In one of my favorite moments of the hit TV show “The Bear,” beleaguered wunderkind chef Carmy Berzatto attends a support group for grieving people.
Carmy had recently lost his brother whom he had a — to
put it mildly — complicated relationship with. After his brother’s death, he inherits the families run down sandwich restaurant in Chicago and the show transpires from there.
“The Bear” is a really great show, and you should watch it if you haven’t already. But this is not about the show as a whole, it’s about one very specific moment in the seven minute monologue above in which Carmy explains his decision to become a chef and the hard work it took for him to get there. How intoxicating it is to become good at something and to feel yourself in real time become really good at that thing. Carmy claims he is talentless in every other facet of his life but the confidence that he develops from finding what he is great at changes his outlook on himself and his life. At the same time, it gives you a glimpse at how easy it is to get lost in that pursuit if you are not careful.
I think everyone who has gotten good at something can relate at least a bit to that. When I first heard that monologue I was working 12-hour days in pursuit of my own personal slice of greatness, such as it was. My pursuit was trivial and ultimately fleeting — a promotion at a job I held for exactly one year after getting it – but easy to get lost into nevertheless.
It gets especially so if you are stacking up wins on the road to getting there. If you can feel yourself getting everything right. The presentation that goes great, the initiative that works perfectly, the problem that nobody could solve until you come in and fix it with ease. It’s a great feeling and if you want to figure out why people who are self acclaimed workaholics exist, well, there’s your answer. There’s something uniquely exciting and fresh and alive about walking into a room and knowing for a fact you are the most talented person there.
Then again, it’s hard to really know that when you are in a normal, everyday field right? Sure, there’s promotions and in the case of Carmy the ever present chase for a Michelin star that in a way is validation. But it’s hard to prove exactly that you are the very best chef in the world or that you are the very best comercial analyst around. The confidence mostly builds from within, there is no big great head to head competition in terms of who can do spreadsheets and answer emails the best you know?
(Although the Excel World Championships do exist and they are spectacular. Incredible world we live in.)
The wonderful thing about sports is that you can tell. You can see in a field full of talented players when someone is transcendent, when a player is above and beyond everyone else on the pitch filled with unbelievably talented individuals. And if you are lucky enough, you can see those individuals play for your favorite team and the feeling is multiplied.
Juventus has counted amongst its ranks plenty of transcendent players, too many to count in one article for sure, but this team has been lacking truly top-end talent for a while now. So it’s even more exciting that we are currently witnessing the ascendance of one such special player. Kenan Yildiz has single-handedly won three games in a row for Juventus and is blossoming into a bonafide elite level player. (For the record, this part was written before Juve’s 2-1 loss to Napoli this past weekend.)
We’ve known Yildiz had a lot of potential ever since he played in the Juve Next Gen project four years ago. We knew he was talented when he was promoted to the senior team as a swashbuckling, skinny teenager and everyone sure knew he was talented when he was named Juventus spanking new number 10 player as a damn teenager.
Still, after his tumltuous year under Thiago Motta, Yildiz remained more promise than reality. He was still capable of conjuring magic but it was still inconsistent enough that you worried that perhaps the number 10 shirt had been a bit too much too soon for the youngster.
This season has been quite different for Yildiz. While Juventus has continued to struggle with ineffectiveness and is already on their second manager, Yildiz has been the one constant throughout this year for the Bianconeri.
There’s been plenty of examples, but none quite as clear as his showcase against Bodø/Glimt. In what was looking as not only another textbook Juventus goes to the arctic circle and drops points but a result that put in serious jeopardy their Champions League future, Yildiz came on as a substitute at halftime and was the fulcrum in which Juve’s spirited second half was built.
Perhaps, Bodø/Glimt is not necessarily a world beater but it was tremendously impressive to see Yildiz put the game on his back at an absolute key moment in their season. And those performances are slowly but surely becoming more and more common for Yildiz who is consistently becoming Juve’s best performer regardless of the level of competition.
Paulo Dybala had a couple of years, Cristiano Ronaldo never really felt quite like ours even if he was elite, Federico Chiesa had some moments in there before injuries derailed his career and late stage Paul Pogba was a massive bummer for everyone involved. It’s been a while since Juventus had a bonafide idol in their hands.
Kenan Yildiz has a chance to fill that void much sooner than we all thought.
