Football Lord - Chapter 32

The whole stadium clapped as the match ended with Man city winning the game 3:2. The whole man city players were as happy as if they had just won a cup.

As the fans cheered, the man city players congratulated each other and consoled the Everton players in the spirit of sportsmanship.

The match was dramatic and entertaining, and even more fulfilling as it ended in favour of the home team.

Tony looked into the stadium and searched for his family as he waved to three of them. It later occurred to him that he had not invited his three best friends for the match.

Paul, Tom and Harry were his closest friends from thier time together in Highschool. He knew he should have invited them for the match but forgot to.

Even though Paul and Harry were Manchester United fans he knew they would still come to watch his match and support him.

Maybe until when he played against the first team of Manchester United would both of them have mixed feelings in the match. As he would be playing against there main team.

But his friend Tom was a fellow man city supporter and would clearly want the best for Tony and the team.

After waving at his parents and the other supporters he went to the locker room.

When he got into the locker room, the atmosphere was lively as someone played songs with a boom box speaker.

The players really behaved like they won the a cup, as immediately he entered some players crowded him as they patted his heads and shoulders.

“You really did well, mate” a player said.

“Wow what a performance!” some other players also said some similar things to him.

Tony was happy with his performance but knew it was team effort as he humbly thanked his teammates. Coach Taylor later came in to the locker room.

“Nice match and what a wonderful performance from all of you. I am happy that none of you gave up and I want to continue to see more spirited performances like this. So go have your showers and go home, there is no mid week match this week so you can all have Monday day off.”

Immediately Coach Taylor announced that the players were going to have an extra day of rest, all the players immediately jumped up in celebration as someone increased the volume of the music.

Tony joined the players as they lightly celebrated together. Football really was life, he remembered how frustrated and annoyed he felt when he saw the Everton team score the second goal. But that all spontaneously turned around when his team won the game.

In football no one could really be certain of an outcome of a match, not until the last minute or the scoreline was so wide that only a miracle could save them.

Tony remembered the numerous experience of Barcelona in the champions league. How they had miraculously won the second leg against psg after they were beaten 4:0 in the first leg.

Barcelona also had numerous bad experiences against Roma, Liverpool, etc of how they also dramatically lost there leads in the second legs.

That was football, it was unpredictable and things happened that was not totally expected to happen. But it was the game they all loved and enjoyed.

Someone once said that Football was just 22 grown men pursuing a round ball for 90 minutes.

That person clearly did not know the massive importance and effect of football. The surges of emotion that the game brought, the technicalities and the beauty of the game.

The word that best expressed the game was ‘Mesmirizing’ as some moments were to emotional and created hype that goosebumps appeared on the skin of an individual.

Simply put Football is life, but life isn’t all about football. As nothing can fully stand on its own, one had to branch out and Interact with others.

Football was involved with medical doctors, lawyers, agents, broadcasters, media, sponsors from other fields, nutritionist, designers like addidas or Nike, etc.

It was a source of livelihood for millions if not billions of people around the world. It’s effect was global acknowledged as could be seen from the international scenes.

The world cup hosted countries from all parts of the world as they came together for the love of the game and to compete against each other.

Those were just instances he quickly thought about off his head as he jubilated with the players as they also sang some of man city songs.

*****

Tony dropped John off at home and drove home, he was still feeling the happiness from the match as he reminisced about the match.

He got home and met his parents downstairs having dinner. His father immediately came to hug and congratulate him.

“What a performance Son! you really made all of us proud in the match” his father said as he hugged him tightly. Tony could only blush and nod his head as this was also a special moment for him.

“I was really proud of you son, never knew you could play that well all this while, if I knew I would have rioted in all the previous trials you didn’t pass.” his mom said jokingly as she also gave him a hug.

Tony laughed as he could also understand where his mother was coming from. But now that he had the system with him, things had changed as he had improved greatly and would definitely had gotten into any academy in the country.

“Nicely done bro, I will definitely be the brother of a famous Football star in a few years.” George said proudly as he also gave Tony a hug.

“Haha just prepare your mind for the occasional journalist tailing you for juicy gossips” Tony said in a low voice to only George. The colour drained from George’s face as he fell into deep thought about journalist secretly following him.

Tony’s laughter increased as he laughed at his brothers serious countenance at his joke. He joined them in having dinner as the mood was very lively.

After dinner he went into his room had his bath, got on his bed and was ready to fall asleep. Before he heard Rose’s voice out loud.

“Aren’t you forgetting something young superstar” She said in a very dramatic way.

Tony laughed at her speech as he thought of what he could be forgetting before he remembered about copying skills.

“Ahhh! I totally forgot about copying skills” Tony said dejectedly. He was too focused on the match when he began playing that he wasn’t even bothered about checking for a skill he could copy.

“From now on, we can just play the game and after the match I would inform you of the skills you achieved there conditions and could copy. But if I discover a unique skill from a player I would inform you of it before or during the match.” Rose explained

Tony agreed as He would definitely check for the conditions for skills from players like Messi, Ronaldo, Hazard, Debruyne, etc that should have unique skills when he met them in training or in a match.

“So during the match the best skills you achieved from your performance are Finishing B+ and Strength B-”

“Definitely the finishing” Tony quickly replied as he knew successfully putting the ball into the net when he had a chance in the box was very important and easily showed how good a player he was to anyone.

After his answer he felt the cold feeling that signified his successful copying of a skill, before he happily slept off.