I was feeling bored today and as usual I was watching football videos on youtube. Then, I came across this video

I used to watch this video everyday before I practiced. At the time, I was in grade 10 and football was more than entertainment for me. I tried out for juniors soccer at my school and wanted to become pro. I watched this video consistently- every time I felt demotivated I came back to watch this and get refocused.

Unfortunately, I got cut that year and, when you're that young, you're either extremely motivated or extremely fragile. Maybe, just MAYBE if I was less fragile I would've made my dreams a reality. Life was very different 5 years ago. I kinda miss the days when my biggest worries were if my crush liked me back :')

If you have similar story, please feel free to share your journey!

Inspiring! Wish I had such an history to share but I fear I have not, sadly, I got into football way too late and can barely play it in winter because of the temperature anyway. I don't know any local team or any other people who play it at a somewhat high level and even if I did, it would propably take me a few year to be good enough to join those guy. The best I can do is training every day the temperature permit me and every time someone of my family does agree to play with me.

Ha, those days. It may sound weird, but I grew up largely disinterested in sports when I was very young (my two sisters were/are both ballet dancers) and my focus was elsewhere, just on having fun and basically being a kid. When I did find a sport I really liked, it was football (the American version) and my Mom wouldn't let me play because she was worried about me getting hurt. It wasn't until I moved to Canada that I began playing soccer.

One of the guys who worked with my Dad ran a U10 soccer team that was short on kids, so I joined - knew nothing about soccer whatsoever, total newbie to the sport. I was beyond out of my depth, this wasn't house league or anything, it was legit travel, the only reason I got anywhere near the team was due to a lack of people. Needless to say, I sucked, especially because I was 9 and everyone else was 10 and had about 8 years worth of experience on me. Just after the season started, a Portuguese guy who ran a soccer school entered into a business agreement with the team's coach - he could use the team's field for his soccer school if he gave (basically free) scholarships to 5 kids on the team. The coach obviously thought I could benefit the most and for some reason didn't consider me a lost cause, so I was one of the five.

Joe, the Portuguese guy, is the best coach I've ever had. He'd worked with Olympians, would end up partnering with Sporting Lisbon about 6 years after I first met him, dude was legit. He taught me all the stuff I'd missed out on, and constantly motivated me to become a better player and person. He was the one who introduced me to the game at large - up until that point I didn't even know there were professional soccer leagues. I watched the 2006 World Cup the following summer, and it was the first professional soccer I'd ever seen. Between him and my other coaches, I got good, like really good. A coach from the Windsor Border Stars youth team (which was a provincial team that played all across Canada versus the best teams in the country) saw me playing a scrimmage when I was 13 and wanted me to try out for his team, and told me straight that I was a good enough leftback to make it. I played CB back then, but he was convinced I'd be a better LB for some reason. I told him I'd think about it, but I was never going to do it. I was a really sheltered kid back then, and the concept of travelling that much scared me, to be honest. It ended up not mattering because I had a knee problem that summer that would plague me until I stopped growing which pretty much killed my aerobic endurance for the next several years. Keep in mind, Toronto FC's academy (hell, Toronto FC itself barely) didn't exist at that time. This would've been the highest level soccer I could've played at in Canada besides the youth national team.

When I was 15, I hadn't played in a year due to the problem, but I was given a green light by the specialist I was seeing (thanks Canadian healthcare) to play again. I had to work from the ground up with a new local L5 team, first just making the team, then getting off the bench, then playing the full 90 minutes. I was an excellent defender still, but Joe, who I now was an assistant coach for in his school, told me that all that time I'd spent on my ass watching the game instead of playing it had given me a tremendous field of vision and tried to get me to move to central midfield. Looking back, if it hadn't been for my knee problems, that probably would've been my best position. Oh well, what may have been.

Eventually, I just got sick and tired of the pain that I associated with playing soccer. I ended up playing a lot of sports during the winter of 2013, especially basketball, which is another sport I've just always been good at. This is relevant because the next summer, our starting goalkeeper sucked balls. Like, major balls. He ended up quitting to save us the trouble of cutting him. I drew the short straw, ended up in net, and was so good they kept me there all season. This worked out because it was a position I could play with chronic-level pain. It's not my best position, and many of the best parts of my game (that first touch tho) are totally wasted by it. I'm still decent at it though, and played the position at a pretty high level for three years.

I am currently attending the University of Windsor. Our men's soccer team is quite good, but I was confident that I could make at least a good impression on the coaches during their open tryouts in the summer of 2016. About a month before those however, I was playing with some grad students, landed awkwardly coming down from a header, and my left knee felt weird. I ended up playing on it for another two hours, which should have been impossible and was literally the stupidest thing I could have done, because it turned out that about 90% of my left MCL had torn. Surgery was an option, but since the ligament hadn't torn fully, I opted to just let it heal on its own, which would take about 4-5 months. I really underestimated the lack of mobility though. I couldn't exercise at all for that time period, and I had severe muscle atrophy in my entire surrounding knee area as a result of nerve damage. By the way, shredding an MCL has like no pain whatsoever - if you tear all your nerve receptors at the same time. Fun innit.

