Since being with the U17 team, I have played 7 games. 6 from the bench and 1 start. I scored 7 and assisted 9 in those 7 games.
We have 7 games to go before the break. I wanted to end up with atleast 20 goals. That means that I need to score a couple of hat-tricks atleast.
I started working more on the partnership with Joe and Diego. Oscar and I have a good partnership but it usually goes one way. I provide the assist for Oscar.
But, Diego is very good in the second striker role and he has the makings of a good playmaker. Joe played as the number 10 currently and he is very good. He is creative and technically very sound.
So, by working with both of them and establishing some patterns, I could utilise their passing to make some good runs and score.
I have started putting in an extra hour everyday practicing my finishing. I was taking shots from outside the box at awkward angles, practicing shots on the bounce, Volleys, and I was putting more effort into the one on one scenarios.
The extra goalkeeper we had, Alex was a godsend in this regard. He is young. He is also 15 like me. But, he couldn't start over our current goalkeeper who is a really really good shot stopper. And he was also big. So, Alex was the reserve keeper for U17 and would occasionally play the U15 matches.
I helped him with his shot stopping and he helped me with the one one one scenarios. We became good friends through this as well. We had an instant connect. We both loved comics. We both loved watching Hollywood movies. We loved rock music and Michael Jackson. He did not go to my school, but we would hang out after practice and talk about pop culture.
He is also a shit talker. He tries to put me off everytime I'm on the ball. For the first few times he succeeded. He would talk smack and I would lose concentration for just a second. That would be enough. This helped me actually. During the last game against Corinthians, they were being loud as well. And they were physical and tried to put us off everytime we went for the corner or something.
This worked like exposure therapy. The more I get used to this, the more I won't react during matches.
Oscar and Moraes were a couple of years older. And they were very serious about football and professionals through and through. They don't act like kids/teens. They were serious during training. And I learned that they don't go to school. They've been homeschooled and all day, they breathe football.
I didn't want to have such life. I actually enjoyed school. Since I knew most of the material anyway, it became a place to have fun. Mingling with others, making friends, goofing around.
In my past life, I was a nerd. I was bullied a lot in high school and had one best friend who was also a nerd. So, all of this is new to me and I took it like a fish to water. Being in a football team helps a bit, actually starting and playing helps more. I had the looks and even my physique caught up to others, so they can't really bully me. And having a lot of friends at school helped.
Some days after school, we would just hang out at my place and play mario. Or chess. On weekends, we would go to the arcade and play tekken. Tekken 3 came out recently and I think I am addicted. In my past life I did play all these retro games, but playing it now, in an arcade, with friends, it hits different. Jin Kazama is my favorite character right now.
Life outside football is going really well.
We still go to the church as a family every week. If we have an early match, we go in the evening, otherwise we go in the mornings. Like I have mentioned before, I wasn't big on religion in my past life. But, this time, I have been very thankful for the opportunity and I would pray and be genuinely peaceful during sermons. I would like to volunteer with the church activities as well.
Here in Brazil, the churches actually help people. There is a soup kitchen that is run by the local church with the help of donations, that gives homeless people free food everyday. I have taken to volunteering there a couple of times every week. Even though I am tired after practice, I would keep going there and working.
Last week, there has been a slight complication.
There is this family that stays near us, and the father works in my dad's company. They're friends, not too close but they're on good terms. They are a bit well to do financially. Their daughter Gloria is the same age as me. She is cute. And she is also very religious.
Of late, they would hang out with our family after church and we would get to talk. And she kept giving me looks. I have not had girls look at me like that in my previous life. I had to be the one to initiate things and ask girls out. This is all new territory for me. I do not know how to deal with this.
Looks do matter a lot, huh!
And one day, she showed up at the soup kitchen to volunteer. I thought it was a coincidence. But, the next time she came on the same day that I would be there. And she would seek me out and wanted to talk and hangout.
It could all be in my head as well, but I didn't know what to do in the situation. I didn't want to date a 16 year old girl now. This is just complicated.
The other issue is that my body is going through a puberty. Being 16 again, is not fun. I know that mentally I may be older and all, but ever since the merge, I haven't been acting like that. It has been very messy and complicated. I throw tantrums, I have been emotional, I react to things which I shouldn't have or wouldn't have reacted otherwise. And now, my body reacts differently. I have put a lid on it, but it is difficult when she is around all the time.
