Chapter 15- Can We Lift The Trophy?

SMASH!

CRASH!

BANG!

WHOOSH!

I smashed the practice balls into the net over and over again. The sweat was building from the strain, and the exercise helped shot placement, without the keeper I was able to focus on placement and next time when facing a one-on-one situation, I wouldn't have to worry about where to put the ball, just scoring. "996, 997, 998, 999"

*ring ring ring*

"One thousand..."

Smash!

I picked up the phone and looked at my calls, it was Dad, I wondered what happened, he should've gone to sleep by now, I was training late at night, 11 pm. I left the training center and dropped him a text as I got into the merc.

<WHO? PUMA? ADIDAS? NEW BALANCE? UNDER ARMOUR?>

<YESSIR! >

I called Dad and we discussed the matter in detail, I was to show up for a photoshoot tomorrow morning at Nike Manchester, where photos would be taken for an hour or two, sign the deal, and collect the new "surprise" boot they were making for me.

Sleep took a while to conquer my thoughts today, despite the physical exhaustion, I was excited, and I kept thinking of all the possibilities, Ronaldo also has a contract with Nike, could we maybe team up for an Ad? There were so many happy thoughts, that it was one in the morning when I drifted off.

Nike Home: Manchester...

"Just sign over here and the contract will be done..."

"Okay!"

I signed the contract and walked into the white room for photos, there were a great many designs and clothing items I tried on and posed for photos with. I was abruptly told that Manchester City star and Nike athlete Kevin De Bruyne would be posing with me today, I was gobsmacked for a while, but when he arrived we shook hands and took many photos, we discussed the Manchester derby and what would have been different if he had been playing and not out with an injury.

Eventually, we were both called back to the club training grounds and we departed ways after I had received my special boots from Nike, "See ya mate!" I said:

"Yeah nice seeing ya Adri"

I clambered into my car, opened up the cleat bag, and pulled out a pair of shoes, Red in color, with the Nike logo on the side, laced with gold, the purple had a shiny sheen to it and there were black criss-cross patterns on it, in the arc of the Nike logo, there were words written:

"Goaldin, strikes again!"

That was a nickname that the United fans made up when I won man of the match against Liverpool, a mix of Goal, and my surname, Randin.

On the back of the boot, where the heel is, a golden number 7 is there, and for some reason, staring at the shoe made me even more proud by the second!

I returned to the training center and immediately began drills with the team, for having missed the first half of training, I punished myself with 10x whatever my teammates did, if they did 100 laps I would do 1000. I wanted to excel, and missing training just won't do for me...

Ten Hag reminded us of the importance of winning all of our remaining games in the season, to somehow surpass Liverpool in the table, we had a fairly easy game tomorrow and it has me somewhat excited, more goals, more situations, so much fun!

Luton town may have stalled city, but they can't stop this freight train of a club, they don't know what's coming!

I thought all of this while practicing dribbling, I watched Bruno set up cones to dribble past, and he did this a hundred times, what determination! What skill? So I went through the course and noticed myself getting more and more confident, I liked the feeling, so I did a thousand laps of it.

I saw Casi doing fitness training, 100 pushups with intervals every 10 reps, 100 burpees, and multiple laps. I took his determination and multiplied it by ten, all my teammates started to think I belonged in the loony bin, but Ten Hag saw the determination and promise. We can't afford to get cocky, no matter how high and mighty we were.

Hojlund did 100 shots so I took 1000 much to the distaste of Tom Heaton, who got angry when I made fun of him slightly by saying he could only save 122 out of my 1000 shots, all the others went in. My attitude seemed to inspire the rest of the team, they picked up their exercises and increased sets and reps, I took this as a good sign, they can improve while I improve too, I wasn't feeling exhausted, when I looked in the mirror nowadays, I see youth and perfection there.

My team realized what I was doing and eventually, after days of pushing and shoving, everyone increased their average stamina and zonal training to my level and the results were insane, morale was through the roof, no one felt bad, everyone was stronger, faster, smarter on the ball, and facing hundreds of thousands of shots, Heaton was improving fast too. Everyone was on a high and no one was surprised when a golden letter came in.

It was addressed to the club:

Dear Machester United

As per the stat increases and the inspection of the World Football Association (WFA), we as a result of this congratulate you on achieving the honor of having three 90-rated players, in the top 100 in the world. (Bruno Fernandes, Casemiro, Adrian Randin)

Yours sincerely,

WFA

And it was accurate, we had increased in ranking, and I went from a nobody in the thousands to one of the top 50 players in the world, for the people who read about this, it may be an overnight success story but Only my family, team, manager and I knew what I put myself through every day in training, I leave my 100% and more on that pitch for that crest, the crest fo United.

Player: Adrian Randin

Pos: St, Cf, Cam

OVR: 91

Pac: 99

sho: 93

dri: 97

pas: 90

phy: 90

def: 87

Player: Bruno Fernandes

Pos: Cam, Cm, Cdm

OVR: 93

Pac: 95

sho: 96

dri: 92

pas: 98

phy: 90

def: 94

Player: Casemiro

Pos: Cdm, Cm

OVR: 93

Pac: 90

sho: 94

dri: 92

pas: 98

phy: 90

def: 95

The world was at my feet, that 's how Caesar must have felt, but mustn't get too complacent, we have Luton away tomorrow!

<PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEE, leave a review 💌>

Siguiente capítulo