impossible to be born with special football talents. Watch any of the great players, I can guarantee you that any of them have spent thousands of hours perfecting their craft. It is like this in other sports too, talk about Maradonna he is one of the best football player in history. People thought he was a born genius when he stepped on to the pitch. Little do these people know that Maradonna, spent thousands of hours practicing his skills & technique. This is mostly how he developed his skills. Living & breathing every moment of the day football, Maradonna came from a humble back ground where owning a football was something in it self, most things would be taken or go missing, but no one dare touch this little boy ball because for one it was never out of his site and two everyone who watched him thought that just maybe one day this kid might be something special. He would keep the ball in the air like a juggler in a circus for hours, ignore anyone who tried to speak to him, the ball was his love and dinner breaks were all just a unnecessary & unwanted break from his love.
The same applies for Johan Cryuff, the born genius of soccer, his mom worked at Ajax, and Johan would spent all his free time down at the Ajax building kicking the ball around outside the grounds. He would be there all day, if he was lucky, the pros would let him in the stadium to watch their practices and to warm up with them during their training. And yet again, people wonder how he became so good?
Here's another story I heard, about the former Spanish international player, Raul. Coaches have told me that he was by no mean's the most talented player growing up in Spain, but he worked like a dog. He worked endlessly to improve his game by turning his weaknesses into strengths. Soon, he became one of the best players for his age in Spain, and ended up playing on the National team, surpassing the "talented" players by his huge work ethic.
The bottom line is, practice makes perfect, hard work outwits this so- called "natural talent", nurture outweighs nature. Therefore, to be a great player, you must fall in love with the game, eat, sleep, and breathe soccer, and play / practice as much as you can. Set goals for yourself, be active, and have a plan to know what aspect of soccer you are working on and
why. Do this and you may well become a great player.

“Great players have devoted there life to football”

“Food for thought”