Tryouts (1)

Alexis finally managed to get rid of Trey when he got to his house. He immediately ran up the stairs and crashed on his bed. He thought he hated school in London, but Trey alone was making him wish that he never left.

After taking a few minutes to calm himself down, he thought about all the things that Trey had told him about the tryouts. After further thought, he realized that it wouldn't be a bad idea to join the school team.

When he was at London, he was sponsored by Real Stars Academy. His mom basically didn't have to pay for anything. The only thing she spent money on was his soccer boots and occasionally buying him one or two soccer accessories.

In Birmingham, he wasn't known by anyone, and it wasn't as if he could just go knocking on the doors of various academies begging them to give him a scholarship. Playing matches for the school team was a good way to get the attention of scouts. He knew that any academies organized cup competitions so that they would be able to scout young grassroot talents.

Even if he had any doubts at that point, everything was dispelled when he heard an all too familiar bell chime inside his head.

|Ding! Host has been given a new mission|

|Ding! Mission: qualify for the school team|

|Reward: +5 physique|

Alexis stared at the notification in front of him for a few seconds. It was almost as if the system knew that he needed to work on the most at that moment, it scared him a bit but he decided not to think deeply about it. It was for the best.

***

A week later, Alexis walked down to the school pitch. He was wearing an all black outfit, a black top, black sleeves on his arms, black trousers and black hoes sticking up to his chin. The only thing on his person that wasn't black was his bright red soccer boots.

In the middle of the school pitch, a bunch of boys formed a circle around a middle aged man who was visibly sizing up everyone that bothered to show up. He looked at Alexis and frowned for a bit then directed his gaze elsewhere.

"Seems like the coach likes me already". Alexis muttered sarcastically.

After a few more minutes, the coach ordered the security to stop letting people in. Enough people had come already. He could count at least sixty boys here and he had to siphon twenty of them to make the school squad, minus the guaranteed slots of course.

"Alright lads, you're all here because to some extent, you think you can play football". The coach started addressing the people that were present. "The key word in that sentence is 'think'. Whether or not you actually can, that's up to me to decide".

He looked around a bit and didn't bother to hide his disappointed gaze when he realized that physicality wasn't the strong forte of the people that showed up so far.

"Being honest, most of you lot don't look like you're footballer material. But an Argentine alien by the name of Leonardo Massi has taught me not to judge a book by its cover so thanks to ghat short bastard, I'll be giving all you skinny shits a chance as well". The coach said. He gestured to everyone present to follow him towards the far left side of the pitch. There were three other coaches waiting for him there.

"Alright, this tryouts is going to be according to your position". The coach said. "I will be handing the midfielders among you lot, and they will handle the defenders, forwards and goalkeepers in the order which they are standing. So line up in front of the coaches according to your position".

To Alexis's dismay, the bulk of the people that came to tryout were midfielders. It wouldn't have been an exaggeration to say that over half of the people present were midfielders.

The coach moved the midfielders away from where they were lined up and moved them to another section of the field that had football cones closely stacked to each other.

"This is the first exercise, and it's aimed at weeding out the idiots that came here to waste my time". The coach said. "Dribble between the cones to the other side and back. If I say pass you money behind me, if you fail then fuck off".

"Any questions?" The coach asked. He didn't leave any time for someone to ask a question before he continued talking. "Great let's start there".

He threw a ball to the person in front of the line. The person fumbled for a bit before finally stopping the ball.

"Oi! Fuck off". The coach said immediately. "If you came even control a soft ball like that then you're fucking useless. Leave!"

Everywhere was dead silence after that little indecent. The person who fumbled with controlling the ball could only blame himself as he walked outside.

"Next!"

"Fuck off!"

"Ooh... Nice one. You pass!"

"My grandma could dribble faster than you. Fuck off!"

"Pass!"

Soon if wS Alexis's then. The coach threw the ball to him and he balanced it on his ankle and let it down slowly.

The coach nodded slightly and blew his whistle .

Alexis sprinted towards the cones and skillfully dribbled around them. This kind of a thing couldn't be considered difficult for him anymore. In fact, back at Real Stars, that was one of their warm up exercises so he was quite skilled at it.

The coach gave Alexis a faint nod when returned with the ball. "You pass!"

Alexis smiled and went to wait with the rest of the people who passed behind the coach. While he was waiting, he couldn't help but feel sorry for the boy who got kicked out atbthe beginning.

After the first round finished, the coach brought them to the front of a goal post.

"Alright lads, listen up..."

A/N:

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