Chapter 14
Alicia realised that she really needed to find him an agent.
Especially since she was sure that there was no doubt that he would pursue a football career.
At the same time, she also became aware of a problem because she had no idea how she was supposed to find one,
It's not like a good agent will walk up to me and ask for a meeting, right?
Alicia would soon find out she was wrong; in the week following their match with Chelsea U15, she was approached by several scouts and sports agents.
The club had even referred her to a new agent Jerome Anderson who wanted to meet her.
Of course, this led to more worries for the single mother.
With the options available, she felt pressured with the thought she needed to find one that would benefit her son and allow him to fulfil his dream.
As she sat alone at the dining table in their kitchen, she was worryingly looking at the calling cards given her.
She heard the door open and realised that she had not prepared dinner yet.
Akin walked in from training; it was already seven in the evening on a Saturday, so he was surprised to find his mum had not yet started cooking,
"Mum? I'm home?"
She seemed to perk up and smiled at him, but he still recognised the familiar eyes of worry that he had been familiar with in his past life,
"Oh! Baby, your back? How was training?"
Rather than answering immediately, he chose to surprise her by wrapping his arms around her neck and kissing her cheek; this drew a laugh from her, and she smiled bemusedly at him,
"Well, what's gotten into you all of a sudden?"
He didn't answer but shook his head in her neck before pulling away to see her face had softened considerably,
"Nothing, you just looked like you needed a hug…."
Laughing as she heard this, the young mother wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him hard,
"Well, I could never hide anything from you; since you are here, why don't we talk.…."
Sensing the hint of seriousness in her tone, he sat down at the dining table and noticed the contact details and cards scattered across the dining table; he couldn't resist teasing her,
"What's this? All these men left you their numbers? I'm not sure how I feel about you pulling men at my football matches?"
After saying this, he felt the wind before the cuff landed on the top of his head, causing him to cry out and hold his aching skull; he was met with the irate face of the young mother,
"You have the cheek to tease your mother now? For your information, the people who left these numbers were looking for you?"
Hearing this, he curiously stared at the business cards on the table while he rubbed his aching noggin.
The first that caught his eye disgusted him, Silus Malcolms; in another life, this man was his agent and an absolute con man.
He first met Malcolms in his past life; he had played at Newbury and was one of the two talents, the other being James Stanmore who went on to have a successful English career.
Back then, his level was no lower than James' in fact, in the eyes of many, his potential was higher due to his innate feel for the ball, giving him an outstanding sense of touch and control of the ball as well as fast speed.
Malcolms had approached him after seeing one of his performances, the two met his mother.
Back then, Alicia had been on guard against the man, but Akin had stubbornly convinced her to allow the man to represent him.
At first, it proved to be a great decision, he managed to make it into Anfield; he was able to perform well and was making waves, even catching the eyes of big clubs.
Back then, Sirius Malcolms often touted, whispering in his ears that he was a genius, the most talented player he had ever seen.
As a result Akin grew arrogant; he fell out of favour with his coach and got into a lot of trouble, even fighting with teammates.
His fall from grace led to him being kicked out of the academy and being named cancer.
Even after this, Malcolms didn't reign him in instead he whispered more nonsense in his ear,
"You don't need them, your so great they will regret it later; the fans will have their heads once they realise that they let go of a star…."
He heard these encouragements often and eventually got a place in a club in the lower leagues.
In the end, no premier league club academies wanted to touch him, so he was buried in the lower-level team clubs.
He soon heard the news about his old teammate James being touted as a genius striker, and suddenly he felt pressured and dissatisfied.
When he learnt that the U16 England squad snubbed him for Stanmore he was even more jealous.
As a result, his attitude grew worse; soon after, Malcolm made noise to the media about how Akin was better than James, which caused a lot of media attention to fall on them.
For a while, Akin ate it up, he was so sure he was better than his old squadmate.
He may have been more talented, but unfortunately arrogance led to him squandering that talent.
His teammates did not cooperate with him, and so he had a poor showing as he was eventually taken off the pitch after a successive scoring drought with almost no touches of the ball.
Akin and Malcolms became a national joke.
This was also the first time he saw Sirius Malcolms' true face; the man was obviously dissatisfied with him, so he unilaterally broke their contract before smearing him in the media, and he pushed all responsibility onto Akin, causing him to have to handle the pressure from the media on his own.
During this time, Akin was growing more restless; he blamed his teammates for not cooperating, and his coaches for not supporting him.
He began to play much harder and more reckless; in the end, he was injured with a torn ACL.
In his heart of hearts, Akin knows that he holds some responsibility for how he ended up.
Still, the young striker always felt that if he had a better agent that could keep him grounded.
He wouldn't have ended up how he did.
In this lifetime, he would not work with Sirius Malcolms.
This was something he had long since determined.
After discarding this card, his eyes were caught by one that sparked his interest; on the card, the name emboldened read, Jerome Anderson.