We admit to a touch of sports fever at Commercial Observer, but that’s the case for the whole of New York City.

Maybe it was the FIFA World Cup coming to Gotham. Maybe we had a sixth sense that the New York Knicks were going to have a fairy tale season and win their first championship in more than half a century. Maybe we somehow knew that at the end of last week the New York Yankees would sit comfortably atop the AL East with more wins than any team in the American League. (However, the more left unsaid about the Mets, the better.)

Whatever the reason, it is highly fitting — because the real estate broker has much in common with the professional athlete: The ambition. The determination. The ability to think on one’s feet. The energy and stamina.

Those last two qualities sometimes fade over time. But in the cradle of youth, when one’s fate is unwritten and the world is at one’s fingertips, that counts for a lot.

We’ve said this kind of thing before about the real estate professionals profiled in our Power Young Professionals issue: that they have the drive and endurance of a competitor. (And the connection has always been literal — this year there were college-level football players, soccer players, skiers, basketball players and lacrosse players among the honorees. Which is pretty much the case every year.)

They have the ability to zone out the noise and the enthusiasm to cry, “Put me in, coach!”

“Put me in, coach!” means something a little different in real estate — it means the discipline of forgoing Saturday plans to work on the redevelopment of LaGuardia Airport, as Samantha Trumbetti did; it’s taking risks such as growing a company during the middle of the pandemic, like Eddie Bender; it’s the confidence of Katherine Salvatori to advise on the $8.1 billion Metropolitan Park in Queens.

But, pretty much all of this year’s Young Professionals could be described in similar terms. They have goals. Which is what you want to hear from a city in the thick of a World Cup. —Max Gross

This package was written by Tom Acitelli, Andrew Coen, Cathy Cunningham, Gregory Cornfield, Emily Davis, Isabelle Durso, Julia Echikson, Larry Getlen, Max Gross, Mark Hallum, Brian Pascus, Nicholas Rizzi, Amanda Schiavo, Aaron Short, Patrick Sisson and Zoe Rosenberg. It was edited by Acitelli, Gross, Cunningham and Skip Card. Jim Sewastynowicz organized the photography. Jeff Cuyubamba and Rohini Chatterjee designed the layouts. Section feature photographs by Chris Sorensen.