The respect of the footballing world was a heavy cloak, but it was an intangible one. The most immediate and pressing challenge for Mateo was not the weight of words, but the mechanics of his own body.
His five-centimeter growth spurt had been a surprising advantage against Bayern, a secret weapon no one had anticipated. But in the cold, clinical light of the club's medical department, it was a flashing red warning light.
Two days after the media analysis session with Sarah, Mateo was summoned to a different kind of meeting. There were no newspapers or tablets, only anatomical charts and a palpable sense of gravity.
He sat in Dr. Braun's office, with Sarah by his side. Across the desk sat the doctor himself and a new figure: a stern-looking man in his forties with the lean, muscular build of a former athlete. This was Andreas Beck, the club's head of physiotherapy and performance.
