God Of football

Chapter 21: Changes and Growth

Izan woke up feeling very refreshed. He was feeling good as the piece of news he had heard the day before was good enough to make they day of any young footballer in Spain. He hadnʼt yet told his mum about the his callup to the Spain under 17s.

After a bit of deliberation he decided to break the news to her later. Izan freshened up and went down for breakfast. It was a bit lively than usual as Hori was being chatty than always.

After breakfast,the family of three sat down to relax. They were joined a few minutes later by Olivia.

A few hours had passed since Olivia came. Both Izan and Olivia had planned to go out today but had to put that off as it started to rain a few minutes before they had gotten ready.

The youth season had been completed with valencia topping the group and qualifying for the ʼCopa de campeones de juvenilʼ tournament.

Izan was looking at his phone when Olivia came back from the kitchen. She saw Izan staring too much at the phone and asked ”Why are you staring at the phone so much” while sitting down.

”Oh Nothing. Just checking the teams that qualified for the cup ” Izan said whiles looking at the information displayed on his phone.

It showed the the teams that would be playing in the competition alongside Valencia U19s.

List.

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Deportivo u19

Barcelona u19

Valencia u19

Real Madrid u19

Athletic club u19

Las palmas u19

Sevilla u19

Rc celta u19

Izan stared at the list as he saw the teams on it. It was going to be a tough competition with various youth teams of top clubs like Barca, Real Madrid and Atletico de Madrid being in the matchups.

Izan however felt the urge to prove his worth against these top academies. He wanted to test himself against the very best and couldnʼt wait to get the competition started.

Olivia who saw how wide Izan was grinning couldnʼt help but smile. She had yet to tell Izan that she would be leaving for the university soon.

She felt a tinge of sadness as their meeting was ending on a short note.

Izan left Olivia and went to his room for a bit as it rained for a while and Izan had to put off his daily task until it stopped or at least it subsided a bit.

He had yet to check his system for the day. Izan summoned his system and looked through the personal information hub. He was satisfied to see the number of stat points and decided to use them.

Before he could go through with his plan, the system sent him a notification.

[There had been a mistake inyour allocation of points by the system at the start and therefore,the system would be taking 20 stat points off your points].

Izan had a wry smile as he knew this would be coming sooner or later. He felt that he was growing a bit too fast. He had resigned to his fate but he still felt sad about the points.

He saw that the message had not ended and he continued to read the rest.

[Hostʼs stat point from daily task has been reduced to 1 stat point per session and the training days are now from Tuesday to Saturday as the system recognises that the host needs rest. Lp points are also reduced to 200 points per session].

Izan after he had finished reading decided to allocate the stat points. He opened his player information and looked at it.

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PLAYER INFO

■■■■■■■■■

NAME:[IZAN MIURA HERNANDEZ]

AGE:[14( 15 weeks TO 15)]

HEIGHT:[1.80m(5ʼ11)]

PROFESSION:[FOOTBALLER]

STATUS:[YOUTH PLAYER]

TEAM: Valencia Under-19s

SYSTEM EVALUATION: [Youth prospect]

PLAYER RATING:[66/100]

POSITION:[Wing forward/Attacking midfielder]

POTENTIAL:[87]

LEGEND POINTS:[11,500/67,000 to lv5]

STAT POINTS:[35]

STATS

■■■■

Speed:70

Body control:65

Spatial awareness: 65

Technique: 65

Shooting:66

Passing: 64

Body strength: 64

Weak foot strength: 4 stars

Skill move :4 stars

SKILLS POSSESSED

■■■■■■■■■■■■

Stepovers:85% Completion

La croqueta:50% completion

Cruyff turn:70%Completion

Roulette: 50% Completion

Traits

■■■■

: equipped

: equipped

: equipped

Izan saw the [35] stat points left and still couldnʼt come to terms with it. He sighed before continuing with his upgrade. He had seven categories to upgrade.

Izan saw that his speed stat was good and decided to ignore that for now. He also decided to ignore the shooting stat for now and focus most of the points on his passing stat. Afterall he was a midfielder.

Izan clicked on his passing stat and it opened.

Passing:64

■■■■■

Short passing:64

Long passing: 65

Crossing:65

Izan looked at it and started distributing the stat points.

His passing stat looked something like this after he was done.

Passing:64>69

■■■■■

Short passing:64>69

Long passing: 65>69

Crossing:65>69

Izan had spent [13] stat points on his passing stat alone. After he was done he decided to upgrade his body strength.

Body strength:64

■■■■■■

Stamina:68

Strength:62

Shot power:63

Izan allocated [10] stat points to this Attribute.

Body strength:68

■■■■■■

Stamina:68>70

Strength:62>66

Shot power:63>67

Izan saw that he was left with [12] stat points. He looked at his spatial awareness Attribute and the Body control Attribute and after a bit of contemplation, he decided to use them all on Spatial awareness.

Spatial Awareness: 65

■■■■■■■■■

Vision:65

Positioning: 65

Izan added [6] stat points to each of the two stats.

Spatial Awareness: 65>71

■■■■■■■■■

Vision:65>71

Positioning: 65>71

Izan after he was done, went back to his Player information hub.

