《Reincarnated as a Footballer》 1 Prologue "Congratulations Mr. Gaekwad, it''s a boy!" These were the first words Eric heard after coming back to life again. He was in his previous life a homeless in the streets of London, and his life was one which could be described in a single word -- Disastrous. He died after being hit by an over speeding truck. He instinctively knew that this was going to be his last moments but unlike most others while facing death, his thoughts were [At last! I can escape this hell!] Immediately after that, his soul got separated from his body and all of a sudden, he was in front of a human silhouette which was glowing as bright as the sun. That''s it. That was all he could remember before this scene. Many people came rushing inside and all were in a joyous mood. Suddenly, everyone around him who were talking became silent. Eric was confused as to why they did so and so he looked towards them only to receive yet another massive shock. Yes, it looked as if the room was in a "Pause Mode" and to make matters worse a notification window popped up. "Hello Eric.This is God!! (Yes.. I am indeed the Almighty himself). You could say that your previous life was indeed hopeless and you could be considered as the person who lived the most hopeless, pitiful and disgusting life one could have ever lived. But I was indeed astonished to see that you did not get self destructed and become another one of those psychopaths and so hmm....(cough)(cough) Even though I am god, even I do have some sort of self consciousness inside me, so here is what we will do. (Oh! I am so excited!). You''ll have your memories intact and I indeed have reversed the time back to 1998, the year of your birth. But unfortunately, you cannot go back to being Eric Williams as it is not possible for even me to do that. So you could say that this is an alternate timeline where there is no trace of the Williams family itself. Considering the fact that you''ve suffered a lot because of my little game in your previous life, the starting point of your life will be a good one when compared to your previous life, which you are going to learn by yourself. You will be gifted a real time Virtual Reality Assistant i.e. you''ll be knowing your basic stats as in a virtual reality game you have seen in your previous life. The basic stats that are going to be assigned to you are going will be decided based on your choice of career (Which you have to choose right now!!)" He was in a complete pandemonium. Taking some time to digest all the shocks he received, he then moved his hands to respond to the next notification window that popped up. "Please choose your choice of career" Being the football maniac he was in his previous life, without any hesitation he chose - Professional Football Player. "Choice of career confirmed. The Virtual Reality Assistant will be on any moment now. Thank you for registering" "So this is where we part off Eric. Please do enjoy this life of yours to the fullest extent!" After that last notification the flow of time resumed and everyone around him were busy chatting. Almost ten people were standing beside him and a lady who was his mother. Then, a mechanical sound was projected in his mind -- "I am your Virtual Reality Assistant. My codename is Eric. In order to gain my access, you have to telepathically call me and to do so please wait until your vocal cords are developed as user''s current voice is necessary for that. Please note that my uses are only limited to checking your stats and giving suggestions relating to your stats, recording movements & replaying skills and movements whenever asked. As for you, these are your current stats" NAME : -- (User not yet named) AGE : -- Newborn baby (Not even one day has passed since your birth) NATIONALITY : -- Indian BASIC STATS ---- HEALTH : -- 100 (Perfectly Healthy) PACE : -- Not Applicable (Gets unlocked after the user learns how to walk) SHOOTING : -- Not Applicable (Gets unlocked after the user learns how to walk) PASSING : -- Not Applicable (Gets unlocked after the user learns how to walk) DRIBBLING : -- Not Applicable (Gets unlocked after the user learns how to walk) PHYSICAL : -- Not Applicable (Gets unlocked after the user learns how to walk) DEFENCE : -- Not Applicable (Gets unlocked after the user learns how to walk) This coincidentally took place when the old lady who was standing beside him lifted him up from his cradle. Eric was not able to pay attention to him getting lifted up as he was dumbfounded by looking at the Stats option started laughing wildly. This action of his to the others in the hospital was an exceedingly "KAWAAI" moment and the old lady who was giving him back to his mother was delighted to the extreme. Eric who was still in his own world because of the events that took place, did not notice anything that happened now and this was the start of a legend, one which would be stored in the golden pages of footballing history. 2 Five Years Later It was daytime and the sun was scorching on the public football ground in Kolkata. There were many young kids who were playing seriously. The surrounding crowds filled with many adults were also on their toes. The score was tied three all (3-3). It was the finals of the intra-city football tournament for the Kindergarten age group. The participants of the finals were the ABC Football Academy (wearing red coloured jersey) and the XYZ Academy (wearing blue coloured jersey). As the kids were only in kindergarten, each half was shortened to 15 minutes in place of the usual 45 minutes and the ground size was reduced too. Only five minutes the second half was remaining. The goalkeeper of the red team kicked the ball with all his might and it flew towards the half line. In order to use this chance, all the players of the blue team with the exception of the goalkeeper moved forward into the red team''s half - A do or die attack plan. It appeared as if the ball was going to the defenders of the blue team as the nearly all the attacking players in the red team were more tired than ones in the blue team. But then all of a sudden, the main striker of the red team intercepted the ball and controlled it perfectly. As soon as the ball touched the ground, all the four defenders of the blue team came dashing towards him in order to steal the ball. The boy in the red jersey waited and as soon as all the four came close to him, he immediately passed it to his nearest teammate and shouted "Hit it well over them and leave the rest to me!!" The teammate complied and hit it well over the four players towards the opposing goal. Seizing this moment, the boy in the red jersey who was just about to be surrounded started running as if he was running for his life. The goalkeeper of the blue team also came dashing forward towards the edge of the penalty area in order to punch it back to his teammates but to his dismay the ball fell way short of the penalty area. By this time, the young man in the red jersey had received the ball and was dashing towards the goal. Without any other options left, the goalkeeper too was charging towards the player in order to block it. Now on the field, all sorts of chants and shouts were coming in. "Shoot it Vinod!! Shoot it past him!" "Stop that shot Harish!!! Let us show him who is the best goalkeeper of the city!!" "Shoot It!!!" "Stop It!!!" Even though the ground was pretty noisy, both these players were extremely focussed and they were so immersed that it appeared that they were in their own world. Vinod, the striker wearing the red jersey now reached the edge of the penalty area and started taking small steps. Harish who was running towards Vinod was confused as to what he was doing. The defenders who were left in the dust by Vinod were catching up and were just behind the penalty area. Till this moment, Harish was sure that he could save the goal from being conceded but a terrifying truth struck Harish at that moment. As soon as he prepared to challenge Vinod in order to stop the ball, Vinod simply aimed at the lower bottom corner and shot the ball without taking any form in quick strides. Yes, it was a snapshot[1] and the time was up too. The referee blew the final whistle and the match was over too. "ABC Academy wins the game with the score being four goals to three (4-3)! This is their second consecutive victory!" shouted someone from the crowd. The chief guest of the match was Agnish Das, a former Indian national team captain. Seeing the losing team players crying he gave a quick speech. "Hearty congratulations to the winners. You were the better team today. But do not take this to your mind and never stop practicing otherwise you might also face defeat against the same opponents. To the losing team I would like to tell only one thing and that is you people still have a long way to go! Besides it is not like you have lost in the very first round, it is the finals. You are the runners-up and do take all the positives from this match and work on your negatives." After that quick speech of his, the awards were being given which were - Player of the Tournament, Player of the Match and overall Winners of the Tournament. The announcement then came in "The player of today''s match is Vinod Gaekwad thanks to his brilliant hat-trick. Further more he is the player of the tournament too thanks to his total tally of 12 goals and 4 assists throughout the course of the tournament. May I please ask the honourable chief guest Mr. Agnish Das to please give away the trophies." said the announcer. Vinod simply came forward to the podium to receive his individual awards from the Agnish. He calmly received the individual awards from him and then also collected the team award along with the entire team. That was it. The tournament was over and all the children were going home along with their parents. As for Vinod, an old man wearing a tuxedo with neatly groomed hair came out of a car and took his bag. Vinod then sat inside and the car started moving. Inside the car, Vinod telepathically spoke "Eric, delete the recording of today''s match and show me my stats." A mechanical voice then replied "Match recording deleted. The stats screen is as follows" NAME : -- Vinod Gaekwad AGE : -- 5 years NATIONALITY : -- Indian BASIC STATS ---- HEALTH : -- 75 PACE : -- 10 SHOOTING : -- 9 PASSING : --8 DRIBBLING : -- 8 PHYSICAL : -- 6 DEFENCE : -- 4 3 Vinod Gaekwad Yes. The named of the reincarnated Eric was Vinod Gaekwad. He was the second (and the youngest) son of Mahesh Gaekwad, the CEO of the G Pharmaceuticals which incidentally was one of the biggest companies in India. As soon as they reached home, Vinod checked the time. As if he had received a high voltage electric shock, he quickly opened the door and dashed to his room and switched on his television. The reason? He was a Cristiano Ronaldo maniac. His previous life was a tough one indeed but the only thing he excelled in was being a football fanboy. He loved and was a big fan of the North London club Arsenal FC to the core but his favourite player was the then young Portuguese sensation Cristiano Ronaldo who transferred to the English Football giants Manchester United FC from the Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon. Now, thanks