Kingsley
Onye was a very private person. I can still remember when he signed for NPA
football club. He was that shy and felt odd to shower in the public bathroom as
he called it. While everyone enjoyed the team bath after training, Kingsley
would rather wait for every one of his team mates to finish before he can go in
and shut the door. In some extreme situation, he will shower with his clothes
on. We usually ask ourselves “what’s he hiding?”
That’s
exactly the question. Do you still close the bathroom door when your team mates
is around? I could almost hear you say, “it depends; if I am close to the guys
then it doesn’t matter. But if the team is mixed with both ladies and
gentlemen, then it would be immoral to expose my nakedness.” That’s right eh? Wrong!
English
scholars say it’s a wrong grammar to say, ‘when your team mates is around.’ Rather, it’s ‘when
your team mates are around.’
But I can tell you why the sentence isn’t wrong at all. You see the word ‘team’
isn’t qualified with a plural verb ‘are.’ A team is regarded to be singular though,
it may have more than one player involved.
Now football
is a team game, just the way an army is a team. It lives, eats, baths, sleeps,
plays and fights as a team. The individuality stuff is a bunch of crap. The columnist
who wrote those stuff about individuality in team sports for the Saturday Post
don’t know any more about real football game than she do about fornicating.
When a
player begin to exhibit attitude among his or her team mates, then something is
definitely wrong. I also remembered that Kingsley Onye was perceived as an
imposter and we usually sidelined him in most things the team was doing. We
couldn’t earn his friendship and trust, even though he was a great defender; he
wasn’t always included in the team during important games. So, he was soon
frustrated out of the club.
It’s not about physical nakedness. It’s not about football alone. In fact, it is required of you in most teamwork. You have to open the door for your team mates to see that you’re not hiding anything. You need to be open and cooperate with your team members to earn their trust and endorsement of your membership in the team.
In football,
teams tend to maximize productivity when they form into highly cohesive unit.
It’s the extent to which team members are attracted to the team and motivate to
remain part of it that will make the team formidable.
Team
cohesiveness typically increases when members openly interact frequently, share
common attitude and goals, and enjoy being together.
Diego
Simone, manager of Athletico Madrid football club, attributes the success of
his team this year to the cohesiveness that comes from shared values. Simone
believes that players in this team placed high values on fitness, intensity in
training, individual respect and respect of the group, both in and off the
field. Beyond every expectations, Athletico Madrid won the La Liga and in the
finals of UEFA Champions League.
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