Life’s Game in a Ball

By KS Murli

There are no full stops in life. But every four years, life comes to a standstill, across a million cultures and continents, in the most powerful and the poorest nations, in famous and infamous lands, in familiar and off-the-map countries. Ivory Coast, morphs magically from being a GK question to being a potential world-beater. If ever life needed a metaphor that is larger than life, it can only be football.

It takes a full ninety years for life to reveal itself in its entirety. Football does the same thing at the speed of light, in ninety minutes of nirvana. Football slices, dices and fuses all of life’s experiences, in its rawest, purest form, in a surround sound ambience, much like cinematic happy hour, but replacing creative fiction with creative reality.

From the time we are kicked out of the womb, from nine to ninety in life, we cry, laugh, avoid, attack, confront, celebrate, cheat, defend, deny, delay, deceive, dither, feed, fight, foil, hit, hurt, lie, lure, motivate, mislead, misunderstand, malign, push, prod, plot, ponder, pretend, plan, run, race, trust, etc – to fulfill our goal.

That’s exactly what football is about: A Revelation of Life showcased by the best Masters like Messi, Rooney and Kaka.

In Brazil’s game against North Korea, Maicom stopped the ball a few millimeters from the corner line, mentally paused for a fraction of a second, and in a swerving kick, banged the ball in. From his position, only a single angle of the goalpost was within his visibility, but that was enough. 

It’s so life-like, that it is difficult to miss the resonance. A drug addict, a love slave, a divorcee, or a directionless person digs himself into a corner. Just when everything seems lost, someone or something happens, promising you hope – but it’s up to you to make it happen. From the position you are in, it seems like a chance in a million, but you grab it, and that is enough, for things to turnaround.

Dissect football like a game of life and you will understand its magic. Success in Football – and survival in life – is about mastering the art of deception. Play ugly, play hard, deceive, cheat, and make your own way to your goal. It’s about you getting the better of the goal-keeper, about you leading a life and not life leading you.

Football – and life – is also about trust and kinship. It’s about winning as a team – and there’s no solo act, Pele, and Maradona, included. In life’s play book, success is a collective thing, only excellence is individual. It is impossible to see football in isolation. It is impossible for Man to live in isolation.

Football – and life – is also not always about the best man or team winning. Even in a world that overvalues charm, nice guys finish last. The world’s best player may be reduced to a sidekick in a game, if opportunities don’t come his way. The best performer in a company may be a clerk, and not the CEO. Just because Argentina has the best player in the world, and is coached by one of the greatest living legends, it does not guarantee that it won’t lose to the minions. One of the world’s biggest publishing companies, the Encyclopedia Britannica was felled by a publishing startup.

In the game of life, you never know, till you know. In the game of football, it’s not over till it is over.