to his background, his room could be described as a mini library of football as from his fourth birthday he started collecting videotapes, magazines and posters and meticulously organised them too. And the date was 1st of November 2003. This was the day Cristiano scored his first Manchester United goal which was a free-kick against Portsmouth FC. There were two reasons he was eager. One was the obvious one - He was a Ronaldo fanboy. The second was that he wanted to find out whether because of his actions he had triggered the Butterfly Effect yet or not. He was a one hundred percent sure that it was going to be different when compared to his previous lifetime, he just wanted check when was it going to start getting different. ********************************************************************************** The match was over. The Red Devils won it with a score of three goals to nil (3-0). He was happy. Ronaldo scored his first goal for Manchester United and the events also remained the same as before. As he was about to go to the kitchen to eat something an old lady opened the door of his room and said "How much more time will you watch your T.V. for Vinnu? Won''t you eat anything? Or is it that are you not hungry?" "Grandma!!!" shouted Vinod with a chuckle. "Yes I was just about to come down to eat something. You know, you know!! Ronaldo scored his first goal! My favourite Ronaldo scored his first goal in the Premiership!! I am very very veeery happy you know?" said Vinod with a hint of childishness. Because of the gruesome experience in his previous life, he cherished each and every member of this family and this grandmother of his was at the top of his list. Coincidentally she was the one who lifted him up from his cradle after he was born and naturally she was the one who pampered him the most. While going to the kitchen, he talked of everything that happened - how they played and how he scored the match winning goal. She calmly and quietly listened to whatever he was saying with a smile always in her face. The Gaekwad Household consisted of Vinod, his elder brother Mukund, his mother Ankita his father, his uncle''s family and his grandmother Kasturi. His uncle''s (younger brother of Mahesh) family comprised of him Suresh, his wife Sarita and his child Gauri. Gauri was one year older than Vinod and Mukund was one year older than Gauri. By this time they had reached the kitchen and his grandmother took out some cookies and when she was about to give it to Vinod the other two children also came in. So she distributed it evenly and the day passed on. The next day Vinod''s father received a very big shock. Early in the morning, when nearly everyone was asleep, Vinod woke up and started writing(scribbling) something on a clean sheet of paper and when it was the time for breakfast, he went to his father and said "Father can you check whether what I have written is right ?" Mahesh was a bit surprised. He took it and started reading. He was getting more surprised as he went on reading and asked "Who helped you writing this Vinnu?" "I asked a bit of help from my teacher and she told me the spellings of some of the big and difficult words. The rest were written by me itself. Why dad, is there something wrong in it?" replied Vinod. Mahesh was rather pleasantly surprised and immediately asked him "The letter is perfect! So what do you want me to do with this?" "Well, can you mail it so that it reaches Ronaldo? Will it be possible daddy?" asked Vinod again using his childish appearance with a curious/excited face. Mahesh immediately agreed to it as it was not that big of a deal. Immediately he started showing it to everyone in his household and everyone started looking at him in a different light. The letter was --- Dear Ronaldo, My name is Vinod Gaekwad. I live in Kolkata. I watched your goal against Portsmouth and I am very very happy that you have scored at last. I hope that you become the best player in the world and if possible, reply to this letter. Your Greatest Fan, Vinod Who would have known that this letter would become the starting point to one of the best fan-player (later player-player) relationships in the footballing world that would inspire many in the forthcoming generations. 4 Invitation Manchester, United Kingdom The Manager Sir Alex Ferguson was the first to be informed of this letter. The reason? Because it came from India. Firstly this sort of treatment would not be given for such fan letters but this was an exception; again the reason was that it came from a country like India where nearly all of the population of the country was cricket crazy or would watch only the World Cup supporting Brazil or Argentina because of Pele''s heroics in the 1960s and Maradona''s in 1980s respectively. That said, these patches of people were still in the minority only. Even, only a handful of Premiership matches were broadcasted and still if people in this case a young boy wrote letters to their favourite stars, it was indeed shocking. So, he asked the assistant coach to inform Ronaldo to meet him after the training was over. After the training sessions were over, Ronaldo immediately went to Sir Alex''s room. After looking at the letter, he was astonished. That was to be expected as he came to Manchester United only a few months before and he had already got a fan letter that too from India. So he immediately wrote back another letter as asked by his manager and gave it back to him. ******************************************************************************************* One Week Later, Kolkata, India Vinod was jumping in joy after receiving a reply which he did not expect at all. After skimming through the contents of the letter he was spellbound. Then in order to not let his cover blown, he immediately went back to his father and asked him to read the letter for him which he readily complied. The contents of the letter was -- Dear Vinod, I was very happy receiving your letter and of course how can I not send a reply to you who has written me such a good letter all the way from India? So as a message of thanks we from Manchester United are going to arrange you the tickets to come and meet us here in Manchester and you are going to be part of the pre match practice sessions with our players on our match against Manchester City on the 14th of next month. Of course your hotel and airfare costs will be paid by us. Hope to meet you soon Cristiano Ronaldo After reading, he was on cloud nine. He quickly folded the letter, kept it inside the torn envelope and stored it back in his collections. He was very much eager to visit Old Trafford and he quickly began planning his schedule for his Manchester trip. So for the next month in order to make a solid impression in front of the players and staff, he started training seriously and with the help of his Virtual Reality Assistant, his skills improved by leaps and bounds. The one month passsed very quickly and at last it was the day of their departure. Just before he left his home with his father, he checked his stats which were as follows -- NAME : -- Vinod Gaekwad AGE : -- 5 years NATIONALITY : -- Indian BASIC STATS ---- HEALTH : -- 100 PACE : -- 15 SHOOTING : -- 10 PASSING : -- 10 DRIBBLING : -- 9 PHYSICAL : -- 7 DEFENCE : -- 4 They had a comfortable journey from Kolkata to Manchester as they were given First Class tickets which again they did not expect. As soon as they reached Manchester a club representative accompanied them to their accomodation. The match was three days later and so they had the first day for adjusting to the time zone and overcoming the jet lag. The second day was to visit the tourist attractions in Manchester which mainly were the many museums present. The third day was the match day. The first two days were well spent and as usual for Vinod, the time went by very quickly on the first two days. This was the Match Day and luckily the match they were going to see was the Manchester Derby -- Manchester United vs Manchester City. The Red Devils were the clear favourites to win the match as they were strong both ability wise and financially too. This was his day. The club representative escorted them from the hotel to the Old Trafford Stadium, the home stadium of Manchester United and they stepped in. This was the first time in both his lives that he entered the players area of any stadium. Who knew that everyone in the stadium were going to witness the first glimpse of the legend who was going to dominate the world football in the coming years. 5 Match Day The club representative escorted Vinod and his father Mahesh towards the dugout where they met the manager first. Sir Alex was indeed excited to see Vinod. They exchanged a couple of pleasantries and he asked Vinod with a brute Scottish accent "So young man.. Everything OK?? You enjoying your time here??" "Yes sir.. To the maximum extent!" enthusiastically replied Vinod. "Sorry young man could you repeat your name once again?" "Sir, my name is Vinod Gaekwad." "So Vinod( which was now pronounced by him as We-nod ) do you play football?" "Yes, I do!! I love football!" "So can you tell me in which position do you play?" "I play as the striker but my favourite position to play is as a left winger sir." "Oh.. That''s great!" as soon as he was about to say something, he saw that the players had finished warming up. Just to enjoy this fun moment, he called all the players and introduced them one by one to Vinod and in between he whispered something to his assistant. Even though Vinod had thought that this might happen, when it actually did he was speechless. He knew that meeting legends like players of the Class of 92, the captain Roy Keane, the Uruguayan striker Diego Forlan, their star striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy was just a one time chance. So he engraved this moment in his heart to use it to encourage himself back if he would have to in the future. But he kept looking around restlessly as he was not able to find Ronaldo. By then nearly twenty thousand odd people came to the stadium. Suddenly the stadium announcer announced "Good evening ladies and gentlemen how have come now. Today is indeed a special day for a person who has come all the way from India to meet his idol. Please give a round of applause to the young 5 year old Vinod Gaekwad!!! He is a very big Cristiano Ronaldo fan and we have arranged a small game for this young lad with his idol Cristiano as they are now going to play againstthe remaining squad of Manchester United!" At that moment, everyone in the stands started cheering for Vinod. By looking at the crowd even the players and the support staff started cheering. Then came Cristiano Ronaldo. It was to be noted that in the beginning when Ronaldo came to Manchester United the other players did not give him that much respect as they used to think that he was showing off. The reason was that when he used to come for training sessions, he used to wear branded outfits and tight jeans which was odd for the otherws players at that time. But they did not show it in front of Vinod which was admirable. Even Vinod knew of this fact as it was stated by the players themselves in an interview in his previous life. This made Vinod respect and