In foot­ball, as in life, we of­ten crave in­stant re­sults. The world cel­e­brates quick fix­es, the overnight suc­cess, the sud­den turn­around — but the truth is, any­thing last­ing takes time. Every cam­paign, every qual­i­fi­er, every train­ing block teach­es us that gen­uine progress is built, not rushed.

For na­tions like ours, the temp­ta­tion to re­set af­ter every dis­ap­point­ment is strong. A few bad games and the cho­rus ris­es for change: new play­ers, new coach­es, new ideas. But foot­ball doesn’t re­ward im­pa­tience. Teams don’t be­come co­he­sive by ac­ci­dent; they evolve through con­sis­ten­cy, shared ex­pe­ri­ence, and a com­mit­ment to growth over time.

This cur­rent World Cup cam­paign has re­mind­ed us of that. We’ve watched play­ers grow in­to roles, adapt to high­er lev­els of play, and un­der­stand each oth­er’s rhythms. Some have bro­ken through ear­ly; oth­ers are still find­ing their foot­ing and that’s okay. De­vel­op­ment doesn’t hap­pen in one win­dow or one tour­na­ment. It hap­pens over years of struc­ture, be­lief, and con­ti­nu­ity. But we don't have time when the qual­i­fiers are al­ready in mo­tion. The turnovers are quick.

At the youth lev­el, es­pe­cial­ly in World Cup qual­i­fiers, pa­tience is even more crit­i­cal. Young play­ers de­vel­op at dif­fer­ent speeds — phys­i­cal­ly, men­tal­ly, and emo­tion­al­ly. The teenag­er who strug­gles to­day could be a leader in five years. But if we keep restart­ing the process, we nev­er al­low that growth to take shape. The sce­nario is a bit dif­fer­ent, with Un­der-17 qual­i­fiers now tak­ing place every year.

Of course, oth­er coun­tries in our re­gion have ad­van­tages we don’t. Some have ac­cess to a wider pool of play­ers, drawn from French, Dutch, and even with­out the need for grand­par­ent el­i­gi­bil­i­ty laws. Their play­er base is nat­u­ral­ly broad­er, and that gives them a cer­tain edge. But we can’t waste time look­ing over the fence. Our fo­cus must re­main on what we can con­trol, which is on de­vel­op­ing our own sys­tems, nur­tur­ing our play­ers, fit­ting in the ones we find abroad and stay­ing true to our long-term goals.

Build­ing a foot­ball cul­ture, a re­al iden­ti­ty, takes com­mit­ment. It’s not about copy­ing oth­ers; it’s about be­liev­ing in our process, trust­ing our coach­es, and giv­ing play­ers the en­vi­ron­ment to grow. You can’t rush that. You can’t mi­crowave a foot­balling phi­los­o­phy — you have to slow-cook it, sea­son it with ex­pe­ri­ence and pa­tience, and let it ma­ture.

As this cam­paign un­folds, it’s clear we’re see­ing the signs of progress. The un­der­stand­ing is grow­ing, the fight is vis­i­ble, and the sense of di­rec­tion is re­turn­ing. The jour­ney is far from over, but the foun­da­tions are be­ing laid.

Long-term plan­ning isn’t just a man­age­ment buzz­word — it’s the on­ly re­al path to last­ing suc­cess. And for us, stay­ing the course isn’t just an op­tion; it’s the on­ly way for­ward.

Shaun Fuentes is the head of TTFA Com­mu­ni­ca­tions. He was a FI­FA Me­dia Of­fi­cer at the 2010 FI­FA World Cup in South Africa and 2013 FI­FA U-20 World Cup in Turkey. He has trav­elled to over 90 coun­tries dur­ing his jour­ney in sport. “Pro Look” is his week­ly col­umn on foot­ball, sport, cul­ture and the hu­man side of the game. The views ex­pressed are sole­ly his and not a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of any or­gan­i­sa­tion. shaunfuentes@ya­hoo.com