Chapter 23- Visiting my Brother/International Duty!

The G wagon was once again rumbling through the motorways of Britain, but the tarmac soon got slightly less maintained as I crossed into the countryside. I traversed the vast paths until I came to a long road which I turned onto, it was more city-like and built-up. I was near my parent's home in Staffordshire, except we were in Burton upon Trent, the home base of the Three Lions, St George's Park, a state-of-the-art training facility.

I parked the car in a vast lot and walked what seemed like miles to the front entrance of the facility where a man was waiting, in a football kit, a slight beard, blonde, tight-fit jersey, and the captain's armband Harry Kane!

"Hey, you must be Adri, of course, I've heard of you, bringing back the glory for United eh?"

"Yeah, it's nothing too big, especially compared to your escapades!" I was lying here, Kane has done nothing, won nothing, and his years of labor have nothing to show for it, but I had to suck up to him.

"Oh, you flatter me mate, c'mon I'll show ya around!" 

"Let's Go!" 

We ventured through the humongous training facility and Harry took me through all the various equipment and types of rooms, from recovery and relaxation to intense work-outs and actual life-sized indoor pitches, the facility was huge and easy to get lost in, fortunately, I had friends, as soon as I met the lads, we shook hands and began banter, especially with the midfielders, we gelled. 

I found friends in Maddison, Bellingham, and Rice... 

I talked with Bellingham a lot, eager to learn more and observe, we were almost the same age, he was 19 and I was 18, (*I lowered Jude's age by 1*), we gelled instantly and as the team went out for practice, us midfielders stuck together and went for some playmaking actin, sort of in a way to test ourselves out, Jude and I were surprisingly level, even if he was one rating above me, I was able to keep up, only at occasions would I slip, thank god he's not against my team, for now at least! 

We threaded the ball to each other, taking it in turns to be the fake strikers, out of us four though, from what I could see, the only dynamic players were me, Jude, and potentially James Maddison too, but he and Rice were very fixed players, we moved the ball more, Jude and I did. I guess that's why Southgate wanted me... To mix up the midfielders, from defensive to attacking!

I asked Jude where the youth team trained and went to the place with him, Jude wanted to see his brother and I wanted to see my own too. We trudged lazily down to an outside pitch where the under-16s were playing a training match against each other. Jobe Bellingham was sitting on the bench with a hamstring injury, we talked to him before I zipped up my coat and hid from my brother Liam's view. 

Jude noticed this...

"Adri why are you hiding bro?" 

"To surprise him..." 

I waited until the referee blew the whistle, Liam's team had won and by a mile too, he was shaping into a good player, I got up, my coat still zipped up to my face and walked over to Liam, "Good job lad!" 

"Thanks-" he seemed to realize something, "Wait, is that you Adri?" 

"Yessir!"

That was all it took for my emotional wreck of a brother and he was hugging me instantly, I made the right choice though, he would one day be as good as me, maybe better, only fate can tell. 

"Picking them off, Li?"

"Sort of Adri! But it is hard sometimes!"

"I noticed you there, the first step to greatness, is to mimic the legends, not your brother!"

"I just want to be like you bro!"

"And I want you to be better!" I said with determination in my eyes...

"Fine, but leave me alone, you're embarrassing!"

My jaw dropped as he walked off, wasn't he the same kid that just hugged me at the speed of light, teenagers are so weird, and then I realized that I was a teenager until like two years ago, this thought made me facepalm and earned a chuckle from Jude and Jobe, I sighed. Time for team training!

I walked up to training with Jude when we saw the players all in a crowd with a figure they were surrounding, it wasn't Southgate, because he was doing what the team was doing too, so who was it?

I watched as some of the shoulders of my teammates cleared and Jude leaned in for a better look too, at first I thought I was hallucinating, and then I realized I wasn't, it wasn't one figure, it was two. 

Two of the biggest English legends to ever play the game!

Jude and I ran onto the pitch, coats and equipment forgotten, to catch a glimpse of...

(TO BE CONTINUED)

HAHAHAHAHA, I BET YOU ARE PISSED OFF NOW, CLIFFHANGER!