admire them more. All of a sudden Cristiano passed the ball slowly to Vinod and asked "Are you Vinod? I am pleased to meet you. I am Cristiano Ronaldo. So shall we get started?" Vinod nodded his head and both of them started walking towards the half line. When Cristiano was about to pass him the ball, Vinod quickly said "Did you warm up? I can wait because I know that you have a match in just about an hour." Now if this question was asked by someone old enough, it would have been normal. But here the same question was asked by a five year old kid. So obviously he was a bit startled but then immediately complied in order not to break his heart. After a few spot jogs and a few juggles he spoke "I have completed my warm-ups. Now, you go near that man. I will give you a long pass. You take that ball past those defenders and try to score OK?" spoke Cristiano as he pointed out Eric Djemba-Djemba who was 30 yards away from the goal. Vinod nodded his head and went near the Cameroonian who was smiling at him. Then Cristiano hit a high lob which landed just infront of Vinod. Him seizing the situation took a step back as the ball hit his chest. He perfectly controlled the ball and stopped the ball and by then Cristiano was coming near him. Djemba-Djemba acted as if he was trying to steal it from him as he extended his left leg towards the ball slowly. Seeing that, Vinod pulled the ball back and completed a perfect Roulette spin. Seeing this trick executed perfectly by a five year old, everyone on the pitch were a bit taken aback. But for the ones on the stands, it was a treat to watch. As soon as he did that everyone who were watching him cheered and applauded him greatly. But little did they know that he not only did not listen to the cheers but was seriously thinking something. Vinod then immediately looked at Ronaldo and pointed the left side of the penalty area as he was slowly dribbling towards the goal. Ronaldo then sprinted towards that area and when he was about to reach the spot told to him by Vinod, he saw a ball coming towards his right legs at a pretty decent speed. A perfect assist from a long distance! The players who were playing with him were now convinced that if this young man was groomed properly, he would be a star. Ronaldo simply passed his time by performing some trick shots and as Vinod came running to the middle of the penalty area, he passed the ball back to Vinod. The goalkeeper Tim Howard, in order to continue came running and then knelt down in front of him. Tim expected that as Vinod would get the ball, he would stop for a bit, then go to one side of him and then shoot the ball. But the reality proved him otherwise. That was because when Vinod saw Cristiano passing to him, he had already made up his mind. As the ball came in front of him, after seeing the kneeling Howard, he chipped the ball above the keeper. Never did anyone expect to see such a goal from a five year old. A one touch goal! That too a lob above the goalkeepers head! Everyone of the squad congratulated him and asked him to continue playing soccer. They then asked him to quickly change his dress and wear a United jersey as he was supposed to walk with Ronaldo at the start of the match. As he was about to go change Sir Alex called him and asked "What do you want to become in the future young man?" Everytime whenever a question was asked to him he would try to reply to it in an obedient way but this time with an excited face and looking at Sir Alex with eyes full of vigor and ambition he said "Sir, isn''t it obvious? I want to be a professional footballer." After listening to his way of speaking, Sir Alex laughed loudly and told him to get changed up quickly. *************************************************************************************** The match was over. United won the match three goals to one (3-1). After walking to the pitch with Ronaldo, he and his father were seated in the VIP Lounge. Then after the match, they visited the Theatre of Dreams and went back to the hotel. Their flight was scheduled two days later. Vinod slept peacefully as he was tired after all that happened. But little did he know that his entire life would be changed thanks to his goal before the match. 6 Greg Wilson Manager''s Office (Manchester United), Manchester "You came on the right day. Saw that lad eh? When I saw him play, you were the first one I remembered. So, still going to continue to stay a scout for us now?" asked Sir Alex to a man who was sitting in front of him. It was a man his early thirties. He was having an extraordinary physique and one smile of his would definitely kill all the women beside him. But, he was with a walking cane. "You know, if not for your accident, you would have definitely shined here under me." said the Man United manager reminiscing something. "You have to call that bad luck. It wasn''t your fault neither was it mine. It happened. In life s**t happens. But let me tell you one thing clearly now and that is I have overcome it. You don''t have to ponder on it anymore. Coming to the point now, this boy. He definitely gave me quite a shock. A 5 year old boy doing stuff like that? Sure was incredible. I agree he is quite talented. But in order to bet the rest of my life on him, I need to go see him play at least once. Obviously doing those stuff proved that he has got some potential in him. But that was the case where only one side played seriously. You know that immense pressure brings out the maximum potential out of a player, right? I want see him squeeze out every ounce of potential on his. It might be harsh on a five year old kid but if he catches my eyes, believe me I will be more than ready to sell my soul to the devil if needed to make him improve." said the man. "Greg, Boy. I definitely know that you are excited. Let us call him tomorrow and we''ll have him play some set pieces. Let us see what we can make of him. You see I have never doubted you as a player or as a scout. All these years, I have taught you all the necessary things one needs to become a successful coach. Let us definitely hope for the best." "Then I''ll be at the training grounds by eleven in the morning. Cheers boss." having said that, Greg left the room. The next day morning, when Vinod and his father were thinking of what to do that day, a club representative came to their room and informed them to be in the Man United training grounds by eleven o'' clock. Both were confused as to why were they summoned. But as they had nothing more to do on that day, they were not much bothered by it and so they reached the training grounds by eleven. As soon as they got down, they were escorted to the waiting area and Vinod was asked to get changed to tracks. He got changed and went to the field and at the same time Sir Alex came to meet his father. As soon as Vinod entered the field, he saw a man standing near the goal and talking to some ten to eleven year old children. That man was Greg and those children were the best players in their age group. As he saw Vinod he simply said "Hello. I am Greg Wilson. Sorry for calling you abruptly but after seeing you yesterday I was intrigued by your skills. So I just wanted to confirm whether you were the real deal or not. So can you please help me with that?" Vinod was a bit taken aback but as it was football, he readily complied and asked about what he had to do. Greg smiled at him and then told "Simple. Assume that you are playing a match and it is the finals of a tournament. You are behind by one goal and it is the extra time of the second half. By god''s grace the opponents have fouled and you have got a free kick 25 yards straight away from the goal. In this simulation practice and set piece, there is going to be a goalkeeper and three defenders on the opposite side and you''ll be accompanied by one more player. Please show me how entertaining can you make this set piece and make your team win the game. In order to enact the simulation perfectly, you have to be tired as it is the extra time of the second half. So you have to sprint a distance of 300 metres and come back. Of course before doing so you may warm up and practice for sometime too. When you are ready, please tell me. And yes you''ll be given 10 chances and as soon as your team scores a goal, the simulation is over." Thus, Vinod started his warm ups and after that some shooting, passing and ball control practices. After 20-25 minutes he told Greg that he was ready and sprinted for the 300 meters and came back. To his surprise, the others did the same for 500 meters and so the simulation practice started. In the first eight attempts, he was not able to score the goal but it was clear that he was aiming for somewhere near the top right hand corner. But it was to be noted that every time, the distance between the ball and the crossbar was decreasing steadily. And everytime the smile on Greg''s face was increasing. On the ninth attempt, the ball hit the crossbar and bounced back to the right side of the field. Greg was astonished by that ninth shot and thought [He surely is a diamond in the rough. His latent potential is very good but he needs to think a bit more outside the box. His form now clearly shows which side his going to kick the ball to and it is obvious that the keeper has noticed it too. Still it was worthwhile coming here and I think I am pretty much sure on how to groom him.] But that said, Vinod being Vinod never stops giving huge surprises to anyone who sees him for the first few times and that was the case then too. Immediately after the ninth shot he called his teammate and whispered something in his ears. After hearing what he said that boy had a shocking expression on his face and blurted out "Was that your plan all along ?" This was heard by everyone on the pitch and so the goalkeeper remained vigilant. Even Greg wanted to see the end result of the last shot. So, Vinod took the tenth kick. It was the same shot again and the goalkeeper jumped as high as possible to stop the ball but the ball once again hit the crossbar beside the top right hand corner and bounced back onto the pitch. Seeing that the ball did not go inside the goal, the keeper was relieved and at the same time he saw Vinod smiling. As he was falling on the ground, the goalkeeper saw where the ball bounced back to but to his dismay, there was a player who was having the ball. Yes it was Vinod''s teammate and that was the exact same spot the ball fell the last time. Looking at the pretty much empty goal, the eleven year old kicked the ball inside the goal. Everyone especially Greg was dumbfounded at that set piece. He immediately looked at Vinod and asked "Did you aim for that crossbar right now boy ?" Vinod then innocently replied "Hmm. I did. I was aiming for the crossbar near the top right hand corner because whenever we play amongst ourselves I always noticed that no one cares for the ball for sometime if it hits the crossbar as everybody expects me to score a goal in these sort of situations. So I aimed for that spot. During the ninth attempt when the ball at last hit the crossbar, which was the place I aimed for from the beginning, I saw that the ball fell on the right side. So I asked him to go to the right side, to the place