God Of football

Chapter 5: Who Is He[edited]

Komi pulled over at the side of the entrance of the Valencia International Youth Academy before turning off the engine.

She kissed Izan on the forehead and told him to just relax and have fun. Komi was glad she could help her kids in whatever endeavours they wanted to pursue.

”Now go and show them what youʼve got, Miura,”, Komi said with a smile, as she didnʼt know the current status of Izan at the club.

”I will mum,” izan said before getting off. Komi drove off, and Izan stood at the entrance for a while, seemingly in a trance, before Mikel, Izanʼs friend at the academy, came and smacked him on the back, waking him up from his trance.

”Ow, what was that for, ” Izan asked in Spanish. ”What are you standing here for? Letʼs go”, Mikel said. Izan shook his head before walking alongside Mikel as they both went in.

Both Izan and Mikel changed into the training kits before they both went out onto the pitch.

The training drills were already set up but there were not a lot of players since it was a bit early.

Izan was happy with what he saw and decided to do his own specified training before the original drills started.

Mikel looked at Izan doing his drills and said,” Bro, do you want to get tired even before the drills start?”.

Izan, teeming with stamina, said it wouldnʼt affect him during the actual drills.

After a while, the youth trainer, Mr. Oryazbal, came onto the pitch. ”Alright, boys gather around”, he said as most of the players arrived.

”Well, this is the start of a new season, and I expect nothing but the utmost best from you in both training and matches, and this goes for both regular starters and the bench”, he said, mainly looking at Izan and some of the other kids who were at the bottom of the rankings.

”Now, as you can see, some of the players who were with us last year are no longer here as they have been promoted to the under-19 side.

Because of the performances they put up, they were called up, and so I hope you keep it in mind while training that even during the season If you perform well and well enough, you can also be promoted,” Mr Oryazabal said.

While he was still speaking Izan stood there with conviction and promised himself that he would be promoted this year because, with the system coupled with his efforts, he could not fail even if he wanted to

”Itʼs uphill from here on, ” Ian said before concentrating on what Mr. Oryazabal was saying. ”Now defenders should go to the defensive coach, and so should the forwards and midfield also go to their respective coaches”, Mr Oryazabl spoke again.

After a few seconds, the players split off to their respective coaches, all except for Izan, who stood still. When Mr Oryazabal saw this, he asked,” Iza,n, why are you standing still?ll ”.

”Coach, I would like to discuss a position change with you,” Izan said with a blank face. ”Huh, a position change,”, Mr Oryazabal said. ”Yes sir” Izan responded. ”Iʼm assuming you want to transition into a winger” Mr Oryazabal asked.

”Kind of,” Izan said. ”What do you mean kind of. Do you want to change or not”. Mr Oryazabal said with his voice raising a bit.

”Well, sir, I do want to change to winge,r, but I also want to learn as an attacking midfielder,r”, Izan replied.

”Oh, well I wonʼt ask any more questions, but you can choose where you want to go first”, he said while walking away.

With this, Izan went to the midfield coach, who was surprised to see a new face. He called Izan forward and asked why he was there as he had always seen him training with the full-backs of the defence department.

”Iʼm here because of a position change, coach”, Izan said as he looked at the midfield coach, Mr. Garcia, who was staring at at Izan like a position change in football was taboo.

”Well then, welcome to midfield 101”, he said, drawing a bit of a laugh from the other players. He made izan go and join the rest of the team and made them warm up for 15 minutes.

Coach Garcia looked at the whiteboard on his hands and said, ”Okay, lads, as always, this is what weʼre gonna do”. He started listing the training drills to be done for the day.

Drills

• Warm-Up (15 minutes) ...

• Passing Drills (20 minutes)

• Ball Control Drills (20 minutes)

• Shooting Drills (20 minutes)

• Defensive Drills (20 minutes)

• Positioning and Tactical Understanding (20 minutes)

• Fitness Training (20 minutes)

• Cool Down (15 minutes

The players listened attentively and the training for the midfield began. Izan stood there a bit tense because he felt he might not do well, but just then, Max spoke.

”[system recommends that host relax as your heart rate has gone up several notches. If the host is still nervous, he can use the snooping function to check the ratings and info of the other players]”.

”Huh, snooping function,”, Izan asked, as he had not seen any new system functions aside from the system shop. He called out the system(telepathically tho).

The blue screen materialised in front of him before he started navigating his way through. He looked for a few seconds before finding it.

He pressed on it and the system asked which person it was to scan. Izan looked for the nearest player and *swish* a blue light from his iris scanned the player although the player didnʼt seem to notice or rather couldnʼt. The playerʼs info is displayed after a few seconds.

