Sweet Sixteen

February 06 2013

Amani woke up on the morning of February 6th expecting it to be just another training day. He'd mentioned his birthday to a few teammates in passing, but hadn't made a big deal of it. Birthdays in professional football were usually low-key affairs - a cake in the canteen, a few congratulations, and back to business.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

The first sign that something was different came when he arrived at the training ground and found the car park unusually full. Not just the first-team players' cars, but vehicles he recognized as belonging to academy staff and youth players.

"That's strange," he murmured to himself, checking his phone to make sure he hadn't missed a message about a special training session.

As he walked toward the main building, the doors burst open and what seemed like the entire Utrecht organization poured out, led by Mark van der Maarel carrying a massive cake shaped like a football.