The cracked asphalt court in the heart of Dortmund, far from the manicured perfection of the training ground, was a world away from the Bundesliga.
It was a place where the rules were fluid, the goals were marked by discarded water bottles, and the only currency was passion. This was the arena for Mateo's final, most crucial test of the weekend.
Mateo walked onto the court, his new, comfortable clothes a perfect disguise. The children, ranging from six to twelve, paused their chaotic game, their eyes wide with a mix of awe and challenge at the sight of the tall, quiet newcomer. He was a mystery to them, an older boy who moved with a coiled intensity that belied his casual attire.
Sarah stood on the sidelines, her presence a silent, watchful guardian.
She was the club's insurance policy, the necessary buffer against injury, and the communication bridge. She understood the gravity of the request: this was not a game; it was a pilgrimage back to the source, a necessary reset for a soul burdened by genius.
The game began, and immediately, the pressure of professional expectation vanished.
There were no tactical diagrams, no System analysis of the opposition's formation, no pressure to deliver a multi-million-euro performance. There was only the ball, the feet, and the pure, unadulterated joy of the moment.
Mateo, freed from the mental cage of the professional game, rediscovered the essence of his talent. He wasn't thinking about his body, about his center of gravity, about his muscle memory.
He was just... playing. The five centimeters of new height, the recalibrated muscles, the solid core it was all happening naturally, instinctively. The ghost and the machine were not at war. They were dancing.
He tried a ridiculous, spinning flick over a ten-year-old's head, a move he would never attempt in a Bundesliga match due to the high risk-reward ratio. It came off perfectly, the ball arcing over the child's surprised face and landing softly at the feet of a teammate.
He nutmegged Lukas, who stumbled over his own feet, to the delight of the children. He scored a goal and celebrated with an exaggerated slide on the muddy asphalt, ruining his new jeans but feeling a sense of pure, unadulterated happiness he hadn't felt in weeks.
He used his new body, his strength, his height, but he wasn't thinking about it. He held off a surprisingly strong fourteen-year-old to shield the ball, his new, solid base refusing to budge.
He used his long legs to intercept a pass that would have been just out of reach a month ago. It was all happening naturally, instinctively. The new body was no longer a stranger; it was an extension of his will, a perfectly tuned instrument.
The children, initially shy, quickly warmed to the silent maestro. They didn't need words to understand his game. His passes were instructions, his dribbles were invitations, and his feints were jokes.
He communicated through the ball, a language more universal than any spoken tongue. Sarah, standing on the sidelines, found her role as translator was minimal. The children spoke the language of football, and Mateo was fluent.
At one point, a small boy, no older than six, tried to tackle him with a reckless, clumsy lunge. Mateo, with a lightning-fast adjustment, simply lifted the ball over the boy's head and let him slide harmlessly underneath.
He then stopped, signed a quick, gentle instruction to Sarah, who translated it to the boy: "Slow down. Look at the ball, not the feet." It was a moment of pure coaching, a silent transfer of knowledge that was instantly understood.
The afternoon was a blur of chaotic, joyous motion. The sun began to dip below the Dortmund skyline, casting long, dramatic shadows across the court. The game finally wound down, ending in a messy, disputed score that no one truly cared about.
A sudden, sharp memory, triggered by the smell of damp asphalt and the distant sound of a train, pulled Mateo back across the years, across the continent, to the sun-baked streets of Barcelona.
He was eight years old, a blur of motion in a world of concrete and noise. Before the manicured pitches of CF Barceloneta, before the structured drills and the watchful eyes of coaches, there was the street.
The barrio was his first academy, the cracked pavement his first teacher. He played with a ferocity born of necessity, a small, silent whirlwind against boys twice his age and size.
He remembered the sting of a misplaced tackle on his bare knees, the taste of dust and sweat, and the sheer, unadulterated terror of losing the ball.
It was a game of survival, where every touch had to be perfect, every feint had to be convincing, because a mistake meant a lost ball, a lost point, and the scorn of the older boys. This was where the Mateo 1.0 was forged nimble, quick, a ghost that could not be caught. ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by NoveI~Fire.net
The memory shifted to his time at CF Barceloneta. He was ten, already recognized as a prodigy, his talent a raw, undeniable force. The coaches, meticulous and protective, had warned him: "No more street football, Mateo. It's dangerous. It's unscientific. You'll pick up bad habits. You'll get injured."
He would nod, his eyes earnest, and then, under the cloak of a fading Catalan sunset, he would sneak out.
He couldn't help it. It was in his blood. The structured drills taught him what to do; the streets taught him how to survive. The pitches were a laboratory; the streets were a battlefield.
He needed the chaos, the unpredictability, the raw, unfiltered honesty of the street game to keep his genius sharp. He needed the freedom to try the impossible, the ridiculous, the moves that would earn a coach's frown but a street kid's gasp of admiration.
He remembered one night, playing in a small square near the port, a game of panna (nutmeg) against a notorious local street player. The crowd was thick, the tension palpable.
He was smaller, but he was faster, and his mind, even then, was a System in its infancy, calculating angles and feints.
He won with a move so audacious a backheel nutmeg off a wall rebound that the crowd erupted, not in anger, but in pure, joyous appreciation. That moment, that feeling of pure, unadulterated connection with the game and the people, was the fuel that drove him.