Bab 6: Who Is He

Komi pulled over at the side of the entrance at 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 you've got miura" Komi said with a smile as she didn't 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, izan's friend at the academy came and smacked him at the back waking him up from his trance. "Ow, what was that for " izan asked in Spanish. "What are you standing here for let's go" Mikel said . Izan shook his head before walking alongside Mikel as the both went in. Both Izan and Mikel changed into the training kits before the 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 on 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 wouldn't affect him during the actual drills.

After a while the youth trainer,Mr oryazbal came unto the pitch. "Alright boys gather around" he said as most of the players had arrived. "Well this is the start of a new season and I expect nothing but the utmost best from you in both training and in 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 the put up they were called up and so I hope you keep it in mind whiles 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 own efforts, he could not fail even if he wanted to. "It's uphill from here on " izan 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" Izan why are you standing still ".

"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. "I'm 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 winger but I also want to learn as an attacking midfielder" Izan replied. "Oho, well I won't ask anymore question but you can choose where you want to go first" he said whiles 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 here as he had always seen him training with the full backs of the defense department. "I'm 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 a taboo. "Well then welcome to midfield 101" he said drawing a bit of laughs 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 white board on his hands and said " okay lads as always this is what were 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 heat rate has gone up several notches. If 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 the system shop. He called out system(telepathically tho). The blue screen materialised infront 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 didn't seem to notice or rather couldn't. The player's info displayed after a few seconds.

PLAYER INFO

■■■■■■■■■

NAME: HUÉVES RAMOS

AGE:16( 1 week TO 17)

HEIGHT:1.82m(6'1)

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 player's stats and was a bit surprised. "From my stats" it seems I'm 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, I'm jose" he said with a smile. "Izan " Izan said before asking " who in the team would you say is the best midfielder ". Although izan mostly not used in games after his performances 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" its gotta be Herrera".

"Who's that" izan asked before jose pointed to a blonde boy of about 5'8 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(6'0)

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 mine's still higher than his. Wait does this mean I'm the best in the midfield " Izan in his own 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 sloted the ball into the net. "Did Javier just score" Coach Garcia who new the abilities of Javier who would miss even a clear chance was a bit surprised and also a bit surprised by Izan's 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 don't know but izan's 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 complements. 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 isn't he that japanese fullback" a boy said. "Now that you mention it is him"another added. "But I heard he isn't all that good and I've seen him play a couple of times but he wasn't this good" another boy said. Izan who heard this conversation smiled before walking of to the pitch where the 11 v 11 was going to take place between the regular's team and the reserve team