The making of a football star

Famous people often feel lonely but what makes them who they are. Rahul, a lonely sixteen year old famous professional football player has maybe too many responsibilities and expectations. Residing in Mumbai, Rahul comes from a middle class family, where his parents work very hard to give him a good education so he will have a better tomorrow and lead a better life. Rahul, however faced learning difficulties and his parents, not realizing his sporting talents, put pressure on him to perform well academically It was when he was 12 years old that the physical education coach of that school saw him playing football with friends and realized that this boy had latent talent which would probably take him to higher levels. Not losing any time the coach put him in the school football team which plays various inter-school tournaments each year. Being in the team made Rahul very happy and he felt completely charged up as he began to love the game and now aspired to become a professional football player and play for a well known football club in the future. His parents began to support him, but yet were not very content as they wanted him to become an all-rounder. Rahul tried hard but was never successful in becoming good at academics. Being twelve he thought he had it all a game he loved playing and was good at, friends in school and the respect of his teammates. At thirteen he was made captain of the football team of his school and led the team to the finals of the biggest inter-school tournaments of Mumbai and scored four goals for his team comprehensively, winning the trophy for his team. For him this was one of the best moments in his life and after the game he was surrounded by the press. The next day his name and picture came in all city newspapers and he was also featured live on many different news channels. This gave him a lot of confidence and he began to think that these were stepping stones to his future. After a year he had become very famous as his school had won the championship for the second successive year under his captaincy. All his friends as a result began to feel very jealous of him and started to ignore him and kept on mocking him when he did not play well or tried talking to them. Rahul felt very lonely and went through a emotionally hard time. This made him angry and resentful and he started loosing his passion towards the game. However, the coach motivated him to play as he could see the future in this boy. This was way too much pressure for a fifteen year old boy and he was having a tough time already in the start of a dream career. He wanted to give up football because of all the sacrifices he had to make just to be successful and famous in one sport. Any fifteen year old boy would not want to lose all his friends to become famous and successful in a sport and this is why Rahul wanted his friends back and thus wiling to sacrifice the game he loved. But, the coach, the parents and the principal of the school did not let this happen as they felt he was too talented to give up the game and they did not know about the problems he faced as he never told them. His coach to encourage him made him the captain of the under 16 team. In the first tournament itself as captain Rahul won the championship for his side even though the rest of the team was not co-operative because they were so jealous of him and did not even pass the ball to him. The performance of Rahul without the help of his team mates caught the eyes of many selectors and immediately he got an offer from the Mahindra United youth team. This was extremely prestigious as Mahindra United is one of India's best clubs. They offered him a contract of 3 years at Rs.50000 per year. He was in a dilemma as he loved the game so much but he wanted to enjoy his childhood as well. Accepting this offer meant that he would face many difficulties and could not attend school regularly and miss a lot of work and without many friends it would be very difficult for him. Any sixteen year old boy would not like to miss his school life for all this achievements and destroy their childhood but Rahul was forced to. However, Rahul made many new friends in his club Mahindra United and they constantly supported him. Later in that year he had taken time off to study for his tenth standard board exams and did well. After he returned on the football field he was back to his best, now feeling less pressure and playing for the love of the game and a year later he was chosen into the U-19 football team to play internationally for India which he thinks has been his best achievement so far. However, the childhood of his which was destroyed can never be got back with any achievement or the gain of wealth. The period of loneliness can never be forgotten by him and he questions his decisions. Children are forced to make hard decisions at a very young age without any maturity. Hence, sometimes they loose the chance to have a normal care free childhood like you and me.