I've gone from 140 to 190 pounds since then, because I ate like an athlete even though I wasn't exercising like one. That and first year university kicked my ass, so I have to spend a lot more time studying and less time running around. I did join my university's rec league for winter - and the old varsity keeper plays there, so he's a helpful metric to measure myself with. As of this moment, I'm not as good as him. Feels bad.

Why did I just write all this out? I dunno, it's midnight and that video made me sentimental. Whatever, what I meant to be a paragraph is now my life story in soccer. Make of it whatever you want.

No man, I really enjoyed this comment! I've been fortunate to be physically healthy for my 20 years on this planet so far thank the lord. A few ankle issue, knee problems, and possibly tendinitis (That's my theory, didn't consult doc) but thankfully nothing too big. Instead of all of that I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. That's another story.

I'm originally from Somalia, but when the civil war started my mother's family traveled to Saudi for a better life. I was born in Saudi and just 3 years after my birth, my mother thought it'd be great to go to Syria to better our education. Anyway, so when we went there, my uncle was teaching my brother everything about the game. He taught him how to play, how to pass, watched matches with him, even played Winning Eleven with him on PS1 (now known as PES) and as a kid who wanted to be tagged along ALL the time I asked my uncle to teach me, too.

Moving on, although I was overweight, I used to run fast for my size and was a great dribbler. Everyone in my neighborhood called me Figo and to be honest I hated it because I only liked 2 players then: Robinho and Roberto Carlos. So as you can see I really enjoyed the game and had a lot of fun until...

We moved to Canada in September of 2009. Everything was different from that point on, different people, different country, language, sports, EVERYTHING was different to me. And to be honest, you start to lose skills when you don't use them and that's exactly what happened to me.

Thankfully, I learned to speak the language(Not exactly great after 7 years but it's good enough I guess), and I was able to find people who shared similar interests with me. Believe me, I love'd every second of this whole experience, just like I loved adapting in other countries. BUT, losing your touch really sucks. I can still control the ball, can pass it to ya where ever you are on the pitch, AND I still have some moves. I just really choke under pressure and that's why I couldn't make it to my high school team.

BTW, do you know Gino by any chance? He teaches a soccer elective here in St. Clair and said he was a coach for about 17 yrs.

WHAT A READ EVERYBODY!!! THANKS!

Great & inspiring stories here :)

Thanks for sharing guys.

@Madridsta

Maybe? I know a lot of coaches, but many only by sight, because they were coaching other teams. He wouldn't be Gino Bordigon would he? I don't know him personally, but I think he worked with the LaSalle Stompers for awhile.

Here in India we don't have many opportunities to pursue football (or any other sport apart from cricket) as a career. There is no infrastructure, not enough academies, and the most major factor is the parental pressure. You need to start at a young age to make it as a professional player, and here sports is not seen as anything other than a distraction from studies. Almost all parents pressurise their kids to focus on studies and this way many careers are spoilt. The main reason that a country with a population of 1.2 billion can't produce 11 decent footballers.

I am a lot younger than most of you people here, and I'm still in school. I am a little on the overweight side, and I don't play that well as others on the school team, and that's why I was often overlooked whenever I tried for getting into the school team. But last year I worked hard and then got into the team as a CAM, but last year our team performed the worst we have seen for years, so this year the squad was completely overhauled.

Anyway, I'm changing schools next year to get into a more prestigious school and they have one of the best sides of the state. Hopefully I can get fit by the time I get admission there and get into their football team.

@saatvik10 Hey man, not trying to sound corny or anything like that, but trust me when I say that you should keep at it. No matter what happens, keep pushing if that's what you truly want. It's ok if it's overwhelming, just break it down into smaller bites and win this thing. I look back at those years and wonder what would've happened had I kept at it (lol I'm saying this and I'm only 20... Hopefully a listen for the years to come)

@SunFlash Yes sir! I actually had a lecture with him today, he's a very nice guy and of course his knowledge of the game is incredible.

Great read guys, I salute you!

@saatvik I completely agree with what @Madridista11 said, you just got to go and get it, simple as it is, you just need to completely focus and try to alter your life to push you even further for your goal. Nothing is cooler than getting something you want by your own two hands.

@sun btw man what course are you taking? A really close friend of mine transferred to Windsor university from Malaysia and is really, really talented and skilled in football (he is F*cking selfish at most times tho XD). He is taking EEE (Electrical and electronic engineering) first year, and his name is Karim from Algeria. I was wondering if you guys stumbled upon each other in a football field or futsal court :D

Great Thread guys, thanks

@sun btw man what course are you taking? A really close friend of mine transferred to Windsor university from Malaysia and is really, really talented and skilled in football (he is F*cking selfish at most times tho XD). He is taking EEE (Electrical and electronic engineering) first year, and his name is Karim from Algeria. I was wondering if you guys stumbled upon each other in a football field or futsal court :D

As a defender/keeper I'm really not into futsal, I've never actually played it. Unless he plays intramurals, I haven't met him - the HK building that has all my classes is right next to the stadium and is about a ten minute walk from main campus where everyone else is - and in the winter almost no one makes that walk. So my contact with people from other programs is really low.

EDIT: I'm in Sport Management.

@Madridista11 and @rayrex Thanks guys. Really good to read such motivating words from you guys. I'll try my best to achieve my goal and leave no stone unturned :)