Reincarnated As A Footballer - 6 Greg Wilson

Manager’s Office (Manchester United), Manchester

“You came on the right day. Saw that lad eh? When I saw him play, you were the first one I remembered. So, still going to continue to stay a scout for us now?” asked Sir Alex to a man who was sitting in front of him.

It was a man his early thirties. He was having an extraordinary physique and one smile of his would definitely kill all the women beside him. But, he was with a walking cane.

“You know, if not for your accident, you would have definitely shined here under me.” said the Man United manager reminiscing something.

“You have to call that bad luck. It wasn’t your fault neither was it mine. It happened. In life s**t happens. But let me tell you one thing clearly now and that is I have overcome it. You don’t have to ponder on it anymore.

Coming to the point now, this boy. He definitely gave me quite a shock. A 5 year old boy doing stuff like that? Sure was incredible. I agree he is quite talented. But in order to bet the rest of my life on him, I need to go see him play at least once. Obviously doing those stuff proved that he has got some potential in him. But that was the case where only one side played seriously. You know that immense pressure brings out the maximum potential out of a player, right? I want see him squeeze out every ounce of potential on his. It might be harsh on a five year old kid but if he catches my eyes, believe me I will be more than ready to sell my soul to the devil if needed to make him improve.” said the man.

“Greg, Boy. I definitely know that you are excited. Let us call him tomorrow and we’ll have him play some set pieces. Let us see what we can make of him. You see I have never doubted you as a player or as a scout. All these years, I have taught you all the necessary things one needs to become a successful coach. Let us definitely hope for the best.”

“Then I’ll be at the training grounds by eleven in the morning. Cheers boss.” having said that, Greg left the room.

The next day morning, when Vinod and his father were thinking of what to do that day, a club representative came to their room and informed them to be in the Man United training grounds by eleven o’ clock. Both were confused as to why were they summoned. But as they had nothing more to do on that day, they were not much bothered by it and so they reached the training grounds by eleven. As soon as they got down, they were escorted to the waiting area and Vinod was asked to get changed to tracks. He got changed and went to the field and at the same time Sir Alex came to meet his father.

As soon as Vinod entered the field, he saw a man standing near the goal and talking to some ten to eleven year old children. That man was Greg and those children were the best players in their age group. As he saw Vinod he simply said

“Hello. I am Greg Wilson. Sorry for calling you abruptly but after seeing you yesterday I was intrigued by your skills. So I just wanted to confirm whether you were the real deal or not. So can you please help me with that?”

Vinod was a bit taken aback but as it was football, he readily complied and asked about what he had to do. Greg smiled at him and then told

“Simple. Assume that you are playing a match and it is the finals of a tournament. You are behind by one goal and it is the extra time of the second half. By god’s grace the opponents have fouled and you have got a free kick 25 yards straight away from the goal. In this simulation practice and set piece, there is going to be a goalkeeper and three defenders on the opposite side and you’ll be accompanied by one more player. Please show me how entertaining can you make this set piece and make your team win the game. In order to enact the simulation perfectly, you have to be tired as it is the extra time of the second half. So you have to sprint a distance of 300 metres and come back. Of course before doing so you may warm up and practice for sometime too. When you are ready, please tell me. And yes you’ll be given 10 chances and as soon as your team scores a goal, the simulation is over.”

Thus, Vinod started his warm ups and after that some shooting, passing and ball control practices. After 20-25 minutes he told Greg that he was ready and sprinted for the 300 meters and came back. To his surprise, the others did the same for 500 meters and so the simulation practice started.

In the first eight attempts, he was not able to score the goal but it was clear that he was aiming for somewhere near the top right hand corner. But it was to be noted that every time, the distance between the ball and the crossbar was decreasing steadily. And everytime the smile on Greg’s face was increasing. On the ninth attempt, the ball hit the crossbar and bounced back to the right side of the field. Greg was astonished by that ninth shot and thought

[He surely is a diamond in the rough. His latent potential is very good but he needs to think a bit more outside the box. His form now clearly shows which side his going to kick the ball to and it is obvious that the keeper has noticed it too. Still it was worthwhile coming here and I think I am pretty much sure on how to groom him.]