where the ball fell as soon as I hit the ball. You told me that the team had to score and not me. So that''s why I thought of this" And the eleven year old boy also did the same as asked by Vinod. As Vinod was about to hit the ball, the boy started running towards the right side of the goal and everyone there thought that his trick was to drag the one defender away from the play, so no one bothered to mark that boy and as a result the goal was scored. Greg got goose bumps. Never did he expect such a goal scoring process from Vinod. On further thinking about his plans, he got yet another big shock. That was his confidence on his ball control. This excited Greg so much that he started giggling to himself. When the others saw him doing this, everyone had different thoughts. So after it was over, Vinod changed his dress back and came to the waiting area where he saw Greg, Sir Alex and his father Mahesh talking about something. As he came to them, his father asked him "Vinnu, were you serious yesterday when you said that you want to become a professional footballer ? Don''t think that it is easy to become one. So tell me are you serious about it?" Without waiting even for a single moment he replied "Of course! I definitely want to! No matter how hard it is, I''ll definitely be a world-class footballer" with the same expression he gave to Sir Alex. After hearing what he said, Mahesh nodded his head and shook hands with Greg. Greg then smiled at Vinod and said "OK boy. You have the potential to become a great footballer but to do so you have to work hard right from a very young age. That being said, the coaching facilities in India are not that good when you compare them to Europe. So in order to compensate that, I will be personally coming with you to India in order to fill up that gap." Vinod had yet another confused look on his face when he heard his father''s voice "Vinnu, this gentleman here, Mr. Greg Wilson is coming with us back to India and will be coaching you for the next few years. By coaching, I mean that he will be taking control of everything from your diets to your training. Seeing that you have good talent in football, I decided to give it a shot, but of course if in the future you change your mind, then we''ll send him back. Now did you understand?" Now it was Vinod''s time of getting a severe shock. To make matters worse, the mechanical voice of Eric was heard which said "Vinod, congratulations for getting a personal coach. System is going to be upgraded in account of getting a new coach and so you cannot use me for the next twenty four hours. Thank You." 7 Ball Control, Stamina and the Weak Foo "Hey boy!! Pass it!! Over here!!" shouted a middle-aged man. Immediately the one who asked for the pass received it. After seeing that, the defending team''s goalkeeper was shocked as it came crossing three defenders in between the one receiving and the one passing. That man, with the ball, was now standing outside the penalty box. As soon as he received it, he sprinted towards the goal and shot it with a lot of power. The ball looked like it was about to go to the top right-hand corner of the goal but luckily/unluckily it missed. "Ah!! Sorry, boy! I thought I had it under my control! Even then, what a pass it was! Never did I think that you would be able to pass it to me from that position! Still, I had a lot of fun this past month! Who would have thought that it would go by in a flash!" "Come on now Mr. Olsen. We still have time left! Let us try and win this and let this match be my parting gift." said a boy who was around 142 centimeters. Yes. It was Vinod and he was twelve by then. He was currently in Norway and this was common for him -- To get trained with the clubs in the lower divisions of the Footballing Pyramid (thanks to Greg aka Sir Alex) during his vacations. This time, it was a club in Oslo. This was recommended by Greg after he was eleven. When he was eleven they went to England and Germany, and now they were in Norway during his Winter Vacations. They were in Brazil for his previous summer vacation and it was a great experience for Vinod as the play styles, physique, tactics, and cultures were different in every place he visited. As soon as Greg became his coach, he received an upgrade to his system. It stated that whenever he would be with his coach, may it be training or playing matches, his grasping capacity would increase exponentially. And as for Greg coming to India, not all of his family members took it well. "He is, after all, a kid! Why would you indulge his fantasies and ask a personal coach to come all the way from England, Mahesh? You do understand that he is the heir to our country''s if not the world''s largest pharma companies, right? Do you understand the severity of this issue? What would others think if I say that one of my grandsons is a footballer? You tell me no?" was the first reaction from Vinod''s grandmother. She loved Vinod but this was one thing she could not accept as she thought that playing sports to earn a living would undermine their social status. A typical Indian household indeed! Now coming back to the present, it was an intraclub match of reds and whites, where Vinod was with the whites. It was in the final minutes and they were trailing by two goals The goalkeeper restarted the match with a long kick and the ball was with the reds now. As soon as they received it, they started running towards the white goal aiming for another goal. It was a very quick counter and by now, nearly six of the red team''s players were within 35 yards of the white team''s goal. As things kept looking good for the reds, a tackle came in from a white team''s defender which was successful too. Now the ball was with the white team''s defender and he sent out a long pass to the main striker of the whites - Mr. Olsen. As soon as Mr. Olsen received the ball, both he and Vinod started running towards the red team''s goal. Just before the penalty area, he gave a chipped pass to Vinod towards the left-hand side of the penalty area. Vinod, not missing this opportunity, went in front and hit a finesse shot. The ball curled into the top right-hand corner and it was a splendid goal. Only two minutes were remaining and the score was now two goals to three (2-3). The goal was so well struck that to any onlooker who saw that goal it was as if the ball went into the goal in slow motion. With a draw in sight, the morale of the white was high now. The game resumed and now the reds were playing safely - they were parking the bus, even though it was an intrasquad game. This caused all the white team players to move up and literally, the entire white team except their goalkeeper was in the red team''s half. Everyone was brimming with vigorous fighting spirit. That was when Vinod noticed something. Even though all the red team players were in their half, the ones beside their goalkeeper were not the defenders, but the players who were the most tired. Soon all the alarms started ringing inside his head as this lead to only one possible conclusion -- A final minute counter-attack. The very next minute, the red team''s counter-attack started as all the red team''s players except for the ones beside the goalkeeper started rushing frantically after one of their players kicked the ball high into the other team''s half. There were nearly eight players or so running to the white team''s goal and it looked as if the red team were about to score another goal. But kudos to the white team''s defense. They regrouped immediately and slowly cut off the various pass routes to the red team''s striker who was having the ball. He was now near the penalty area and as he was about to shoot he noticed that the goalkeeper was unusually very close to him. Even though he could have used a feint and gone past the keeper to score the goal, he chose the safer option with which he thought that the goal was a for sure one -- a pass to his right winger who was near the sideline as he only would have to kick the ball in the empty goal behind him. But that was what cost the red team the final goal which would have sealed the entire match in their favour. As he passed it to the right winger, the right winger received it only to discover that the ball was cleared by a white team''s player which was Vinod. After a super fast sprint from one end of the stadium to another, Vinod was lucky enough to intercept the ball on time and clear it. Although the danger was not completely thwarted, the whites could relax for the moment. [Shit!! Now I am totally and completely exhausted! Damn this system! Why am I not able to increase my stamina as fast as my other attributes? It is more like I have to put two times the effort than a normal person to increase my stamina.] Yes, this was one of Vinod''s weaknesses - his stamina. Now, he was only able to go all out for about forty-five minutes or so in the entire game. Even though increasing his stamina was one of the more important parts in his training regimen, he was not able to increase it as good as some of his other traits. After clearing the ball, he slowly went on to the center of the pitch and only one red team player (who also was quite tired) was in between him and the red team goal. The corner was taken. It was a beautifully executed corner as the ball went on to the tallest player on the red side who headed it beautifully onto the bottom left, only to find that the goalkeeper had dived and punched the ball onto his right. The ball now was free and a red team player quickly ran towards it and once again tried to give an assist to the tall guy, this time only to be blocked by Olsen. Olsen quickly took the ball and as he was about to pass the ball to someone around him, he saw that the red team were man-marking everyone near him and were applying immense pressure. Then he noticed Vinod near the center and kicked the ball as hard as possible. The ball was kicked so hard that it reached the middle of the red team''s half and it appeared as if it was going to be out of bounds by passing through the sideline on the right-hand side of the pitch. Vinod not leaving this chance ran as hard as possible and luckily stopped the ball before going out of bounds. Then he ran towards the red goal with the other red team''s player running closely behind him. As he reached towards the edge of the penalty area, even the goalkeeper started running towards him and the other player who was behind him had caught up to him. Vinod, in order to stop the keeper in his tracks, ran forward with his maximum speed towards him and slowly nudged the ball using the outside of his foot. The keeper then immediately lunged towards his left only to discover that Vinod at that spur of that moment kicked the ball towards his left using the inside of his foot and some free space was available [1]. But by now the white team''s player was in front of him trying to defend while the others were coming back to help him. As he tried to perform a feint once more, a cold voice was heard in his head - [REQUESTING USER TO REST! IF USER RUNS MORE, CHANCES OF GETTING A SEVERE INJURY WILL BE INCREASED TO 95%!] Hearing this, Vinod quickly took a shot from his left foot - his weaker foot. As the ball was shot, it went