One Month Later

ONE MONTH LATER, it was early May.

The start of May also marked the beginning of the summer vacation. And as usual, me and my parents would be visiting my mother's maternal aunt in Mumbai and stay there for about a week or so. I was excited as usual but this time, my excitement was even more as during my stay in Mumbai, a youth trial match would be held.

The youth trial match would be for the selection of under 19 youngsters towards higher levels. Many scouts from the local as well as out of the state clubs would be present in search for a talent. Fortunately, I managed to convince my parents for the game and they even bought a football kit for me.

A few days later, I was in Mumbai and it was already the day of the youth trial match. I arrived at the football field, where the match would be held, at around 8 a.m. The trial was organised and would be overseen by a relatively famous local football coach. I filled a form that was given to me.

After all the participants filled up their forms, the coach started with a speech and soon after assigned all the participants into two teams randomly but keeping in mind the positions of the players.

I got assigned to the blue team as the centre attacking midfielder. Our opponent would be the red team. Both the teams would be using the most basic 4-3-3 formation. The two teams formed their own groups and started warming up. I conversed with my teammates and fortunately, all of them could speak Hindi.

We recieved our respective bibs. Blue bibs for the blue team and red bibs for the red team. It was as simple as that.

The clock was about to hit 9 as we made our way to the field. After we took our positions, I checked my status.

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Level: 12 (10,530/20,480)

[Talent]

Enhanced Learning: U

[Body]

Physique: B+ (1.5K)

Strength: B+ (1.1K)

Endurance: B+ (1.2K)

Stamina: B+ (1.4K)

Speed: B+ (1.6K)

Acceleration: B+ (1.3K)

Dexterity: B+ (1.1K)

Vision: A- (5.2K)

[Football]

Shooting: B+ (1.3K)

Dribbling: B+ (1.2K)

Passing: B+ (2.4K)

Crossing: B+ (2.2K)

Heading: B+ (1.0K)

Free-kick: B+ (2.7K)

Penalty: B+ (1.2K)

Corner: B+ (1.0K)

Tackle: B+ (1.4K)

Technique: B+ (2.3K)

Tactics: B+ (2.1K)

Spin: B+ (2.6K)

[Attribute Proficiency Potion: 0]

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(AN: K = 1,000 or Thousand)

{Meanwhile in the stands.}

An old man about 65 years was sitting at the top of the side stands. He was John Matthews, an old scout from the Newcastle United F.C. which is an English football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne. He was about to retire in a month.

Thus, he has been roaming around the globe in search for a football talent for the last time. Recently, a close friend of his in India, who also used to be a scout for an oversea club, became a grandfather. So he arrived yesterday to congratulate him. And when John learnt from his friend about the trial the next day, he decided to take a look before taking a flight back.

As he was sitting on the side stands, he flipped through the stack of copies of forms containing information about the participants. The information wasn't much, it only contained details like their name, age, birth place, photo, height, weight, preferred position and some other basic details.

John went through all the copies before he put his eyes back on the field.

{Back to the field.}

PEEWWHHH!!!

The whistle blew at 9 a.m. sharp indicating the start of the trial match. The blue team kicked-off the first half.

(AN: I will be using terms like blue CF or red RM to indicate the players I feel aren't worth naming.)

(Another AN: The next chapter will be a longer one as I will cover the entire match in just one chapter.)