But that said, Vinod being Vinod never stops giving huge surprises to anyone who sees him for the first few times and that was the case then too. Immediately after the ninth shot he called his teammate and whispered something in his ears. After hearing what he said that boy had a shocking expression on his face and blurted out

“Was that your plan all along ?”

This was heard by everyone on the pitch and so the goalkeeper remained vigilant. Even Greg wanted to see the end result of the last shot. So, Vinod took the tenth kick. It was the same shot again and the goalkeeper jumped as high as possible to stop the ball but the ball once again hit the crossbar beside the top right hand corner and bounced back onto the pitch. Seeing that the ball did not go inside the goal, the keeper was relieved and at the same time he saw Vinod smiling. As he was falling on the ground, the goalkeeper saw where the ball bounced back to but to his dismay, there was a player who was having the ball. Yes it was Vinod’s teammate and that was the exact same spot the ball fell the last time. Looking at the pretty much empty goal, the eleven year old kicked the ball inside the goal.

Everyone especially Greg was dumbfounded at that set piece. He immediately looked at Vinod and asked

“Did you aim for that crossbar right now boy ?”

Vinod then innocently replied

“Hmm. I did. I was aiming for the crossbar near the top right hand corner because whenever we play amongst ourselves I always noticed that no one cares for the ball for sometime if it hits the crossbar as everybody expects me to score a goal in these sort of situations. So I aimed for that spot. During the ninth attempt when the ball at last hit the crossbar, which was the place I aimed for from the beginning, I saw that the ball fell on the right side. So I asked him to go to the right side, to the place where the ball fell as soon as I hit the ball. You told me that the team had to score and not me. So that’s why I thought of this”

And the eleven year old boy also did the same as asked by Vinod. As Vinod was about to hit the ball, the boy started running towards the right side of the goal and everyone there thought that his trick was to drag the one defender away from the play, so no one bothered to mark that boy and as a result the goal was scored.

Greg got goose bumps. Never did he expect such a goal scoring process from Vinod. On further thinking about his plans, he got yet another big shock. That was his confidence on his ball control. This excited Greg so much that he started giggling to himself. When the others saw him doing this, everyone had different thoughts.

So after it was over, Vinod changed his dress back and came to the waiting area where he saw Greg, Sir Alex and his father Mahesh talking about something. As he came to them, his father asked him

“Vinnu, were you serious yesterday when you said that you want to become a professional footballer ? Don’t think that it is easy to become one. So tell me are you serious about it?”

Without waiting even for a single moment he replied “Of course! I definitely want to! No matter how hard it is, I’ll definitely be a world-class footballer” with the same expression he gave to Sir Alex.

After hearing what he said, Mahesh nodded his head and shook hands with Greg. Greg then smiled at Vinod and said

“OK boy. You have the potential to become a great footballer but to do so you have to work hard right from a very young age. That being said, the coaching facilities in India are not that good when you compare them to Europe. So in order to compensate that, I will be personally coming with you to India in order to fill up that gap.”

Vinod had yet another confused look on his face when he heard his father’s voice

“Vinnu, this gentleman here, Mr. Greg Wilson is coming with us back to India and will be coaching you for the next few years. By coaching, I mean that he will be taking control of everything from your diets to your training. Seeing that you have good talent in football, I decided to give it a shot, but of course if in the future you change your mind, then we’ll send him back. Now did you understand?”

Now it was Vinod’s time of getting a severe shock. To make matters worse, the mechanical voice of Eric was heard which said

“Vinod, congratulations for getting a personal coach. System is going to be upgraded in account of getting a new coach and so you cannot use me for the next twenty four hours. Thank You.”