PLAYER INFO

■■■■■■■■■

NAME: HUÉVES RAMOS

AGE:16( 1 week TO 17)

HEIGHT:1.82m(6ʼ1)

PROFESSION:FOOTBALLER

STATUS:YOUTH PLAYER

SYSTEM EVALUATION:A decent youth

PLAYER RATING:55/100

Position: Central midfielder

Potential:77

STATS

■■■■

Pace:57

Body control:52

Spatial awareness: 55

Technique: 57

Shooting:55

Passing: 57

Body strength:57

Weak foot strength: 3 stars

Skill move :3 stars

SKILLS POSSESSED

■■■■■■■■■■■■■

Stepovers:40% Completion

Roulette: 5% Completion

Izan saw the playerʼs stats and was a bit surprised. ”From my stats”, it seems Iʼm better than him Izan said, a bit relieved. He saw a player standing a bit on the far side suddenly and had an idea. He walked up to the player and started a conversation ”Hi”.

The player turned and saw Izan before responding, ”Hi, Iʼm Jose”, he said with a smile. ”Izan ”, Izan said before asking, ”Who in the team would you say is the best midfielder? ”.

Although Izan was mostly not used in games after his performances, he would still stay to watch some of the matches and had a rough idea of the good midfielders. Jose thought for a while, then said, ”Itʼs gotta be Herrera”.

”Whoʼs that?” Izan asked before Jose pointed to a blonde boy of about 5ʼ8 or 178cm who was standing with a ball between his legs with a group of the other players. Izan looked at him before using the snooping function on him

*****

PLAYER INFO

■■■■■■■■■

NAME: SOSÁ HERRERA

AGE:16( 4 weeks TO 17)

HEIGHT:1.80m(6ʼ0)

PROFESSION:FOOTBALLER

STATUS:YOUTH PLAYER

SYSTEM EVALUATION:A prospect

PLAYER RATING:60/100

Position: Central midfielder

Potential:84

STATS

■■■■

Pace:65

Body control:59

Spatial awareness: 60

Technique: 61

Shooting:57

Passing: 61

Body strength:56

Weak foot strength: 3 stars

Skill move :3 stars

SKILLS POSSESSED

■■■■■■■■■■■■

Flip flap:80% Completion

Roulette: 70%Completion

Ronaldo chops:70% Completion

”Wow, nice stats. But wait mineʼs still higher than his. Wait, does this mean Iʼm the best in the midfield? ” Izan, in his paradise, was woken up by coach Garcia, who told Izan to come and try the passing drill, which consisted of 3 sessions.

●Passing the ball to a player

● Passing the ball to the cones

● Passing the ball into the bins

Izan, a bit shocked, still walked up, feeling a bit confident. ”Now, who am I paired with?” Izan murmured, looking around before the coach pointed to a skinny boy with freckles.

Izan was tempted and used the snooping tool on him and was almost about to shout before his conscience stopped him.

This was because the player he was paired with was not a good player. With almost all his stats in the 40s with just spatial awareness in the 50s.

Izan stepped up, and the first try was to pass from 15m out to the player, with each try increasing in distance.

The ball was passed to Izan, who took a deft touch before passing the ball to Javier, who slotted the ball into the net.

”Did Javier just score?” Coach Garcia, who knew the abilities of Javier, who would miss even a clear chance, was a bit surprised and also a bit surprised by Izanʼs passing which was surprisingly good.

Even comparing it with some of the under-19s. The same continued for the other tries with izan passing the ball beautifully.

Getting a bit bold, he even did a trivela pass on the 5th attempt, which was also cooly placed in the net by Javier. ”Nice, Izan; you too, Javier ”, coach Garcia praised after they were done.

Coach Garcia pulled Javier aside after Izan had walked off and asked how he scored so effortlessly.

But he responded, ”Coach, I donʼt know, but Izanʼs passes just made scoring easier”. Coach Garcia nodded for a while before dismissing Javier.

The compliment earned Izan a bit of stares from the other players as coach Garcia was not known for giving compliments.

The passing drill ended with Izan in first place, who wrecked the bin challenge, getting 5 in 5 tries into the bin. Followed by Sosa who was not all that happy as someone had taken his beloved top spot with 4 in 5.

Jose, the boy Izan had asked a question, came in third also with 4 in 5, and this was no surprise to Izan, who had already used the snooping tool on him and found out that he had a player rating of 58.

Most of the other challenges ended with the same rankings, with only there being a change in the defensive drills as, in that department, the more defensive midfielders had taken the top spots, but Izan still managed to come 5th.

”Hey, isnʼt he that Japanese fullback,” a boy said. ”Now that you mention it is him” another added. ”But I heard he isnʼt all that good, and Iʼve seen him play a couple of times, but he wasnʼt this good”, another boy said.

Izan, who heard this conversation, smiled before walking off to the pitch where the 11 v 11 was going to take place between the regular team and the reserve team.