The Story Of A Young Striker

Chapter 9: The New Season Begins

I am so excited for the start of the new season. The club coaches have told me that they expect me to move between the Under-19 team, the Under-21 team and the first team. They said that I will spend most of my time in the first team, however, if the other teams need help, I will join them and play a few games unless I am in the first team squad. They have also said that my playing time will be managed because I am still young and that I could see myself spending a fair bit of time playing for the Under-19s and Under-21s. 

However, for now, I was in the first team and man, how good it felt to be there again. Even though my previous time in the first team in my old club was pretty "bad", I was still happy that it gave me some experience about what could happen and how to stay in favor of the manager and not get kicked out of the club again. 

My last good news was that I had signed my first professional contract. It was a contract which paid me $ 30,000 a week, which was good, but was still measly compared to the salaries of other pro athletes, such as Shakes and El Matador, who received about $1,000,000 a week or even more than that. To put into perspective, some of my teammates in the first team were receiving close to $ 120,000 a week, which was 4 times more than I was getting. However, I know that if I can do good, other teams will be able to take notice of me and the fact that my contract includes a release clause of $10,000,000 will not go unnoticed. This will force Lokomotiv to either give me a new contract or lose me after a few games, as the transfer window is still open and clubs can activate my release clause at any time. 

However, the first game of the Super League season was approaching and my oh my, were we facing a big team. We were facing the red blasters themselves, Supa Strikas, the energetic and lively team who had amassed a fortune by winning the past five Super Leagues, the past four Inter-Planetary Cups and by winning the past three Inter-Galactic Cups. 

For those who don't know what I am talking about, the Super League is a league comprised of the best teams from each continent. Teams play each other home and away and the winner of the Super League qualifies for the Super Cup Final, which is a knockout cup available to only the top three teams in the Super League every year, while the second and third placed teams in the League play two legs at a neutral ground and the winner of that match faces the winner of the Super League. 

To qualify for the Inter-Planetary Cup, you need to win the Super League or the Super Cup and in the event any club wins both of them, the runners up in both the Super League and the Cup qualify for the Inter-Planetary Cup when usually, only the winners of the Cup and League qualify. The Inter-Planetary Cup has the winners of the Super League and Cup of all the 8 planets in the galaxy battle to qualify for the Inter-Galactic Cup.

Our Universe has 8 Galaxies, which means that 8 clubs, the winner of the Inter-Planetary Cup from their respective system, battle to win the Inter-Galactic Cup. 

Anyway, back to the match. I was not in the starting eleven for this match. In fact, I was not even in the matchday squad. I was one of the four players cut from the squad. I was a bit surprised as I had been told that I was in the squad. I went to ask the coach why I was not in the squad and he mentioned that because I did not have the minimum weight to play in the Super League, I would have the play the first half of the season in the Under-19 and Under-21 teams. My coach told me not to be discouraged by this but to be encouraged and spurred on. He also told me to be more alert next time, and although he mentioned that it was partly his fault, he told me that, from next time, I had to read all the guidelines and get myself ready for the specific competition. 

I said alright, went to the club's training ground and watched the match from there. I was in good spirits and was given more happiness by being told that I could play in the Under-21 Super League match against Sa Ming, the other team that had wanted to get me as a young player for them. 

During the match, I scored three goals and assisted another three as we ripped apart Sa Ming. My first two goals were chips while my last goal was a volley. All my three assists came from set pieces. The first one came from a right side corner kick, the second from a left side corner kick and the last from a free kick.

After the match, I was very tired, so as soon as I finished eating dinner, I went to sleep.