Chapter 2

Akin was confused when one of the trial organizers approached him and asked him to follow him.

When he was led to the artificial pitch, which was the biggest on Hale's end, he noticed several boys, a few who looked more prominent than him and older.

He was handed a red bib and led under the hostile and confused stares of several of the older young players, he hear their whispered groans as he approached.

"How old is he? Why is he so short? Why does he have to be on my team?"

He heard all of this, but Akin paid no attention.

Instead began stretching, and then, with a dextrous touch, he flicked a ball next to him and began to juggle with his feet focused on the ball entirely.

Akin had been practising his ball control skills religiously for years.

So he juggled with ease ignoring everything else around him.

"Alright, lads, gather!"

He turned his attention to see the academy director Brian standing in the centre of the artificial pitch; standing beside him was the academy coach, Brady.

Hearing the call, he dropped the ball deftly and then left it as he went to join the other young gunner hopefuls.

He knew a few from his past life, such as Sam Oji, who was a centre back for Birmingham city;

Darren Pratley, an English midfielder who bounced around the premier league;

Michael Gordon, who soon left to play at Wimbledon;

Adam Birchall, who would later become a coach for the youth academy.

After looking at them, he realized that the youngest among the other trialists was 14 years old, which means they were most likely invited by scouts.

Realizing this made Akin feel slightly daunted, but he pushed down his discomfort as he chose to focus his attention on the coach, Brian.

"Alright, lads! I'm a coach here at Hale end, Brian Alsworth; to my left is the fitness coach here, Allan Malwood, and the Academy director, Liam Brady."

Liam stood in an arsenal official tracksuit, arms crossed on his right, face unreadable as Brian continued to speak.

"To start you off, we will do a series of tests. You will be tested on your speed, agility, technique, and skill. In the end, you will be placed in two teams of 11 depending on test results."

Akin swallowed nervously, feeling excited as he waited in line until they called. The first thing they did was measure their body fat; after calculating, they were told to stand on the side for the next test.

The next test was the sit and reach test, where they had to sit with their leg straight and closed, ankles touching, while they sat back straight and leaned forward as much as possible while keeping their back straight. Akin quickly passed as he felt his toes and was allowed to move on to the following site to prepare.

The following test was a 40m sprint test; Akin was also able to impress in this test as he scored 5.02 seconds and was applauded by the coaches and scouts. At the same time, the other trialists looked at him twice.

Next was the Beep test, in which Akin was able to score 10/9 as he wiped his sweat.

After the McDonald skill test, where he had 30 seconds to pass the ball against the wall and control as much as possible, this was completed quickly as he often practised this method.

Finally, he was given a red bib, then was placed as a forward, and on his team was another bold Michael Gordon. Wayne O'Sullivan, Timothy Owens, Sam Kanu, Robert Prince, defenders Ashley Probets, Brett Freeman, Sam Oji, and Alfi Kamara were in midfield with Amir Rashid in goal.

The teams were separated into red and yellow; as the two teams prepared, Brain Alsworth, Liam Brady, and Allan Malwood were all discussing Akin.

Liam was looking over his results with some interest.

"You were not kidding Brian your boy is a little monster; his scores match up well with the older years. He has a body fat of 13 per cent, which is considered the golden standard for boys his age, and his technique seems rather solid; I am looking forward to seeing what he can do in this match."

Brain smiled as he watched Akin, the boy staring down the yellow team while stretching.

"This game should be interesting; if he performs well, will you give him a schoolboy contract?"

Liam scratched his chin thoughtfully as he considered. While down below, the whistle blew for kick-off.

Both sides had been placed; in the primary 4-4-2 formations, the red team started with the ball; Micheal Gordon pushed the ball to Akin, who passed back to O'Sullivan.

Gordon ran to the front, but Akin stayed back to help organize the midfield; Akin, for his part, was marked by one member of the yellow team.

However, he quickly noticed that his mark was very lax in guarding him;

After seeing this, Akin asked for the ball while tilting his body right before turning left, slipping away from his mark, and running across the left wing.

However, he was ignored by the ball carrier passed to Gordon.

Gordon caught the ball and ran forward; he saw a defender before him and then began to step over the ball.

defencefense was not shaken and managed to poke the ball loose; both sides moved to pick up the loose ball.

Sam Kanu was a step faster; he took the ball and drove a long pass forward to Akin, accessible in the middle.

Akin used his chest to control the ball. Then he noticed through his peripheral vision that an opposing midfielder was charging toward him.

Seeing this, rather than trying to control the ball with his feet, he flicked it, uplifting it over the opponent's head.