towards the left-hand side of the goal only to hit the crossbar and come back onto the pitch. This now was cleared by the red team player who was marking him and the game was over. Vinod''s team lost the game two goals to three (2-3) and the most dejected player on the pitch was Vinod. [Damn!!! The only two things which I stress more on my regimen came back to haunt me once again!! Damn this system!! Why is it always happening to me???] Yes, this was Vinod''s yet another weakness -- his weak foot shooting ability. So, after the game, he was given some advice by both the manager of the club as well as by Greg. After the advice sessions were over, both Greg and Vinod went back to the hotel only to discover that a man in suits was approaching them. He said "Hello, sir! My name is Alexander Larsen and I am a scout from V?lerenga FC, a club playing at the first tier football league of Norway - Tippeligaen. Would you like to give your lad a trial at our club?" 8 Contracts and Developments End of Arc 1 Three hours earlier -- "Boss!I am telling you he is a gem! Believe me, he can become a world class player! How?? Come on!! Football is not just about passes, goals, blocks, and tackles. Some players have an inborn aura or rather you call a vibe that makes the audience to focus more on them! Whatever that player does, he makes the audience to get on their full focus onto himself and this boy has it! I am betting on my 13-year scouting experience, this boy has all the necessary things to make it big! Haven''t you seen the videos I sent you? Look at his control and his passing sense and lastly his exquisite shooting ability! Come on, I am not a guy to waste nearly a month of my time scouting on a nobody!" said Larsen. He was talking to the youth academy head of V?lerenga Football who in turn replied " I agree. He is good at what he is. But don''t forget, he has two major flaws - Stamina and his weak foot. You also know as well as me that bringing the body balance to a person is one of the toughest in our line of work. That is one of the main reasons why I objected to signing him for our youth academy." Alexander was flabbergasted. He immediately retorted " Man! I respect you over here but don''t bring out your bias to football. He is an Indian, yes. They do not have a solid footballing foundation over there. I agree with that but isn''t it an opportunity for us to create a miracle? I mean, say if we train him to the best of our abilities and he becomes a well known professional, that will open us a brand new country with a lot of unknown talents. We may even open up our first foreign youth center but yes, I agree with both your points - He needs to work with them but that is why we have an entity in our club called youth academy. I am pretty sure that you know that as well. Moreover, don''t you think it is strange for an Indian out of nowhere come to Norway and play in a Sunday club? He has got a mentor who travels with him, a pretty good one too if I may add so and all of this leads to a single conclusion - He is aiming to be a pro! If we don''t take this opportunity, believe me, all of us are going to regret it very badly. I have talked to the club and they are having a scrimmage in an hour or so. So just for this one time, please listen to me and come to watch him play." ************************************************** Thirty minutes earlier "Boss! What did you think? Wasn''t he great? Look at his potential and game sense! Wasn''t I right!" beamed Alexander. The "Boss" who was evidently dazed simply said, "I have shown the gaffer the videos you showed me and he was pretty excited to see a budding talent. I retract my words. After seeing him play live, I am able to understand why you were so adamant. We''ll give him a one year trial with constant monitoring over a monthly basis. Get in touch with him and ask him whether he would like to play with us or not.By God''s grace let this gamble better give us some good results. I am going to my office. Get in touch with him as soon as possible." ****************************************************** Present "Hello, sir! My name is Alexander Larsen and I am a scout from V?lerenga Football, a club playing at the first tier football league of Norway - Tippeligaen. Would you like to give your lad a trial at our club?" said the scout to Vinod and Greg outside their hotel. Immediately after that, he gave his card to Greg who was standing beside Vinod. "We have been keeping track of you since the last month and are extremely excited thanks to your playstyle. You do have your set of shortcomings but those can be solved. We are ready to give you a one year contract which would include your housing and schooling fees too. So are you interested Vinod, in joining our academy?" asked Alexander. "I would like to have some time to decide as I need to discuss it with my family. So could you wait until tomorrow, Mr. Larsen?" asked Vinod to which Alexander nodded and after which he left. ********************************************************** As soon as he entered his hotel room, Vinod shouted "I HAVE BEEN SCOUTED BY A FOOTBALL CLUB! YESSSS!!!!!" Evidently, even Greg was startled by this development. He smiled at Vinod and was genuinely happy for him as this might the start of his professional career. It would be a very long and strenuous road but if he does the hard work and perseveres through it, he would be able to cash in the results. Mahesh was in a meeting when he received the call from Vinod who dropped a bombshell of a news to him. He was happy for him as he heard the pure joy in his son''s voice. He was successfully able to coerce his family in letting his son play in Norway. He responded that night and told his son that all of the family members very happy for him and they will allow him to play but under the conditions that he should be in the top 90 percentile in his class and him should finish his school education. This was a contingency in case something happens to him in the future that would make him unfit for professional football, he would then have to get a degree and then join their family business. Seeing that everything went smoothly, Vinod and Greg called Alexander the next day. He then came to the hotel and drove them to the club''s youth academy where Vinod signed a trial contract. It was after that Vinod realized that he had completely forgotten about Greg''s arrangements. He would not be able to stay with him and mentor him as he would be staying in a hostel allotted by the club and his practice sessions would be daily after school. When asked about this Greg replied "Do not worry about that. I will be going back to Manchester after you join the club. And yes, do keep in touch with me and call me if you have any problems ahead of calling your parents. I will come as soon as possible. For now, you just concentrate on improving your plays and keep your body fit. Just focus on your football." "Well, Greg I have a question for you. You have been with me for the past few years with me and by now you know.. how I behave in.. you know how I behave... you know my personality right?" "Yes. I do hope so" replied Greg. "Then, Greg... Would you become my agent? I mean yes, if I wait for some time, I may be contacted by several agents but I want someone who I can trust. So, what do you say?" Greg Wilson expected a lot of questions after his reply but this was not the one. He originally thought of retiring and helping his friend in his business after going to Manchester. But after seeing Vinod''s face and after listening to his question, a new sense of responsibility arose in him. This was a guy who has been groomed since he was five to be a professional footballer. If he could anyhow help him to achieve it, he would gladly do it. After he agreed to it, Vinod called his father and made some arrangements for Greg to stay in Oslo itself. Thus Mahesh rented an apartment for Greg near the academy and Greg himself was engulfed in enlarging his contact list from local shoe manufacturers to business owners: anyone who would be able to sponsor Vinod. As for Vinod, after completing all the formalities, he moved to the allotted hostel room three weeks after signing the contract. By the time he went to his room, it was dark. So he went straight to his bed and lied down. As soon as he did he heard the voice of VRA "The host has successfully joined a club. (Congratulations to the host as it is your first step towards the dream of playing football professionally. From now onwards VRA will start responding like a system you know from novels and fics!But please do know this - The host will never get any items that will make others suspicious of the fact that you are equipped with a system or anything like that per se. ) The host has passed the conditions to view the complete Status screen. The host has unlocked Missions. The host now has to select his primary position." Vinod then selected his primary position as the left winger. Then he heard "Primary Position confirmed. Seeing that the host has been training with a coach for the past 7 years, the host has been awarded two perks based on his performance. Please check your Status to check them." 9 STATUS PAGE AFTER ARC 1 @@ NAME: -- Vinod Gaekwad AGE: -- 12 NATIONALITY: -- Indian CLUB: -- V?lerenga FC (U-14) [Under Trial Contract] AGENT: -- Greg Wilson ________________________________________ HEALTH: -- 100 PLAYER LEVEL: -- Sunday Club Player WEAK FOOT ABILITY: -- 1/5 --BALL SKILLS-- BALL CONTROL: -- 65 DRIBBLING: -- 52 --PASSING-- CROSSING: -- 48 LONG PASS: -- 48 SHORT PASS: -- 57 --GOALKEEPER-- GK POSITIONING: -- 10 GK DIVING: -- 8 GK HANDLING: -- 5 GK KICKING: -- 15 GK REFLEXES: -- 2 --DEFENCE-- MARKING: -- 12 STANDING TACKLE: -- 15 SLIDE TACKLE: -- 16 --PHYSICAL-- ACCELERATION: -- 55 STAMINA: -- 30 STRENGTH: -- 48 BALANCE: -- 30 SPRINT SPEED: -- 60 AGILITY: -- 55 JUMPING: -- 35 --MENTAL-- AGGRESSION: -- 28 REACTIONS: -- 61 ATT. POSITION: -- 55 INTERCEPTIONS: -- 53 VISION: -- 50 COMPOSURE: -- 70 --SHOOTING-- HEADING: -- 33 SHOT POWER: -- 52 FINISHING: -- 66 LONG SHOTS: -- 59 CURVE: -- 52 FK ACCURACY: -- 69 PENALTIES: -- 41 VOLLEYS: -- 53 --PERKS-- (-) FK Specialist [Increases the host''s chances of converting Free Kicks into goals] (-) Speedster [Host will be fast on the football pitch] (-) Dribbler [Dribbling abilities will come naturally for the host to an extent] (-) Clinical Finisher [When inside the penalty box, the host will be clearly able to judge and shoot to an extent] (-) Mr. Cool [Even when under pressure, the host will be able to play naturally to an extent]@@ 10 The Youth Teams of V?lerenga FC It was the 6th of February 2011. A month had passed since Vinod joined the club. It was February now. In this past month, his schedule was simple: Wake up at 04:00 in the morning, go to the nearby field and jog for half an hour. Then practice set pieces and agility inducing practice sets for another hour or so. Then come back to the dorms and take a bath. After that doing school work for another hour. By then his dorm mates would be ready and they would go have their breakfast and then attend the school. Theirs was a private institution which had ties to the club. Thus all of the Academy players who lived