The next day, Thursday, 6th of June 2024, 2:30PM.
A black 2015 Volkswagen Passat 1.6 TDI, came to a stop at the opposite end of the road where the SV98 academy training ground was located.
A man in black trousers, and a blue button-up shirt tucked into his trousers. He had black framed glasses on, with a brown short hair and brown eyes.
He closed the door to his car, and pressed a button on his car remote to lock it. He then walked across the road and into the training ground area.
The area was empty, except for the U17 academy players who lived at the academy grounds, and came out early for warm ups.
"Coach Patrick!" The man called out to Patrick who was coming out of the administration building and walking to the field.
"Oh? Marco? Nice to see you around here." Patrick looked at the man who called him—Marco Kasten.
"Are you here to see João?"
"Not primarily, but I will also like to see his progress." Marco responded.
"João is talented. In fact, he is one of the most outstanding in the team." Patrick said with a smile.
"There are talks that he will be promoted to the U19 team before the end of this season, or maybe even the U23 if he keeps improving."
"Won’t that be bad for your team? Isn’t he an integral part of your defense?" Marco asked Patrick, surprised.
"Yeah he is, and that’s not gonna change. I just got off the call with the academy manager. I might be getting promoted to the U19s too." Patrick said, his nose sticking in the air a little.
"Congratulations are in order. You’ve earned it."
Patrick and Marco were friends, initially academy players at Eintracht Frankfurt academy, they both decided they didn’t have what it took to go pro so they dropped out.
Their passion for football never faded though, as they both went on a football related career path—Patrick as a coach, and Marco as an agent. But they still kept in touch.
Patrick introduced Marco to some promising talents in the academy who didn’t have agents yet, and Marco, through his extensive network, helped Patrick to gather information on some academy teams they might face—information which may prove difficult to come by without Patrick’s network.
Nothing too illegal of course.
"Hmm.. he is not here yet." Marco murmured as he scanned the pitch where the U17 players were now slowly gathering.
"Who is that? João? He is over there." Patrick pointed to João who was stretching and performing standard warm-up practice.
"No, someone else." Marco responded, his eyes still looking around.
Then a bike came to a stop just in front of the entrance to the training area.
"Oh he is here." Marco said with a smile.
"Brandt? You know Lukas?" Patrick asked as he looked in the direction Marco was looking, and saw Lukas padlocking his bike to the bike rack.
"Yeah I do. My first time seeing him in person though."
"You came all the way from Frankfurt to see Lukas?"
"Yeah. Let’s just say he piqued my interest."
"Yeah? Mine too." Patrick responded.
"Really? So why did you release him from the academy?"
"I really had no choice. The board was about to take an axe to everything." Patrick lamented.
"But still, he wasn’t always as good. He did wonderfully in a training session two days ago, but it might just be a fluke. Or even worse—he might have been on something."
"You think a 15-year old kid would use drugs to impress you in training?" Marco asked staring directly at Patrick.
"Hey you don’t need to come for my head. I have to consider the possibility. He has always had passion, but his abilities were severely lacking. But in just one week since he was dropped, he became one of the best in training? Unless he was deliberately trying to get dropped and was never giving his best during previous trainings—which I very much doubt is the case—then it’s a very strange situation " Patrick tried to argue his point.
But Marco wasn’t buying it.
"Pat, you can’t just say that. You know walls have ears, even mouths too. It might be anything. Maybe he really just wasn’t giving his all initially, and being dropped from the academy was his wake up call."
"That is possible." Patrick agreed.
"Please be careful of things like these. You know there are kids here. If someone heard you, it would spread like wildfire. And it could jeopardize the life of a completely innocent kid."
"You’re right Marco, I was too rash. That’s something I shouldn’t have said."
"I’m glad you understand." Marco replied, relieved that his words had gotten through to Patrick.
"Good day Sir. Good day Coach." Lukas greeted both men as he walked towards them, with his school backpack hung over his back.
He had come directly from school.
João was allowed to leave before him because he was no longer an official member of the football academy, so he could only come after class dismissed.
"Lukas you’re here. This is Patrick Kasten a friend of mine." Marco introduced Patrick to Kasten, not knowing that Lukas knew exactly who he was looking at.
"Mr. Kasten, I am Lukas Brandt, we spoke over the phone. Nice to finally meet you." Lukas greeted him properly as he stretched his hands forward for a handshake.
"Good day, Mr. Brandt. Nice to finally meet you." Marco took his handshake firmly.
"Oh you guys spoke already? No wonder you said he piqued your interest." Patrick cut in.
"Yeah he called me two days ago, and asked me to be his agent."
"Wait a minute—don’t you already have an agent, Lukas?" Patrick asked, confused.
"No I don’t. My dad has been the one acting as one. Well there really hasn’t been much for him to do though. I wasn’t exactly flooded offers or sponsorships. But I think I should have an official agent. So I asked Mr. Kasten to come so we can talk about the terms."
"Wait I haven’t even agreed to be your agent yet."
"I’ll change your mind in two hours." Lukas said confidently.
"I will be waiting. I’ll let you know how long it took, that’s if you even manage to convince me." Marco responded with a laugh.
A grin flashed on Lukas’ face as he turned to head to the locker room to put on his training gear.
The whistle blew as Lukas stepped into the training pitch. He had his black Adidas training gear on. He exchanged a quick custom handshake with João and greeted a few other players he was close to.
They all immediately turned their attention to coach Patrick who had blown the whistle.
"Alright boys, today’s session will be two hours long. You know the drill, warm-ups and mobility drills."
They started with light jogging down the field and back up. Then rondos, 5 v 2 rondos with a maximum of 2 touches.
Lukas started in the middle with Johan.
It didn’t start slow. Passes zipped through the five players, none willing to be the one to relinquish the ball. Lukas followed the ball with his eye first, without moving.
Then he saw a moment.
Hans played a pass to Christian. It wasn’t hit sluggishly, nor was it misplaced. The only problem was that it was too predictable.
It was the most obvious pass he could have made in that moment, and Lukas knew that. He ran to the path of the pass, stretched his legs, and stopped the ball.
"Oh no why me!" Hans cried jokingly as he was dragged into the circle by Lukas who took his place. But he already had a plan to get out of the circle.
It was public knowledge that Lukas had the worst passing accuracy in the team during his time at the academy. All he had to do, was wait for the ball to get to Lukas, pressure him, and steal the ball.
But one that turned out to be nigh impossible.
Lukas’ passes were sharp, accurate, and worse of all, unpredictable.
One time Hans charged down Lukas immediately the ball was played to him, Lukas used his studs to roll the ball through Hans’ legs.
Christian, who had replaced Johan in the middle after being caught out, stretched out his legs to anticipate where Lukas would pass the ball—the exact thing Lukas had done to Hans to win the ball—but the ball just rolled through his legs too and as Lukas hit it with the outside of his left boot to the player behind him.
Chuckles filled the pitch, but João, who was in another group, fell to the ground laughing.
"Forgive me, Luke, I was unfamiliar with your game." He said, struggling to complete his sentence as he kept laughing at Hans and Christian.
"Wow, I don’t know what causes such a change in a player, but I don’t care anymore. I have to get him back into the academy as soon as yesterday." Patrick thought as he stared at Lukas who was starting to get infected from João’s laughter.
"It’s barely been 15 minutes, and I want to stop this training and sign a contract with him already." Marco thought with a smile on his face, already thinking of Lukas as his client.
A/N: You guys have fun, and let me know what you think.
Have a wonderful day/night wherever you might be.