Chapter 1: What Did You Just Say?

It was a universally known fact that in the world of football, the aspiring young players from football Academies, mostly the bigger ones, had a better chance of getting to play on the professional stage one day and prove their skills.

That raised a very important question. What about the young talents who lacked the privilege and resources to be at a football Academy?

Their chance of getting to make it to the professional stage one day wasn't exactly non-existent but it was very slim.

This was why the football federation decided to do something, something that would increase the scope of finding worthy football talents away from those already in football Academies.

This was what brought about the birth of the inter-continental high school football tournaments.

A competition in which all the continents of the world had to hold every two years in their respective continents.

Africa had just concluded their tournament in the middle of July, throwing the baton over to Europe, which was going to start its competition next year as its respective countries were already preparing for the process of choosing their representing high schools through the qualification matches.

If there was a ranking for people who were looking forward to the tournament the most, Adrian Nero might probably be at the top of that list with no competition.

He was so excited about it to the extent that he managed to convince his school to organize high school friendly matches for them against other schools.

The current captain of Ravenwood Academy, Adrian Nero, was a seventeen-year-old boy with brown hair and emerald-green eyes.

Once declaring himself as one who was living to play football, he had a perfectly fit body with sturdy-looking legs.

With the school term about to end, Ravenwood Academy had played a couple of friendly matches with good results.

Today, they were going to be playing their last friendly match, and for some reason, they were playing against a school from another country.

Knowing that they were from another country, Adrian expected them to be a tough matchup compared to the previous teams.

Unfortunately, he was met with great disappointment.

The hot sun was beaming down on the home pitch of Ravenwood Academy, which was currently occupied by eleven young players in black and the other eleven in lemon green.

Anywhere with good ears could hear the players panting on the pitch, most of them sweating and unable to run much anymore.

Well, it would be fair to say that the fatigue hit the ones in green the hardest, as Ravenwood High School still had a few players who looked quite energetic on the pitch.

One of them was racing down the right flank with the ball a player in green behind him, trying to catch up with all the stamina he had left.

"Over here!" Adrian screamed as he ran past the halfway line.

Listening to his captain, the player sent the ball flying over to Adrian, who was about twenty-five yards away from the goalpost.

Bringing the ball down with his chest, Adrian spotted two opposing players on their way to cut him out from both sides.

Driving forward at full speed, he was able to get through from the middle before the two could do anything to him, kicking up a bit of dust from the spots left uncovered by the grass.

He didn't stop after that and kept moving forward as the opposing team's defender rushed out to stop him.

Getting past one player was no problem for Adrian but he had no intention of taking this one on.

Just before he could get to the D box, the youngster pulled his left foot back and fired from long range.

Most goalkeepers of their level wouldn't be able to do anything much against a shot that powerful let alone one that was quite exhausted.

He could only watch as the ball flew past him, hitting the top right corner before falling into the goalpost.

A bright smile appeared on Adrian's face at that moment as he raised his right hand folded into a fist.

"Adrian my baby!" One of his teammates screamed as he grabbed hold of his shoulders to jump on his back.

"I told you to stop calling me that," Adrian muttered with a low grumbling as he slumped forward a bit.

"This match is a bit too easy." Another teammate said as he walked up to the two.

They turned to the goalpost at that moment to see the goalkeeper sitting on the ground with his gaze down.

Calling it too easy might actually be an understatement as the goal Adrian just scored was their eighth goal of the match without any response and the captain's sixth goal of the match.

Adrian's response to the comments from his teammates was a soft sigh before he turned around.

Ravenwood Academy might have been able to score a nine and, most possibly, a ten.

However, the match had to come to an end at the seventieth minute, which was the standard for high school matches.

It was just a friendly match but the players from the visiting high school were not very pleased about that result nonetheless.

It was written all over their faces as they walked out of the pitch.

The Ravenwood players, on the other hand, could be seen standing on the side of the pitch.

They were standing around their captain, who was sitting on the ground, untying his laces.

"Hey, Adrian, what do you think about today's opponent?" One of his teammates asked.

"I think they had a couple of promising players, especially in their midfield, but they lacked cohesion and understanding. Other than their lack of any tactical they don't seem to have anyone with a coaching or leadership presence." He articulated.

"I doubt they'll be able to get through their Nation's qualifiers."

"That's not necessarily true." Adrian retorted. "Big teams sometimes lose terribly like Barcelona losing eight-two to Bayern."

His teammates could feel the sarcasm held by those words despite Adrian not sounding sarcastic in the slightest.

"So, you're saying it's a matter of the teams they face back in their country?"

"No." Adrian shook his head. "It's a matter of whether they choose to improve after this. Either way, it's none of our concern."

"Yeah, we have a tournament to win."

"We'll have to keep improving if we want that to happen." The captain smiled.

'One way or the other, we have to lift that trophy, and doing that with this Ravenwood team is far impossible.' He thought, the grin on his face growing wider.

His dream of winning the tournament with Ravenwood Academy was something he always believed he could accomplish as long as he remained at the Academy.

Who would have thought that he would receive a very devastating news just after getting home.

"Your Dad will start working on a three-year project back at Sendan, so we'll be moving back home. You and your sister will have to transfer schools."

His mother had an awkward smile on her face as she said all that while he stood there gaping at her.

"What did you just say?"