in the dorms went there. The school was over by 3 in the afternoon. Then they would go back to their dorms, freshen up and go for their evening practice session in the Academy. That lasted till 7 in the evening with 5 on 5 scrimmages at the end. After the practice was over, he would study whatever was taught in the school that day and spend another hour or two and go to have his dinner. After that, he would call Greg and his parents and talk to them. That was the last item on his schedule before going to sleep. During the weekends though, there were slight changes. On Saturdays, after breakfast, the training sessions used to start. This is used to go on till 4 o'' clock in the evening. So on Saturdays, after the training was over, Vinod used to study and finish off pending assignments until his dinner. Sundays were the free days. So on Sunday, he woke up at 7 in the morning and continued his morning practice. After eating breakfast, he prioritized on knowing his locality better. So he wanders around his surrounding areas and would meet up with Greg. They would generally talk about his training, his school and of course his dorm mates. There were four players in a single dormitory. Vinod''s dorm consisted of a Goalkeeper (Ivan), a Central Defender (William), and a Defensive Midfielder (Aksel) along with himself. So barring the language gap, this was a utopia for someone like Vinod who wanted to know more about what the other positions especially their mentality, their thought process etc. By now, the four of them were very close friends and used to play 2 on 2 matches every Sunday evening (i.e. after Vinod came back to the dorms after roaming about the city of Oslo). This immensely improved a lot of technical details of all the four players as after the match, they would sit down and discuss, well sort of discuss. Since Vinod did not know the local language of Norwegian except for the basics like Hello, Good Morning and other basic phrases, so that session would literally be gibberish mixed with body language. Due to his one month of effort, all of his physical stats excluding his stamina, jumping, agility, and sprint speed increased by 1. His agility and stamina had increased by 5 each because his training in the academy was primarily focused on increasing his stamina. His jumping did not increase at all and his sprint speed increased by 2. In his mental stats, all the stats except composure and aggression increased by 1. As far as his shooting was concerned, his heading and curve increased by 2, and the others increased by 1. In the ball skills section, his ball control remained the same but his dribbling increased by 3. As far as his passing skills were concerned, his crossing and long pass did not improve while his short passes were the one that improved drastically by 6 points. The other skills remained the same. After coming to the dorms, there was another thing which Vinod took care of the most - his diet. He never ate anything outside of his dorm/school food after he joined. It wasn''t because he was stingy or he did not have any money. It was because Vinod knew the immense impact a healthy balanced diet would have on one''s body as shown by another manager whom he respected the most - Arsene Wenger. This was the one thing that revolutionized the Premier League after the 1995-96 season. When Arsene Wenger joined Arsenal in 1996 as the club''s manager, the first thing he did was to give his players a diet schedule to follow. The effects were shown the next season itself: Arsenal winning the Premier League. Thus Vinod followed the diet schedule given by the club more faithfully than any other in their dorm. As soon as Vinod finished eating his breakfast, as the day was a Sunday, he planned on meeting Greg. As soon as he was about to call him on where to meet, a notice was posted on the common notice board. The content of the notice was simple: All players must assemble on the Academy Field number 1 by 5 pm. Signed by: Martin Andresen (Manager) and Tommy Berntsen (U-18 Manager) That was it. As soon as the youth players saw that notice, the entire atmosphere changed inside the dormitories. It was a mixture of emotions in the dorms with tension, excitement, anticipation, and nervousness. But the problem here was that the entire notice was written in Norwegian and Vinod was not able to understand the reason why everyone was so in mixed emotions. Only after going to meet the dorm head did he understand the content. Then Vinod assumed the reason to be that they were going to meet the first team manager. That was a big thing because Martin Andresen was the one who enabled the Bohemians (nickname for V?lerenga FC) to go to the second place thereby helping them qualify for the UEFA Europa League Qualifiers while also being a player on the team. Even though retired in the last match of the 2010 season, this was a still big deal because they were in a slump after winning the title in 2005. As far as language was concerned, normally during training, the coaches spoke broken English and used body language and signs to communicate with him. The one person in the dorm who knew how to speak fluent English was the dorm head. So he quickly went to the dorm head and explained his situation and asked him what the notice was. So the dorm head called someone related and at last arranged for a translator for Vinod. After that, he came to his room and when he was about to call Greg, he saw Ivan, Aksel, and William nervous and excited. He left them in their own world and called Greg to inform him that he would not be able to meet him. The time passed and it was quarter to five. All of the players started walking towards the designated location. While walking, he also spotted his translator with whom he had spoken just a few minutes ago on phone. They reached the venue and everyone settled down. Then they saw two men talking animatedly to each other. Every player was then asked to stand with their own age group. And so the speech from the former player-manager current manager began "The current youth system is a brainchild of mine. This football club was in dire straits just a mere ten years ago and luckily they overcame the situation then. But then the spendings were to be cut off in order to not let the club back to its previous state. Thus came the need to create an efficient youth system. But then, this club was not able to produce the result for the first few years. So when I was a player in Brann, I got a call from this club and so here I am. Don''t mistake this as arrogance. I spent nearly one and a half years to create an effective and efficient system and the end result is the complete first batch of U-12, U-14, U-16 and U-18 players of the current youth system. Be proud of yourselves for it is your hard work, talent, and determination that has brought you here. Our scouts have assessed your potential before giving you a trial or a professional contract to you, but...." here he paused for a moment and then he said "Just look around you. Inevitably some of you have to go out of the final team. Because in the end football is played by 11 players against 11 players with 5-10 substitutes on each side depending on the competition. This time though there is a slight change when compared to the previous years. In the previous even if you were not qualified for the team in the U-14 team say and you were 14 at that time, you were given a free pass to practice with the next set. But that was only because this system was in its grassroots. But now, we are slowly expanding our reaches to our Scandinavian neighbors, some countries in Africa and even in some Asian countries. There are many players who would go as far as to kill to join the youth system of a top tier of a European League Competition. We may not be known outside this country but the fact is that we are still a club which participates in Europa and Champions Leagues starting with the qualifiers. So from now on the standards will be much higher and training will be much harsher. There is still one month left before all of the leagues begin. From this year the youth team''s aim will be simple: Win them all. There will be no more free tickets. If you want a place in the starting eleven, then you must earn it with tooth and nail. So yes just look around you. The total numbers after the selection of our squads will be cut nearly into a sixth. If you are not up to the mark, you will be out. As simple as that. So to all the players gathered here: Good Luck and thank you!" saying this both of them left the pitch leaving an extremely awestruck crowd of players. 11 The First Week Scrimmage - 1 After both the men left, the coaches who apparently told to wait outside came in and gave each player a number. As Vinod was an attacker, he was A-13. Similarly, if one was a defender then his number would D-(number), if he was a goalkeeper then G-(number) and for a midfielder, it would be M-(number). After they were sorted, the U-18 head coach Tommy Berntsen brought up many boxes and placed it at the middle of the football ground. Then he took a mike and started announcing teams. It was based on one''s age group. The process was:- Taking out a formation from the first box and picking up players from the position boxes as per the formation required. Vinod''s name was called in the U-14 Team Number 3. It was a 4-3-3 basic formation and luckily for him, all of his dormmates were in the same team. As soon as the players were sorted out into teams, they were asked to get assembled in a specific place for team bonding. Then they were told by the coaches that their first test would on the next Saturday where they will be playing against another team and will be judged accordingly to their performance in that match. They were also told that the only players they could talk to in their age group were their teammates only and if they were caught talking to others, they will be sent out and in order to implement this, there were schedules now for players on their training sessions and the dorms were temporarily moved to a huge hall which comprised of everything belonging to these eleven players. Then they were shown their temporary dormitory and given the schedule for the next week, and .after that the coach left. As soon as he left, all the players started introducing themselves. Luckily for Vinod, there were two people who were able to speak English, another attacker and a defender. The attacker was a short 13-year-old boy from Nigeria named Chidera Ejuke and even he had a translator with him. He was luckily scouted when he was playing for the youth team of a Nigerian Club named Gombe United. The defender, Karl Johansen was a Norwegian through and through with a daunting height of 163 cm. He knew English because his parents made him to after seeing him play good football at a very young age saying that it would be useful in the future. So another eventful week passed by and Vinod was surprised by the measures the club was taking in blocking them contacting other U-14 players. Even during his practice, he would only see U-12, U-16 or U-18 players in the adjacent fields. So by Saturday, they had somewhat of an idea what each other were capable of. On Friday, they were