It doesn't help that she is cute. She smells great. She is a nice girl. And that makes it extra hard to be a jerk to her. I have tried to come off as uninteresting as possible, but it doesn't help that she likes football, follows Sao Paulo, knows about my matches and stuff. She doesn't even need to fake being interested in this stuff. She is very knowledgeable when it comes to football and conversation flows naturally. Unless she asks me out or something, I couldn't exactly confront or reject her. Also, being a dick to her could come to bite my father back, because her father works at the same company and is a superior.
Fuck this shit!
I learned that instead of dealing with things on our own, you should seek out help from your loved ones. In my past life, I should have done more of that, but I didn't. This time, I wanted to be closer to my family, so I reached out to my father. I told him about this. I was very open about it, I told him that I am not interested in going out or anything right now. I am focussed completely on football. I will think about stuff only after I get into the first team and be a regular and win something.
My father was, how do I put it? Useless. Absolutely useless. He couldn't give me any piece of advice. He said that these things happen naturally and that I shouldn't resist. And that I should feel lucky that a cute girl is showing interest in me. He then launched into a story about him and my mom. I didn't want to hear his story! I wanted help in how to let her down gently and not get distracted.
Now, in his infinite wisdom, he told my mom about this. Huge mistake! She adores the girl apparently. She couldn't stop gushing about it and I have a feeling that in her head, she planned a wedding and had baby names ready. I strictly told her to not interfere in this and to not do anything about this.
Why has it come to this? Here I was, playing my football, thinking of dominating on the field and everytime I go to volunteer or after church, there would be these sudden comments from my mom about Gloria.
Even Digão noticed this and he asked me if I am dating her. He even wiggled his eyebrows and put air quotes around dating. This little shit. He is 13 FFS! And here he is insinuating things. I wanted to whoop his ass up, but restrained myself, I didn't want to show outward reaction and give him ammunition.
The system exercises with meditation help me keep my calm. I take a couple of deep breaths to calm myself down and I told him that I am not interested.
And this little shit asked me if I was gay. He asked me since I talk to Alex after practice a lot, may be I like him. I wanted to bang my head against the wall. I told him that no, I am not gay. Yes, I like girls. No, I am not bonking Gloria. I explained to him that football comes first now and I will have fun later on. He called me boring, told me that he asked a girl out last week. Told me that I should stop being so serious and to ask her out and go out with her. I did the mature thing I could think of, smacked him on the back of his head and kicked him out of my room.
I cannot wait to turn 18. This is a line I have drawn for myself. Nothing till I am 18. I just needed to stick to my guns, act like nothing is weird, put football first and not get distracted by her or anyone. It is easier to ignore girls at school because of my friends and practice and other stuff.
It is awkward here because she is a family friend and church and soup kitchen are not exactly the places where I would expect to deal with this kind of stuff.
That's life on the personal front. Football has been coming along nicely as well.
The two matches after the derby, I was deployed on the right again. I played well. Did not cause any issues with the formation. I score two goals and assisted 3. My total after that second match was 9 goals and 12 assists in 9 matches. Those are good numbers. But good is never good enough for me. I wanted more.
An opportunity came leaping towards me. Joe got injured after the last game. And since our midfield was not great when it comes to creativity, I was given the 10 role.
This is the first start playing this role in starting 11. I grabbed the opportunity with both hands. We didn't need a great right winger. We just needed someone who was not shit. We switched to a 4-1-2-3. Moraes was the DM anchor. We had two decent midfielders doing the defensive work and playing technical football. I was 10 with Diego and Oscar infront of me. And the change was instantaneous.
The connection between us was evident. We dominated the attack in the next two games. We scored 11 goals in two games. I bagged 5, Diego scored 3 and Oscar scored 2. I scored my first ever hattrick. All three goals were assisted by Diego. I was ecstatic. 14 goals, 17 assists in 11 games. The stats are extremely good.
Coaches saw it as well. Slowly but steadily, my passing stats have been improving. The more assists I provide, the system gives better progress. It is not much, but a 0.5 raise for 10 assists at this level. I wonder if it would be capped later on, or if this is just the norm, because this is still the growing phase. I wonder when the stats would stop growing.
