Chapter 26- Locker room dispute

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The locker room was nearly silent as I walked in, I ignored fist bumps and compliments, dropping into a seat near Jude who looked exasperated, but my initial exasperation had turned into rage. I was clenching and unclenching my hands to keep it together, if this was United I could just stand up and scream at my players, but for fucks sake, here I'm not anyone of authority. 

The manager walked in and Kane still sat rooted in the corner with Rashford not making a move, Marcus made good runs and did come back when we needed him in midfield, but Kane would just wait there to poach easy goals, he was useless and now he won't even speak words of inspiration, that armband, he doesn't deserve his title.

I walked up to Kane, dispelling my anger, I had to be reasonable, I squatted near him and whispered in his ears, "Ay up, Captain we need you to make the runs and we need you to run back to help the midfield, your key to our success!"

Kanes face screwed up in anger and stood up causing me to stand too, he looked at me in the eyes before letting loose, "I didn't do hard work and honed my skills to take advice from low-level half-baked players like you!"

That pissed me off, Harry Kane, the man with 300+ goals and no trophies to show for it, dares to accuse me of being half-baked and low-level. 

"Well maybe you fucking cunt, if you were good enough, this half-baked player could find your ass for a pass, but no cause you've got your fat nose stuck up your ass, so you can't run into space can you!" 

Kane made a move towards me going for my neck and I dodged out of the way and the coaches stopped the fight, Gareth Southgate walked over and immediately started berating Kane...

"Show some fucking maturity as a captain Harry, I mean come on, is this how you treat a teammate with a helpful suggestion, you're being subbed off, Adri will take your place as a striker for this match, and Jude will move up to where Adri was and James will enter as center mid, this is the way it is for now until you pattern the fuck up! Do you hear me!?"

"Yes gaffer!" the captain walked off but showed more rage, taking his armband off and chucking it on the floor, Southgate walked up to the fallen armband, picked it up, and looked at me, "Lead the team Adri, you know what to do, let's take the fight to them!" 

"I won't let you down gaffer!" 

Moments later we found ourselves back on the pitch and fans were non the least quite unhappy to see that Kane had come off and were questioning my capabilities as a captain, I feel like if there were any United fans they could vouch for my leadership skills, but I get the skepticism I was only eighteen at the time. 

The ball kicked off and I wasted no time in man-marking Modric, and I intercepted the ball, a wayward pass from Barisic meant the ball was now at my feet and I used the chance to stop my run and thread the ball past Kramarci who was running back to defend and onto the feet of Phil Foden, I mimicked his run and stayed close by him in case he would get blocked, but Foden kept dribbling and weaving and even got past the full-back, I broke my position, nodded at my united teammate, Marcus Rashford who jogged to Foden to stay as backup and I ran into space. 

Just as I was about to be offside, Foden passed the ball through Croatia's back line, but the angle was way too tight for a shot I watched as Jude ran into the box behind me, I did a 180-degree spin and passed the ball back to him, causing myself to fall in the process, as I fell, I watched Jude smash the ball and I clutched my head as I watched it go over the crossbar. 

We may not have got a goal but we were in the right mindset, the play was ours for the next fifteen minutes and finally, I spotted a major chance for a goal...

We were running forward on a counter-attack after Luke Shaw blocked Barisic and threaded the ball by a lob to the right flank where Saka was flying up the wing, I ran forward, slowing down on the pace, if I went too early, Saka wouldn't be able to react in time and I would be offside so I waited for the chance, eventually Saka laid the ball off to Rashford, who three defenders were marking, it may have seemed nuts but it was the perfect move.

I was virtually unmarked and Rashford lobbed the ball over the defender's head's I accelerated at breakneck speeds past the defender who was close to me, but I felt the solid block of a foot in front of my shins and I tumbled to the ground in the penalty area, clutching at my shins and rolling about, trying to sell it harder than it was, and my acting plus the fact that it was an actual foul anyway caused the referee to point at the penalty spot and blow his whistle. 

We looked at each other and came to a non-verbal agreement, I walked forward placed the ball at the penalty spot, and walked back, measuring a run-up of five steps, and I waited taking deep breaths as the tension rose in the air, everything was 1ten times more detailed in my eyes as I waited, I had a trick, one that CR7 used, maybe it'll work. 

The referee blew his whistle and I took one last deep breath and lifted the bottom of my shorts to reveal my calf muscles, just like my idol, I ran forward unleashing all of my speed.

4 steps left...

3...

2...

1... 

On the last step I performed the trick as I was about to land on my left foot, I smashed my heel into the ground near the ball, cracking the ground and creating shockwaves near the ball sending it a few centimeters into the air and allowing me to get more power behind my shot and I watched as the ball sailed up...

The air around it formed a crescent shape in front of the ball... 

WOOOSHH! 

The ball demolished the top bins leaving the keeper wondering where the ball was in the first lace, I picked up the ball and ran to the center with it waving my hands and placing it down ready for kick-off again. With five minutes left, however, Croatia was not able to do much and the whistle ended to symbolize full time, we would go through to the Euros, but Croatia did have a second chance to enter, but only if they could somehow get the upper hand over Italy, which seemed somewhat unlikely. 

I shook Modric's hand as we left the pitch and we talked, our hands over our mouths to stop the media from hearing or lip-reading what we were talking about, "You have a good future Adri, come to Madrid!" 

"Haha, we'll see Luka, I hope you qualify, I want another match!"

"I'm down anytime!" the Croatian ace joked as he ran to rejoin his team in his locker room. Rashfrod and Jude ran up to me and we talked about the match, all the way util the runway where we were stopped for some questions...