shown their positions. Vinod was the Left Winger, Chidera was the Attacker/Striker, Aksel was the Central Midfielder, and the duo of Karl and William were the Central Defenders. And by this time, his stamina increased by 1. And so the eventual day came. They were expecting another team of the U-14 division, but what greeted them gave them yet another shock. They were about to play the Sao Paulo U-14 team. As soon as Martin Andressen became the manager, he immediately asked the club to form mutually beneficial partnerships with other global clubs. By now they had ties with Sao Paulo FC from Brazil,River Plate FC from Argentina, Olympique Lyon FC from France and recently they were able to form ties with the kings of youth football AFC Ajax from the Netherlands. Thus the club had invited the other clubs over to Oslo for a joint youth training camp starting from 14th of February for five days. The club said the players who were going to take part in the training camp would be exempt from attending classes during the period of the camp but will have to take additional classes on the next weekend. The players were excited and a bit nervous facing against the Sao Paulo youth because firstly they were from Brazil, a nation famous for its football after producing gems like Pele, Kaka, Ronaldo, Garrincha, Zico, Socrates and of course the recent sensation of Neymar. Secondly, Sao Paulo had one of the world''s best youth academies. They had their match in the club''s stadium, the Ullevaal Stadium since all the other training fields were conducting matches simultaneously. The Ullevaal Stadium with the capacity of 28,000 was jointly used by V?lerenga FC and the Norwegian National Football team. When both the teams arrived at the stadium, the coach informed them that they were going to be recorded both by Sao Paulo and V?lerenga FC officials and the recorded video then would be used for evaluating their performance this next month and that he was going to announce something in the middle of the match. After warming up and getting ready, the match started with V?lerenga U-14-III kicking off. Chidera started things off by passing the ball to Vinod and started running towards the opponents'' goal. Vinod after receiving the pass looked at the pitch only to notice that the Sao Paulo players were quick to man mark him. So he simply passed the ball back to the LM who was standing behind him. The LM in order to prove his worth started sprinting towards the opponent''s goal only to be blocked by a Sao Paulo striker. The striker then passed the ball off to the defender. For the next ten minutes or so, the Sao Paulo players denied giving the ball to their opponents and thereby keeping complete possession. This made the V?lerenga players increasingly agitated and thus nearly everyone started rushing towards the Sao Paulo team. As soon as the SPFC''s (Sao Paulo FC) players saw this, they simply started passing it back to their defenders. The defenders kept it with them and passed the ball by nutmegging the opposing player and as soon as an opportunity came by, the defender passed it on to a midfielder who then gave it to their main striker. After this, the man marking of Sao Paulo''s players had stopped. The striker then simply blazed through the pitch and kicked the ball only for it to be stopped by Ivan. As the VFC players then regrouped, Ivan passed the ball to Karl, who immediately gave a high lob to Vinod. Vinod then started dribbling towards the opposing side when a lanky defender from the opposing side came to snatch it back from him. He simply passed it to Chidera who passed it back to him. Vinod then slowed down the play and passed it back and forth with Chidera, and Aksel who by now with many others came to the front of the field. As he saw his lanky opposition falter a bit, he simply dribbled pass him and by now he came to the left of the SPFC''s penalty box. So he tried giving a cross only to be fouled by the opposing side''s midfielder. The free kick was taken by Vinod who attempted to take advantage of this set piece. So he curled the ball high towards Karl who had already begun jumping only to see that Karl was outmatched completely in a physical battle the opposing team''s defender. Time trickled down slowly and the first half had come to an end. The first half was nothing but Paulo U-14dominating the play so much and if not for Ivan, it would have had been nearly a 20 goal difference in the first half itself. But on the plus side, some of V?lerenga''s attacks went through thanks to the contribution of Vinod starting up the play by blowing past the opposition defence thanks to an excellent set of dribbling, ball control, and agility. As this was a test for the V?lerenga FC''s U-14 team, the coach told them that he would not help them anything with strategy at all for this match and they were on their own. After hearing this, the already sour mood turned even more. Then all the players huddled up and discussed what they saw on how to handle the opposition with Karl translating from Norwegian to English to Norwegian. Then the second half started. As soon as it started, the attacking midfielder of the opposition named Lizziero immediately stuck onto Vinod. It was then Vinod realized that he was completely outclassed by him. May it be in physical or technical aspects, Lizziero suppressed Vinod to dire straits. With the cog to V?lerenga''s attack gone, they lost possession as soon as they got it. Things started getting even worse when the attackers of Sao Paulo started making some brilliant shots. After half an hour into the second half, the SPFC U-14s were leading by a margin of five goals and they literally started toying with the home players. It was then that the coach along with two translators (One in English and other in Spanish) came to the pitch with a megaphone in their hands, stopped the game for some moment and gave an announcement which was subsequently translated "The team you are facing are the second string or commonly known as the backup squad of the Sao Paulo U-14s. And to be specific, we asked them to play with a handicap. You see they are playing with a reverse system." after hearing this the entire V?lerenga squad looked at the coach with shell shocked silence. Seeing that no response came from them he/they continued "To put it in simple words, the attackers were playing defence, the offensive midfielders were playing in the defensive midfield and vice versa. So apart from the Goalkeeper, everyone was playing in a completely new position to them. Since we were a newly originated program, we did not want them to have a massive advantage over you." after that, he turned to the Sao Paulo players and said "Thank you for bearing with us and complying to this request but for the next fifteen minutes, the last fifteen minutes in the match, please play against us in your normal positions to the best of your abilities. Well, this was the announcement, so thank you and please restart the game from where you left off." 12 The First Week Scrimmage - 2 That was it. That literally crushed the hearts of every V?lerenga player on the field. That was when they realized what they up against. This Sao Paulo''s team literally dominating in everything as their dribble, their first touch, their passing skills, their communication completely outshone the home team. Within another five minutes, they SPFC U-14 had scored two more goals and this meant the score was seven goals to zero for Sao Paulo. The V?lerenga team was exhausted. Even though physically they would have been able to manage but that mental blow was the key factor here. The ball was now with the keeper Ivan. He passed it to Aksel who was unmarked. Then Aksel started running and when we was about to pass to the LM, he noticed that he was absent. Some of the players had given up by now. Seizing this chance, the opposition player snatched it from him and started a counter attack. The goal now for SPFC was to completely crush the V?lerenga players especially Vinod since he was the only player in the V?lerenga side who posed some sort of a threat for them. Vinod was now going back to help the defence but was running slowly thanks to his mental fatigue. Despite his football maniac nature, even he was unable to come to terms with what had happened. That was when the CDM Lizziero, who was closely following him throughout the second half, taunted him in order to completely break him apart "What are you doing? Going to defend? Well you were not able to do anything special to our defenders when they were attacking, what will you do when it is our attack? Just give up. You can rest easy now dude. You have done enough. Ha! Look at you! You are not able to run too! And you think you will be able to stop us?" This made Vinod think for a bit as he stopped running. Firstly he did not think that the CDM knew how to speak English. Secondly, he looked at the coach and saw that he was writing something down expressionlessly. Then he started thinking ''Haven''t I done to my level best till now? Should I give up? But if I do give up now, will I be able to face Greg who has done the utmost to see me as a footballer?'' Then an important image came to his mind. (FLASHBACK START) It was when Eric was accompanying another homeless friend of his while they were watching a Sunday League match in the outskirts of London. The score was 2-1. There was only three minutes in the match left and his friend asked him "Who do you think will win this match? " "Of course, there are only three minutes let now, so if things go on like how they have been, it will obviously be the team who are leading." "That is where my friend you are wrong. Look at the faces of the players of the team who are leading and look at those of the trailing team. Their faces say it all! I can bet that if things go on like this, there is a 99% possibility that the trailing team wins, you can''t say; but remember this, both in football and in real life, the moment you give up, is the moment you truly start losing your match. You might not win, but you at least have a 0.001% possibility of turning it around"(FLASHBACK END) ''The moment you give up is the moment you truly start losing the match '' This sentence was ringing alarm bells in his brain. That was when the attack failed and it was a corner for SPFC. It was then that he noticed that some of his team mates were still struggling to take possession and create a chance to score a goal against their opposition, as he went near their penalty box. He then quickly started rushing towards the CDM as he saw that the ball was flung towards him. Without caring about his image, his position, his form, he jumped right in front of Lizziero and came in front of the ball and headed it awkwardly to Ivan who caught it safely. He then looked at Lizziero, his coach and finally his team mates and shouted "WHO THE HELL IS GIVING UP!!!!" This made his dorm mates, Karl and Chidera grin a little and surprised the remaining members in the stadium. Vinod along with Chidera went straight towards the half line where the last line of defence of the SPFC players were standing. The game had resumed with just two minutes in clock left. Ivan passed it to Karl who started running