Lukas sighed deeply, tired as he plopped down onto the couch in the sitting room of his father’s apartment.
He looked at the wall clock on the wall in front of him.
"Dad should be home soon." He relaxed on the couch, thinking back on what had happened at the SV98 academy grounds.
"What a crazy day. I knew I had gotten better —but not that much better." Lukas thought to himself.
He had only planned to greet his few friends at the academy—especially João, but what ended up happening, was something he would never had dreamt of.
He took out his phone as he received a notification.
João: {Video attachment} Man you gotta show me what you’ve been doing for the past week to get so much better. I’m really proud of you. This is the video you asked me to take for you.
He smiled as he opened the video
The assistant coach blew his whistle short and fast, but it felt like Lukas took off even before the whistling ended.
To the front cone. Quick change of feet, as he moved from running to shuffling.
And then the back pedal to the start.
It felt smooth, it looked smooth.
The balance—perfect, the change in direction—instant.
"Huh?" The assistant coach was puzzled as he looked at the stopwatch in his hand.
’10.21’ was what it read.
"That’s not possible. Something must be wrong." He muttered under his breath.
"What is the matter?" Coach Patrick called out from about 5 steps beside his assistant who was still staring at his watch.
"Take a look at this Coach." The assistant walked over and handed the stopwatch to Patrick
"10.2 seconds? From LUKAS? " Coach Patrick kept a cool face, but was deeply surprised.
He had seen Lukas do this drill countless times, and he had never been this fast, not even close.
He had never been this smooth neither.
The time was nothing mind-bending nor out of this world as several footballers had better records, but it was a big news for their academy.
The previous record was jointly held by João and Wesley at 10.54 seconds.
Patrick raised his head from the stopwatch, to Lukas.
"You wanna go one more time?" He asked, looking at Lukas to study his expression in his response.
"Was it that bad? " Lukas thought to himself.
"What was the time sir?" Lukas asked.
"I’ll tell you if you answer my question."
"Coach, don’t cover for him just because you feel sorry for cutting him." Wesley cut in.
"How are you even the captain? You can’t seem to shut up." João asked with an annoyed expression.
"Today’s training must be so easy since you both can’t seem to stop arguing. Ten laps around the field should do the trick, right?" Coach Patrick interrupted the argument.
Every student turned their attention to Patrick who was still looking at Lukas.
"So?" Patrick asked Lukas.
"Sure, I’ll go once more." Lukas responded, already bouncing on the start line.
"Coach, that’s not fair!" Wesley tried to intervene.
"Quiet Wesley, you also went twice." Patrick shut him up.
Patrick blew the whistle this time, as Lukas took off.
If the first time was smooth, he was flowing this time.
Excellent transition from running to shuffling.
Lukas got back to the starting line, and felt it in his body.
"This was definitely better than the first. Felt like I was gliding during the shuffles" He thought to himself as he looked up at Patrick who was now staring at his stopwatch in utter disbelief.
"Lukas time for the T-Test Agility drill, 9.9 seconds." Patrick announced, with a low, calm tone. Able to hide his surprise with his years of experience as a manager.
"That’s like first team territory."
Murmurs filled the training ground once more.
Eyes turned from Patrick to Lukas in disbelief.
"I can’t believe that coach!" Wesley screamed.
"One more word from you, and you’re running laps around the stadium Wesley." Coach Patrick gave Wesley his final warning
"Have you been hiding your agility all this while?" João whispered to Lukas.
Who just smiled and shrugged.
"He’s definitely hiding something from me. No need for me to push though. He’ll tell me when he’s ready." João thought to himself as he looked at Lukas who also seemed to be deep in thought.
"So my current strength stats were enough to surpass these guys this much. TT said my strength stats were ’great for my age.’ I didn’t know they were this great."
ᕦ[ ◑ □ ◑ ]ᕤ
Coach Patrick whistled in short bursts to draw everyone’s attention, as the murmur quieted down.
"Alright guys, let’s keep it moving, the agility drill. Everyone is doing it."
After Lukas’ performance, it was expected that some morale would be low due to how much he all beat their previous best.
But on the contrary, a lot of players were motivated.
"If the guy with the worst scores could improve this much, what excuse do I have?"
Most carried this mindset as they put their best in the drills.
Patrick called out the time taken for each player, and as expected, none came close to Lukas’ record.
Still, anew team average was set that day, and all because of one boy.
Marco Kasten, a football agent and owner of Rising Talent Agency(RTA)—a fledgling football agency, was in his office located at Otto-Meßmer-Straße 1.
The office was one of the three offices on the 5th floor of a 7-storey building.
With just one other employee, Carla, a recent graduate of the Goethe University of Frankfurt, where she studied Marketing.
"Come on Pascal, don’t you trust me? I left Sports360 because they’re too money-hungry." Marco was on the phone with a client of his—or rather an ex-client of his when he worked at Sports360 GmbH, one of the biggest sports talent agencies in Germany.
He quit his job to start his company, as he found the way the big agencies treated their players like fresh meat—packaging them up, and selling them to the corporations without considering the dangers of such collaborations on the talent’s career prospect.
He entered the business world with great ideals—no dealings with companies with blemishes, no kickbacks, every transaction must be open and transparent.
But reality had slapped him, and hard. Almost got the thought of that ideal world slapped out of him.
Since opening six months ago, he had been unable sign any promising new player to the agencies. Even with the help of a close friend at the Eintracht Frankfurt academy.
And as a result, RTA had been hemorrhaging cash.
He was already neck in debt to start the company, and was starting to see that the world might not be as idealistic as he hoped.
"I’m sorry Marco, I really am. But I have to look after what’s good for my career right now. " The voice buzzed from the phone.
"And that’s me Pascal. Have I ever done anything that wasn’t good for your career? I got you the Puma deal, the Monster Energy deal, even your recent transfer to Chelsea.
I brought the idea for all these deals and was able to see them through, not because I was at Sports360, but because of my work ethic.
That hasn’t changed Pascal."
"You’re right Marco, but you can’t claim that being part of a big agency like Sports360 didn’t at least help you set up meetings." Pascal’s voice was neither upset, nor apologetic.
It sounded firm. Unwavering.
And Pascal could feel it. He knew he wouldn’t be getting back his client.
The call ended. Marco rubbed his forehead like he was getting migraine.
The only good news, was that the office was leased for a full year period, and he still had six months left on the lease.
But everything else, wasn’t so good—the interest on the business loan was accruing, Carla’s salary would be due in two weeks, these were expenses he had to make soon.
Just as he was still thinking about what to do about the coming bills—
He received the most career defining phone call of his life.
"Hello, this is Marco Karsten from the Rising Talent Agency, who am I speaking to?"
"Hello? Who am I speaking to please?" Marco asked again.
"Hello Mr. Marco, nice to hear from you. My name is Lukas Brandt, and I would like to have a chat with you."
A/N: Chapter 7 done, it’s way into the early morning where I live. Decided to finish this Chapter for you guys before I go to bed though.
For the schedule, expect at least a Chapter everyday, 2 if I’m able to. And 2 on the two on each S-day of the week.
Have a goodnight, morning, afternoon, evening.
Any questions or suggestions, just leave a comment.