My eyes flutter open and the first thing I see is a clown mask. "Aah!", I scream. Wright takes it off whilst laughing. "Sorry, c'mon you slept in a bit I had to", he struggles to speak due to his laughter. I sigh and then get dressed into a white hoodie and black jogger bottoms. I walk out of my room and walk with the rest of the bunch to eat before the match.
As I am eating my phone buzzes, I check it to see that my parents have bought tickets to my game.
Time Skip
I am warming up with the team and see the big crowds in the stands alot of their eyes on the young player infront of them, that player being me. I gulp and continue on what I am doing. It's time for us to get ready so we jog through the tunnel and get match ready. During this Mark tells us what he expects from us and that we need to work the ball around a bit better.
I jog back through te tunnel and sit on the bench next to Jay and behind Van Ewijk who is here to watch. I think to myself, 'I have to hit him with the oldest trick in the book' I tap his right shoulder and he looks in that direction he notices nothing there and turns around at me and chuckles. I laugh back, my plan executed perfectly. The game kicked off and we made a few attacks but lacked a goal but where solid defensively.
That was until, Mark told me to warm up, I got up and jogged up and down the line doing the occasional stretch. As I'm doing so, murmurs are behind me they likely are questioning if im coming on. A slight knock of a foul stops the play off the game and Mark tells me im coming on. My heart starts thumping around in my chest as the board i lifted it has in green 25 and in red 28. Eccles starts jogging towards me and high fives me. I jog onto the pitch and go at rb and tell the player who was their to go where Eccles was.
A roar of claps is heard across the stadium probably so they can see this new young lad. From the free kick the ball is played to me short I take two touches out and see Wright making a run at the back post so I whip my foot around the ball. The ball soars through the air and lands on Wrights head. He knocks it past the Oxford goalkeeper and scores. Just like that I got an assist a minute into my debut. I jog to Wright who tells me to stand there. He sits down and pretends to use a controller and in the process I move about as if he is controlling me. After the celebrations, I tell him that it was a silly celebration he says nothing but chuckles.
The game kicks off and their winger is dribbling against me. They try to run along the outside of me but I shoulder barge him and win the ball. I roll it with the sole of my boot turning and playing a pass into Ben Sheaf. I then make a run down the wing. I never have ran this fast it must be due to the adrenaline in my body. I pace past their lb and attenpt to whip it in when I am tackled and it goes out for our throw. Claps are heard yet again due to the ball now high up the pitch. I pick up the ball but everybody is tightly marked except for one. Nobody expected this. I charge up a long throw into the middle of the box for Wright who smashes it past the keeper. 2-0 and I have two assists. He performs a knee slide and I run off to celebrate with him. "Well in Kiddo", he says to me. I smile and then look up.
Jay! He is coming onto the pitch for... Sakamoto. The game has a few chances at both ends but it just finishes at 2-0.I go up to Wright and we talk and he is given the man of the match trophy. He also gets an after match interview which he invites me to. We walk over and the interview asks some questions. "16 years old and you seem to have atleast 30 years of experience. How do you feel?" "Well for starters I am buzzing I never imagined I would be here today so that I am greatful for", I respond. "And Wright, getting a brace assisted by a kid. How do you feel?" "Obviously happy to be scoring for my club." "Also, very proud of this kiddo", he says whilst patting my back. To which I smile.
Whilst walking back, Mark pulls me over to talk to me. "That was incredible kiddo" 'Kiddo' seemed to be my nickname by the majority. "I may have a contract possibly for you as that was really a good performance." My jaw drops to the floor and rolls away, never to be found again. These 5 months have gone from being a random kid to being possibly a footballer star this is unimaginable to anybody ."Are you serious?" "Affirmative", he responds.
I continue speechless for 5 seconds until everything went black...
YOU ARE READING
Tenacious Tackles
AdventureA normal kid playing Saturday league level until everything changes. From playing in his back garden to playing at Wembley does Karl have what it takes to go from a nobody to world known. P.S. I wont write about every game most likely like 6 ish ma...
