Watching major football tournaments has made me think about something that extends far beyond sport. At the highest level, success is rarely produced by individual talent alone. It depends on infrastructure.
A world-class football team requires youth academies, experienced coaches, strong domestic leagues, sports science, financial resources, international exposure, and regular competition against elite opponents. The same is true in academia.
World-class research depends on much more than brilliant scholars. It requires libraries, seminars, conferences, research funding, doctoral training, international networks, rigorous criticism, access to journals, and institutions that make excellence routine rather than exceptional.
Of course, exceptional individuals sometimes emerge despite weak infrastructures. History offers many examples. Yet sustained excellence—whether in sport, science, or the arts—is rarely achieved in this way.
There is, however, an important nuance. Infrastructure does not have to be domestic. Many outstanding footballers come from countries with relatively weak football systems but reach their full potential after entering the academies and clubs of Europe’s leading leagues. The same is true in academia. Talented researchers may begin their careers in modest universities yet flourish after joining stronger international research environments. What matters is not only where talent originates, but whether there are pathways connecting talent to infrastructures capable of developing and recognizing it.
Infrastructure also performs another, less discussed function. It does not merely produce excellence; it regulates access to excellence. Strong infrastructures cultivate talent, but they also influence who is admitted, trusted, recognized, funded, and given opportunities to grow.
Perhaps this offers another perspective on the long-standing structure–agency debate. Agency helps explain exceptional individuals. Infrastructure helps explain why exceptional individuals emerge repeatedly in some environments and only rarely in others.
Alisher Faizullaev 