Being to my mind history’s best footballer - and subsequently incredibly rich - Lionel Messi may not seem like the most relatable person you’ll ever meet.
However, as unlikely as it may seem at first, and as distant as the professions of teacher and footballer may seem, there’s a great deal we as teachers can learn from someone like Messi. In fact, we even have a lot in common with the Argentinian wizard, whose latest attempt to win the World Cup starts tomorrow.
Teaching is a process - a very difficult one, too. And Messi, for all his otherworldly traits, faced a lot of ups and downs on his way to one of the most storied careers in football.
“It took me 17 years and 114 days to become an overnight success,” Messi said famously in an interview, addressing the critiques of his success being about pure, effortless talent with little requirement for hard work. It took almost two decades of training, refinement and self-analysis for a short, skinny little boy from a working-class family in Rosario to become the greatest footballer the world has seen.
So, what does that tell us about our own teaching journey?
It tells you that there will be tough days, for all of us; that there will come a time when you will question yourself, your lesson plans and your choices; that your dreams and aspirations will remain just that, without action and persistence. No one becomes successful overnight, in the classroom or on the football pitch.
One of the most incredible things about Messi is his capacity for learning, and his willingness to keep learning more. By the age of 25, Messi had already been crowned the planet’s best footballer four times, and it would’ve been all too easy for him to take it easy, keep doing what he was doing and bask in the glory of his achievements. Yet, his game and style of play have constantly evolved to suit different teams and demands.
And that’s the life of teachers, too. Every day is a school day, as we like to remind our students - but that applies to us, too. We need to keep working on ourselves, not just for our own sake but for the children we teach. It is difficult to be the best you can be if you don’t enjoy thinking about the process of what you do.
Messi has always been incredibly passionate about football. When his mother sent Leo to do errands as a little boy, he would always bring a ball with him. Grocery shopping? Ball in his bag. Clean his room? Ball in his bag. Go to school? Yep, you guessed it - ball in his bag.
“My motivation comes from playing the game I love. If I wasn’t paid to be a professional footballer, I would willingly play for nothing,” he once said, offering to do just that in a bid to avoid his unfortunate departure from Barcelona in 2021.
Granted, being incredibly wealthy, that sort of sentiment may be easier for Messi to express than it is for teachers, and I’m not suggesting we do our work for free. Instead, the point is that if we find a passion for teaching (and that is nurtured and encouraged by others) it can yield incredible results in the long term, for us and the children in our classes.
For all the challenges facing teachers just now, then, let’s not let our passion for teaching die away, let’s not forget that determination to help young people that drew us into the profession - because, fuelled by that passion, you just may change a young person’s life for the better.
That profound impact on others is another thing we teachers have in common with Messi, whose career has been an inspiration to countless people around the world. Teachers, however, may not see the influence they have on certain pupils straight away, if they ever do.
Our impact may be more of a slow burn than that of a superstar footballer - but we, too, more than most professions, have the power to inspire someone to become more than they might ever have thought possible.
Domagoj Kostanjšak is a primary teacher based in Dalgety Bay, Fife, in Scotland. He is also a sports journalist and, in October, published a book about Lionel Messi, Anatomy of a Genius
