The Greatest of All Time

Chapter 75 - Feeling Triumphant

Immediately after the final whistle, Zachary and his teammates left the stadium. They didn't even change out of their kits first.

It was already getting close to 1:00 PM by the time their match with ADO Den Haag ended. The other semifinal between VfB Stuttgart and Tottenham youth would be starting at 2:00 PM sharp. The two squads had already occupied the dressing rooms to begin preparations for their match. That left NF Academy players with no place to change out of their match gear.

The squad trekked out of the Skonto Indoor Stadium, still clad in their sweat-laden jerseys. They walked through the brightly-lit tunnel to the gate with a swagger in their steps, looking like they owned the entire world, chattering on about the match highlights.

Zachary, too, walked with a Cheshire cat's grin outlined on his face. His mind went over some of the defining moments of the game. His team had managed to qualify for the final and was only one step away from becoming champions.

He was only a step away from earning a sizeable sum of Juju-points—plus a tournament title that was rare in the youth careers of many professional players.

He couldn't help but recall some bits of his previous life that seemed to be from a century ago.

In his previous life, his grandma had passed on when he was only seventeen, leaving him struggling to keep himself in school. He'd then dropped out and started searching for a local club to take him on. But, he'd still failed due to the recurrent injuries that had started when he got involved in an accident two years prior.

He had then fallen into a period of depression, taking the local brew and drugs on a regular basis to escape his problems. His sports career seemed over, and many had thought him a gone case. However, in a lucky twist of fate, he'd managed to make it to the pro level at TP Mazembe after receiving help from a retired Congolese national team player.

Arthur Afobe, the player in question, had shown him a way to overcome his recurring ankle injury problems by playing smarter. He had managed to develop the unique playing-style of his previous life by following that advice. He had learned to do more with the ball with a single touch rather than running through defenders. That's how he'd managed to develop his high-level ball control and passing ability—two attributes that continued to serve him well even in his new life.

He had been able to sit in the defensive midfield and unleash defense-splitting passes to help his team win games without running around excessively. He had been akin to an upcoming Maestro, showing a lot of promise due to his tactical vision on the pitch. That was the reason TP Mazembe had offered him a contract, even when knowing he was—riddled with both injury and addiction problems.

Nonetheless, he had wasted the opportunity by relapsing back to his old habits. A glass of wine, a little bit of Cannabis sativa was how his fall restarted. And before he could benefit from his success, his career ended abruptly. What followed were events he would rather not remember.

But just when he thought it was all over, he had been given a second chance. Mysteriously, he traveled back in time accompanied by a system, to a time where he managed to grab on to an opportunity.

From then, he had worked relentlessly to achieve his previous life's goal of becoming a pro player in a European league.

Things couldn't have worked out any better. He now felt a deep sense of bliss on the field since he no longer feared injuring a weak ankle. Due to some perks of the system, he was more resilient, more agile, and more clinical with the ball than he had ever been in his previous life.

With his unique playing style, he had managed to secure the promise of a contract from a European team—Rosenborg before turning eighteen. And to top it all off, his youth team had just qualified for the Riga Cup finals. Zachary was on cloud nine.