"Lukas Brandt? I don’t think I know a Lukas Brandt. And he sounds like a teenager." Marco thought to himself after Lukas introduced himself.
"Okay Lukas, how can I be of help to you?" Although stressed from his work troubles, Marco tried to remain polite to the stranger on the phone.
"I got your number from João Gimenez. I want to sign with Rising Talent Agency."
"João?" Marco thought of one of his few players. A promising defender currently with the SV98 academy.
"Yes. He is a close friend of mine." Lukas responded.
"You also play at the academy?"
"Not anymore, I was dropped a week ago."
"Dropped from SV98 academy? This is most likely a waste of my time, but let’s hear him out."
Marco decided to hear what Lukas had to say so as not to be rude. But he still had no plans to waste too much of his time.
"Kid, I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but telling someone you’ve been dropped by an academy of a ’2. Bundesliga’ club isn’t a great way to pitch yourself as a talent." Marco said to the phone, with no sign of annoyance in his voice.
"I know what you’re worried about, but the club made a mistake dropping me, and I’m already proving it." Lukas responded.
A notification rang on Marco’s iPhone 13 as Lukas was still talking. A video attachment sent from the same number he was on the call with.
"I just sent you a video of the training session I had with the other academy players, including João, today."
"I’m gonna watch it now, if it’s not interesting, I will be ending the call immediately." Marco said as he looked at the message notification.
"Sure, no problem." Lukas replied.
Marco tapped on his screen as the video played. A full sprint by the entire U17 team, they were about to run from the goal post to the West of the stadium, to the centre line, and back to the starting point.
"You should consider working as a model. I think you’d have a better shot at that." Marco said as he saw Lukas in the video, setting up his phone to record the race that was about to happen.
"Thank you, but I’ll stick to football for now." Lukas responded from over the phone.
Marco turned his attention to the three-minute video now playing on the MacBook on his desk—thanks to Apple’s seamless continuity feature.*
A whistle sounded from someone not in the video frame—probably the coach, as the players took off.
It started out close, studs hitting the turf as each player struggled to not fall behind.
But slowly, the faster players pulled forward.
Micah—another player with decent acceleration and speed.
Nothing out of the norm.
Until a shadow zoomed past the players at the rear end of the group, the ones with the worst speed.
Then the middle of the pack.
Ofcourse it was Lukas.
He had given them a headstart to see how fast he could really be compared to them.
Now speeding past Micah who had a face that seemed to say "What the hell is happening right now?"
Lukas now in third place, seemed to be getting even faster than he already was—eating up the space between him and the front two.
In a blink of an eye, Lukas was already neck and neck with both Wesley and João.
Then came the time to turn back. This was when who had the best balance, deceleration and acceleration is determined.
Lukas didn’t break a sweat, he started slowing down about five strides before the centre line.
As his left leg touched the line, he crouched a bit to reduce his centre of gravity, twisted his torso, and used that left leg to jumpstart his acceleration in the opposite direction.
"That was smooth. It almost looked like it was choreographed. Effective too." Marco thought to himself as he sat up on his chair, his attention glued to the screen.
Lukas was now in front of everyone as they sprinted back to the starting line, finishing first comfortably with João second, and Wesley trailing João by a bit.
The players who were still catching their breaths, were flabbergasted.
"Broo! What exactly are you on? How did you get this fast?" João asked as he stood with his hands on his head and an exaggerated surprised expression on his face.
"I don’t know, I just tried putting the next leg after the previous leg as fast as I can." Lukas answered, his breathing already steady.
"And you’re not even out of breath!" João screamed as he looked at Lukas.
"I was. I had enough time to catch my breath while waiting for you guys to finish the race." Lukas said with a cheeky grin.
"Look at his face. You’re enjoying yourself aren’t you."
"You want me in tears?"
Lukas ran to the camera as he was chased by João just as the video ended.
"He’s faster than even João. And that change of direction, it was at the level of the Eintract Frankfurt’s U19 team." Marco fell into deep thought as he finished watching the video.
He knew João was gonna be a great defender because he was both strong, and fast. And all he needed was a place he could develop his football IQ and defensive awareness.
So, watching that same João struggling to catch up to someone who clearly looked younger than him, was surprising.
"If he is this good on the ball, then this is basically a steal."
"What position do you play?" Marco asked.
"I primarily used to play as a holding midfielder when I played at the academy, but I am looking to move further up the pitch." Lukas responded.
"Are you as good as this with the ball at your feet?"
"I would be at the SV98 academy training ground again in 2 days—Mr. Patrick asked me to come.
You can come see me in person. It starts at 3:00pm." Lukas said with an air of confidence in his voice.
"It’s only 30 minutes to the SV98 academy. It will be more than worth it if he is really that good at this age. And if he is, he won’t be without an agent for long."
"Alright. I will see you there in two days." He decided to take a gamble.
"If he isn’t as good as the video suggests, I’ll just monitor João’s progress and leave."
"You won’t regret this decision Mr. Karsten." Lukas responded with a calm voice like he always knew what Marco’s answer would be.
"I hope so." Marco said with a smile as he ended the call.
"Carla." He called out, as he replayed the video Lukas sent him.
"Yes boss?" Carla responded as she stood up from her desk immediately. She had been listening to the call attentively while pretending to be busy.
"Contact the SV98 academy for player profile of Lukas Brandt." Marco instructed without taking his eyes off the screen.
"Wouldn’t that be illegal if he isn’t an adult?"
"Some parents sign consent forms if it’s used to promote the player."
"But he’s no longer their player, will the form still be valid?" She asked.
"Well call them and find ou—"
Marco looked down at his phone which just buzzed.
Another attachment from Lukas.
"I forgot to send this to you too. It is outdated, but it is the most recent one too." The message read.
"Nevermind. We’ve got a mind reader." Marco said with a smile as he opened the attached document named ’Lukas Brandt, Player Profile from SV98 academy.’
But that smile was completely wiped off his face after going through the document.
"What the hell is this? He is this bad?"
"No, I’ve gotta be calm. He did outrun João in the video, and it didn’t look staged.
I’ll just go see him on Thursday. Nothing to lose except a couple hours of my time anyway."
"Carla, clear my schedule for Thursday from 3pm."
"Alright boss." Carla responded, immediately scribbling something in her notepad.
"You don’t have anything scheduled for the week though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯." She wrote with a very professional expression.
A/N: * Shout out Apple, yeah?