with the ball ignoring the defense. As he saw an incoming player, he turned the ball back to engage in a small physical battle with the opposing player. As the player engaged with him, he simply gave a back heel pass to William who was behind them through the opposing SPFC player''s legs. As soon as William got the ball, he gave a high lob to Aksel who was standing right next to the left side line. Seeing the trajectory of the ball,the SPFC players thought that it would go out. So they slowly went towards him only to find out that Aksel could also jump very high. Aksel somehow managed to keep the ball inside and started dribbling towards the opposition goal. By now, he was some forty meters away from the goal. Suddenly, he shot the ball to the other side of the pitch where William was standing. William was thirty meters away from the goal now and he received it. He started running to the right hand corner of the pitch and gave a cross. But unluckily for him, he hit the ball too hard, so it went too far ahead and it looked like it was going out of bounds only to be stopped by Vinod. Unknown to others, Vinod felt very calm now. He was clearly able to see everyone near him on how they were moving, whom they were guarding etc. He was in a state of extreme concentration now. He felt like he could do anything. So after receiving the ball, he dashed towards the goal. There were five defenders surrounding him and he wanted to the corners of the penalty box. As the opposition came, he evaded the first defender, nutmegged the second. As the third guy came to him, he faced him with his back, turning away from him. The defender thought that he could buy his team some time by engaging in a physical battle with him, as there was no pass course for Vinod and he was in the keeper''s line of sight. So he could shoot too. But boy was he wrong! As he tried initiating contact with Vinod, he juggled the ball once only to flick the ball up to behind the defender and then went past him agilely. Then the for the fourth guy, he simply Rouletted him and he was in the position he wanted to be in. As the fifth guy was onto him by now, he immediately then shot the ball to the far right corner of the goal. It hit the top post (nearly at the right corner) and went straight to Chidera who then scored. Everybody in the ground except for the dorm mates was shocked. Little did they know that Vinod wanted to use this as his signature so that even he was not in a position to score or pass, he would at least create a chance using this. He could do it when he was alone but that was not the case in a match. There were many external conditions that drastically dropped the accuracy of this shot/assisting style which made it nearly impossible to use this as a weapon of his in a match. With that, the first scrimmage match in the training camp against Sao Paulo U-14 was over and it was an overwhelming defeat for the V?lerenga U-14 - III with the final score as San Paulo U-14 :- 7 - 1 :- V?lerenga U-14-III 13 TEAM!! Assemble As soon as the match was over Vinod heard [Special Conditions met. Recording Directory added to System Menu. Congratulations to the host for being in "The Zone". The Zone contrary to public expectations is not sparks coming out of eye matching your hair colour with motivations/triggers to go into it be like not being able to see your teammates sad and cry or not being able to have faith in your team mates that they will be able to help you win the match and yes, it is definitely not a region which is locked by a door or two that can open through your sheer awesomeness and willpower and through your team work with a nearly invisible team mate (who incidentally acts as the door keeper to the second door). No! Zone is basically a high concentration condition a person gets into where your dynamic vision gets improved temporarily along with your awareness. You were lucky enough to go into it this early into your career. Generally, only extreme talents go into the Zone when high stakes are in place. A popular example that could be given to you is Ronaldinho in the famous match against Real Madrid in Santiago Bernabeu, when he got a standing ovation from the Madridistas. So there is no specific "trigger" or one to go into the zone, the person in question generally does it subconsciously. Due to the fact that the host was able to be in the zone, all your skills are increased by one and your perk Mr. Cool has been upgraded to Mr. Iron Heart. To check the perk, do visit the Status Page. As for the Recording Directory, the system has an incoming message for you that explains it: Yo! This is the Almighty, yours truly! Hmm.. Recordings right? Heard it somewhere? You used it in your game against the XYZ Academy! Remember?? Of all the people I gave this chance to, the only one who neglected this feature is you! I know that before, the recording could only be viewed once after the match was over, but no! Neither did you use it after getting a coach, you completely forgot about it you moron! Talk about not using a reincarnated life to the fullest! Do you know how long I waited for a person with system to be a sports person? Arghh¡­ (Inhale)(Exhale).. Okay! Now listen with your ears open! I did not wish to waste such precious time of mine just to lecture you on how to use a system. To make things short, you can use the Recording Directory everyday for one hour, during which time, you will be sleeping in the real world. It has every match that you have played till now, official and unofficial. Yours truly has also kept the match recording that you so specifically asked the system to delete (Why on earth do you want to delete a match recording? Was it costing you any money or life?) and so from now on do utilize this to the fullest extent and give me a show that is worth the history books! ] Vinod did not know how to react to that. He did not expect the creator of the system to be such a .....(A/N: Dear readers,just fill in the blanks whatever you think would be appropriate here and just fill up the bank in the comments section!) Still, he was shocked on forgetting the recording feature and after such a display from you know, the God himself, there was no way he could forget it again! Vinod and team then finished their cooldown exercises and as they were about to leave, Vinod heard someone calling him. It was Lizziero. He was conused as to why he came to meet him. Lizziero then started speaking "I hope you don''t mind what happened in the pitch. I mean, I am sorry if I hurt you, but that was in the game where you were my opponent and we were specifically asked to crush your team systematically. You were the key player for the attack so I made it my duty to do so. But I hope you forgive mefor that but, what was that final dribble! A pity you did not get to score the goal. Still I hope to play with you during this training camp and exchange some pointers between us even though you are an attacker and I am defensive mid. Well, it was nice talking to you but you see our coach asked me to come to him as soon as possible, so bye then! See you next week!" Everything was told in less than fifteen seconds and lo he was gone! For the second time in less than one hour, Vinod did not know how to react. He got called by Karl and so got distracted. When he asked Karl what the matter was, he told Vinod that he, Karl, Ivan, Aksel, William and Chidera were asked by the coach to go to the Training Ground Number 1 after dinner. So they went. After having a good amount of food thanks to the match, The six of them went to the Training Ground No. 1 only to see some twenty to thirty more players, whom Vinod noted were U-14 players too and they were the last group to assemble there. As soon as they got in, the manager Martin along with a translator came in and asked them to stand in accordance to their positions and they did. He then counted the number of heads and then started by dropping a bombshell "Congratulations! You are now officially in the team of V?lerenga FC in the Under 14 Club Championship in the 2011 season!" This shocked many of the players standing there as they did not expect their numbers to get cut off to less than half of their previous number within a span of one week. Sensing their expression, he said "I did not joke when I said that you had to work really hard last week. We scouted people from all over the country and some are from foreign countries too. You had talent, the necessary talent that our scouts thought will be necessary for us winning the title in Norway and challenge Europe. But despite all the talent, what good will it be if you do not have the ability to fight back in dire straits to turn the match around? That was what happened to Brazil in finals of the 1950 World Cup. It is all good when you are leading by one goal or two. But what will happen to you in a disadvantageous position? Will you just crumble down and lose? That should not and would not happens to my team, and I am pretty much sure that it won''t happen to you guys now after the mental hell you have faced your respective matches. So do remember, it does not matter if you concede a goal early in the match or not. What does matter is the manner in which you respond to the conceded goal or two. And yes, with you being the roster of the U-14 Championships, you are the V?lerenga FC representatives in the Under 14 category in the training camp and do utilize this next one week to the maximum." The atmosphere seemed to relax a little bit when the Manager then announced "Yes, you are now in the team, but I do hope that you did not forget the fact that only 17 out of the 35 players here get to play in the tournament! Your performance from now onwards would decide whether you make the cut or not! So, do enjoy your free day tomorrow, as for the next one week, it will be your personal hell, I can guarantee you that." 14 STATUS PAGE After Sao Paulo Match (NOTE: The Status Page will be shown exactly after a perk is upgraded by or added to the MC) NAME: -- Vinod Gaekwad AGE: -- 12 NATIONALITY: -- Indian CLUB: -- V?lerenga FC (U-14) [Under Trial Contract] AGENT: -- Greg Wilson ________________________________________ HEALTH: -- 100 PLAYER LEVEL: -- Elite Sunday Club Level Player WEAK FOOT ABILITY: -- 1.5/5 --BALL SKILLS-- BALL CONTROL: -- 66 DRIBBLING: -- 56 --PASSING-- CROSSING: -- 49 LONG PASS: -- 49 SHORT PASS: -- 64 --GOALKEEPER-- GK POSITIONING: -- 11 GK DIVING: -- 9 GK HANDLING: -- 6 Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting. GK KICKING: -- 16 GK REFLEXES: -- 3 --DEFENCE-- MARKING: -- 13 STANDING TACKLE: -- 16 SLIDE TACKLE: -- 17 --PHYSICAL-- ACCELERATION: -- 57 STAMINA: -- 37 STRENGTH: -- 42 BALANCE: -- 52 SPRINT SPEED: -- 63 AGILITY: -- 61 JUMPING: -- 36 --MENTAL-- AGGRESSION: -- 29 REACTIONS: -- 63 ATT. POSITION: -- 57 INTERCEPTIONS: -- 55 VISION: -- 52 COMPOSURE: -- 71 --SHOOTING-- HEADING: -- 36 SHOT POWER: -- 54 FINISHING: -- 68 LONG SHOTS: -- 61 CURVE: -- 55 FK ACCURACY: -- 71 PENALTIES: -- 43 VOLLEYS: -- 55 --PERKS-- (-) FK Specialist [Increases the host''s chances of converting Free Kicks into goals] (-) Speedster [Host will be fast on the football pitch] (-) Dribbler [Dribbling abilities will come naturally for the host to an extent]