My practice sessions with Alex have also started to show some progress. I was able to round up the keeper once in the match and score past him. My stats are going up as well.
Before I knew it, the last three matches for the season were over. We won all three, but it wasn't enough to win the trophy. I added another 6 goals to my tally.
In the end, I had 20 goals, 22 assists in 14 games.
Had I played the full season, I would be the top scorer and I still ended being the top assist provider having played 20 fewer matches.
During the last match, the first team coach was in the stands, calmly observing. I didn't know him, never spoke to him, but by the way everyone else around him were reacting, we knew that he was impressed by our attacking trio.
He didn't stop by to talk, they just left before the match ended. I would have loved to hear their opinion. I would probably ask coach Martinez afterwards about what they thought of us.
It is December now. This is break time. I fully focused on practice and was trying to increase my strength stats. I wanted to increase my pace as well.
The trainers have told me that my gait would probably change by the time I finish growing, and then I could focus on the running and dribbling. They warned me to take it slow a bit, because balance would be an issue because of all the inches I have added. They did not want me to push too hard and cause damage. They wanted to observe my posture changes and my ball handling and go from there to working out on a regimen to increase my pace and dribbling skills.
My left foot is coming along nicely. Now, I have a 4* left foot.
After Church today, I was lying down on my bed, reflecting on things. End of the year is near. In the past 6 months, so much has changed. I've skipped the U15 level, I have played 14 matches for the U17.
The U17 matches have showed me something that I didn't have a clear understanding of before. I looked at my stats, saw 78 and saw 86 pace and 83 dribbling and thought that I would be a force of nature. But, that was not exactly what happened. I had to work hard to score those goals, develop chemistry with others. I learnt that I am prone to making mistakes while passing. On paper, the stats look great, but in matches they translate differently. The 4-5 passes I misplace in a match, get noticed. I cannot afford to do that at higher levels. That would be costly.
I also realised that playing in a good team is important. Moraes demands more of us. I demand more from our midfield. Oscar demands better passes. Diego wants us to be in the best positions and he gets visibly angry when we don't control the ball properly or lose it before the final push. Having these people around, would push the others into playing better, training harder and that translates to wins. My stats don't mean anything if we don't win trophies. That can only happen if the team around me is good.
I have realised that my individual brilliance could win an odd match on my own but to maintain consistency, I need good players around me.
We will have one final training session tomorrow before the big break. We have Christmas and New year on the horizon. There won't be training then.
After the training coach Martinez called Oscar, Diego, Moraes and me into his office.
"I have called you all here to give you an update on your situation."
"Coach Daryo have been getting regular reports from us about your development. He even came to the last two matches to watch us play."
"He was very impressed with you 4. He wants to see you guys take the next step. He doesn't want to put you in the first team immediately, but after the break, you 4 will be joining the under 20 team for the copa do Brazil youth. He wants to see you guys in action in the next 4 months at this level."
"If you guys manage to impress the team, get into the starting 11 and end up playing well in the cup, he said you will have high chances to auditon for the first team in April. It would a trial, practice sessions with the first team, but if you fare will with the change in pace, he will include you in the squad for the Campeonato Paulista."
"Are we clear? Immediately after the break, you guys will train with the U20 team, and we shall see what happens after. Either you impress everyone and play for the first team itself, or you play for the U20 team. Anyway, you are promoted from the U17 level. We couldn't be more proud of you guys and your progress has been incredible."
We looked at each other, ecstatic. No one had anything else to say, they were just dumbfounded. No one expected this. Especially not them. I knew something like this would happen, because I have seen the level we have been playing for the past two months. This is not how I planned it, but I welcome it anyway. 4 months at the U20 level, dominate and enter the first team for the 1998 season. That works for me. I thought I would be spending the year at this level or waiting for a call for next year, but if I could shave 6 months off it, I will take it.
I just said "Bring it on coach, a few players are going to lose their starting positions soon in the first team"
Coach Martinez had just one thought in his head,
"This fucking kid!"
Author's Notes:
There we have it. 1997 coming to an end.
MC making progress with the team.
I wanted to touch upon the girl troubles a bit.
There will be more of that stuff later on.
Let me know what you think.