PLAYER INFO

■■■■■■■■■

NAME:[IZAN MIURA HERNANDEZ]

AGE:[14( 4 months TO 15)]

HEIGHT:[1.81m(6ʼ0)]

PROFESSION:[FOOTBALLER]

STATUS:[YOUTH PLAYER]

TEAM: Valencia Under-19s

SYSTEM EVALUATION: [Youth prospect]

PLAYER RATING:[68/100]

POSITION:[Wing forward/Attacking midfielder]

POTENTIAL:[89]

LEGEND POINTS:[11,500/67,000 to lv5]

STAT POINTS:[0]

STATS

■■■■

Speed:70

Body control:65

Spatial awareness: 65>71

Technique: 65

Shooting:66

Passing: 64>69

Body strength: 64>68

Weak foot strength: 4 stars

Skill move :4 stars

SKILLS POSSESSED

■■■■■■■■■■■■

Stepovers:85% Completion

La croqueta:50% completion

Cruyff turn:70%Completion

Roulette: 50% Completion

Traits

■■■■

: equipped

: equipped

: equipped

Izan looked at his attributes and was very happy.

ʼDingʼ[ Player OVR rating has been upgraded from 66 to 68], the system sounded.

Izan looked at the message and smiled a bit. He stood up after realising it had stopped raining for a while now. He went down and saw both Olivia and Hori helping his mum in the kitchen.

He couldnʼt help but laugh at Horiʼs watery eyes that would drop a tear every now then whiles she was chopping the onions.

Izan joined them in the kitchen and helped in the cooking.

Izan played games with the 3 women after dinner before they switched to a film.

Izan and Olivia left the house for a stroll because Izan did not like the kind of film they were watching and Olivia just decided to tag along.

”So when will you be going to the university” Izan asked whiles they were walking. Neither of them had talked much up to this point and Izan decided to break the silence.

”In a few weeks time” She answered as she had decided to tell him anyway.

”So you got in huh” Izan said. ”Yeah” Olivia replied with a satisfactory smile.

Olivia had applied to the Complutense University of Madrid and had got in. Izan would also start his freshman year in high school about a 2 months later.

”So will I be seeing you still” Izan asked.

”Not that often but I guess on days that Iʼm free, I can visit” Olivia said.

”Well thatʼs good enough. I can also visit when I come to madrid” Izan said to which Oliviaʼs face lit up.

”Thats also very good” she said in a slightly high voice than normal. Izan looked at her as the night lights shone on her face. Her cheek had a rosy colour to it and overall she was stunning.

Izan was unconsciously smiling whiles looking at Olivia. It had been weird the past week as he had started staring more at her and admiring her and even now he was looking at her lovingly.

Izan didnʼt know when he had started to get these feelings and as much as he felt he knew the answer to that, he didnʼt want to ruin the relationship between the two of them.

Olivia sensing that Izan was conflicted about something just smiled. Although he had grown physically, he still had that childlike face heʼd make whenever he didnʼt understand something or how to go about something.

Olivia grabbed his hand and pulled him beside her and she started walking again without looking at Izan for the rest of the walk. Izan was a bit surprised with her action but didnʼt react and left his hand in hers.

Izan and Olivia got back home and Izan escorted her to her doorstep. Olivia looked like she wanted to say something but ultimately decided against it.

She waved at Izan again and entered her house. Izan stood there for a few minutes after she had entered her house before walking towards his.

Komi and Hori had fallen asleep with the TV on. Izan looked at both his mother and sister before smiling.

He picked up the remote and switched of the TV before going upstairs. He came down with a blanket big enough for two persons and covered them with it.

They both clenched the blanket for warmth. Izan swore in his mind to make both of them proud. Afterwards he went upstairs and washed up before surfing the net.

After about 30 minutes, he put down the phone and slept.

The following week passed by as Izanʼs routine was the same. He would wake up and complete his daily task. After that he would freshen up and eat. After spending some time with Hori, Komi and Olivia, he would go for training at the Academy. After training, its recovery then dinner before evening strolls with Olivia.

The matchups for the Copa de campeones de juvenil had been official and the Valencia u19s were meeting the Sevilla u19s. Although it was a very tough match, people expected sevilla to go through.

Izan who was not going to settle for that trained very hard in training which even made Coach Moreno a bit concerned that he might get injured.

He even had Izan checked by the senior team doctors and when the results came back it surprised the doctors.

They were very impressed by his muscle mass among other things.

Coach Moreno decided that if that was the case, then training a bit more wouldnʼt hurt.

The remaining week came by fast and it was time for the match against Sevilla u19. The match was being played in a 15,000 capacity stadium and the atmosphere was electric for an u19s game. The match would start at 4:00 and the stadium looked jam packed.

Izan felt the atmosphere during the Warm-Ups. Whiles one the pitch he looked around for a bit and finally spotted his mother,together with his sister and Olivia.

He waved at them after spotting them and they also seemed to spot him as they also waved back.

Izan after he completed his warmup went inside the dressing room to take a bath before the match. After that, Coach Moreno explained the tactical aspects of the game .

Very soon the players found themselves in the tunnel. Izan looked around and spotted the Sevilla u19 captain. He lookes at him and thought he might have some ability to be captain so he used the snooping function on him

PLAYER INFO

■■■■■■■■■

NAME:[JORGE MENDES]

AGE:[18( recently turned 18)]

HEIGHT:[1.87m(6ʼ2)]

PROFESSION:[FOOTBALLER]

STATUS:[YOUTH PLAYER]

TEAM: Sevilla u19

SYSTEM EVALUATION: [indispensable to the Sevilla u19s]

PLAYER RATING:[65/100]

POSITION:[Centre back]

POTENTIAL:[85]

STATS

■■■■

Speed:56

Body control:67

Spatial awareness: 68

Technique: 67

Shooting:56

Passing: 66

Body strength: 74

Weak foot strength: 3 stars

Skill move :2 stars

Izan nodded whiles looking at his stats.

The officials initiated the pleasantries and the players came out of the tunnel.

After about 5 minutes later,they stood on the pitch with a whistle in the mouth of the referee.

*********

Fweeeeeeee

The stadium which had been a bit quiet erupted into cheers right after the referee blew the whistle to start the match.