How James Coutinho Came To Be

The Beginning Of It All

It was just another average day for twelve year old James. James lived in Brasil. He played soccer on the streets of São Paulo. He was much better than all of his friends. James slipped into his dirty, battered old brasil jersey and his wrecked football boots. "What is the point of all this football?" Mrs. Coutinho exclaimed at the top of her voice "you will never succeed in the pitch so why even try?" James just ignored her and carried on. James walked to the pay phone outside and called his friends. they organised a match at the local pitch. On the journey to the pitch he saw a young, tired, sad man living on the streets and decided it would be nice to give the homeless person his lunch." Thank you very much" the man said "my pleasure" replied James who was hungry but felt very good about himself. James finally arrived at the run-down pitch. All of his friends were waiting for him. As usual, James was one of the captains. Straight after kick-off James hammered it into the top left corner. "GOOOOAAAAALLLLL" James' friend shouted. James had a huge smile until he noticed Bruno, the local bully was playing on the opposite team. "Crap" James muttered to himself. James was playing right wing and so was Bruno. The opponents kicked off because James had just scored, He made a great tackle and stole the ball off Bruno. He passed to his good friend Oscar, who gave it back to James. James ran down the wing, effortlessly out-skilling Bruno. He side-stepped inside then took a shot which smashed into the top left again. "Nice job you careless little slob, You put another hole in the bloody net" Bruno commented angrily. They had to postpone the game while Oscar's father came to patch up the net. While they were waiting a man in a suit with fare hair approached James, "hello there James, my name is Daniel Rodriguez but you can call me Dan, I watched you play and I was impressed. How would you like to join the Santa Fey FC youth squad?" James was speechless. "Ummmm......." Dan interrupted him "I will give you some time to think about it. Here is my card" Dan handed James a small piece of paper with a phone number on it."You look hungry, would you like to join me for lunch?"asked Daniel "I would love too. Thank you so much I am starving!" He then realised he had to abandon his friends to do so. "Just a one time thing" James thought to himself as he left his friends. James was riding in a limo on the way to a high quality, expensive restaurant