Chapter 861: Community Event: Football Tournament I

The day after Tottenham’s game against West Ham, the club had a community event for orphanages in North London.

Despite their already tight schedule, considering it was almost Christmas, events like these couldn’t be avoided.

A few players like Harry Kane who had been playing week in, week out could be absent if they really wanted to, but the club expected everyone to be there.

Even Harry Kane who, Son, Jason, Moura, and Bergwijn who would be within their rights to be absent due to already heavy matchtime or because they were just recovering from injury were present and the only person absent was Romero who was still injured.

It was an event organized by the club in collaboration with the city, but in the end it was still a media event and what the players really had to do was show up, go through the motions, take pictures and then leave.

However segments of the event required participation from the players.

The event was majorly a Christmas event where gifts would be given to all the children, but it was also a sport event and a small tournament had even been organized.

They picked 40 children who said they played football and split them into eight teams of five players.

Eight players from the Tottenham squad were then chosen to coach a team each and each side would battle it out for the chance to win the competition.

The final prize was PS5 console that the kids would take back to their orphanages.

As one of the coaches picked, Jason quickly got friendly with his squad of five.

He hadn’t played coach before, but after playing under quite a lot of coaches, he had an idea of what he was to do.

After getting a basic idea of what his team could do, Jason began arranging their formation.

Since they were five a side, that meant one goalkeeper and four field players.

In goal was a kid named Tim, two defenders named Jim and Dim, one midfielder named Martha... Girls were also involved in the tournament.

Finally a striker named Madara.

Jason had asked again when the kid told him his name, but the kid said that was just his nickname and it was what he preferred.

’It’s only the name of the coldest motherfu**er in cinematic history after all,’

"If your ball skills are as cold as your name, then we might already have this in the bag," Jason joked and the kid replied,

"Trust me coach,"

"Okayyyyy, okayyy," Jason raised an eyebrow in amusement.

A kid barely over ten was asking Jason to trust him, but despite the absurdity, Jason wasn’t going to deny him that trust.

Since they were still kids, Jason couldn’t get to technical with them so he only gave them a shape and told them how he wanted them to play.

Jason wanted the two defenders sitting wide and the single midfielder sitting in the front of them in the center, making a triangle.

In front of this triangle and behind it would be the striker, Madara, and the goalkeeper, Tim.

"The plan is simple, we work as a team. There is no I in team," 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"Whatever you do, you do as a team and you cover your positions," Jason said to them, choosing to watch how they played first before giving any more specific instructions.

"What if we can dribble everyone, like you?" Martha suddenly asked.

"I can’t dribble everyone," Jason laughed.

"Even if I could, football is still a team sport. We all need teammates in life, not only on the pitch," Jason said, patting her head.

"Alright everyone, I am someone who likes to win and I think you guys are like me, so here’s what will happen," Jason’s voice dropped lower.

"If we win the tournament, I’ll get each of you guys anything you want for Christmas," Jason said with a sneaky smile. There was no way to motivate kids other than with gifts.

"Anything?" The five kids eyes began shining.

"Well, not anything unreasonable, but yeah, anything," Jason grinned.

The five kids were pumped up now, their eyes shining as their minds ran wild, imagining what they could ask Jason for if they win.

’They’re ready now,’ Jason nodded to himself and sent them to the field.

Since the event was taking place at one of the pitches in Hotspur way, the pitch was split into two to allow two matches to go on at once.

The match format was one of three minutes per half and if no one won after the normal time, then they would go straight to penalties.

Jason’s team’s first opponent was Ollie Skip’s team and the game began in the earnest while Son’s team went against Alli’s team on the other side of the pitch.

Jason and Ollie stood on the sidelines, watching as the game kicked off in earnest.

Jason’s team kicked off the game first and Ollie’s players moved forward to press.

The ball was passed among Jason’s players until the ball was with Tim in goal.

Not stopping the press, two players rushed at Tim, but Jason’s goalkeeper already picked out Madara in front and sent the ball forward, flying at the team’s striker.

Madara connected the ball with his head, sending it towards Martha who stopped the ball from bouncing.

The Ollie’s kids on seeing Martha with the ball, relaxed, believing they could bully her off the ball, but as the first person stretched out his leg, Martha pulled the ball back and then pushed it between his legs in return.

"Eh?" Jason stared in surprise as Martha didn’t stop after dribbling the first person, going on to dribble one more before sending the ball to Madara who tapped the ball comfortably past the goalkeeper.

"Hey yo, what did you do to those kids?" Ollie stared, surprised that his team was already losing the game, less than a minute into the game.

"I guess I’m just a pretty good coach. You just never know innit?" Jason shrugged with a grin.

"Whatever," Ollie rolled his eyes at Jason and rallies his teammates from the sidelines.

The game resumed again and just before the third minute mark, Ollie’s team managed to squeeze a ball past Tim, equalizing the game.

The kids stepped off the field for a little rest while the managers discussed with them.

"I’ve watched how you guys played and you all played well. If you keep this up, then we will win this game easy," Jason first told the kids as they sat down to rest for a bit.

"However that’s not all that you have to do,"

"Madara you’re doing well moving around looking for a goal scoring chance, but sometimes try to help in the midfield. Martha cannot deal with all those guys alone,"

"Martha, well done, you’re killing it,"

"Jim, Dim, you can push up and support these two from the sides," Jason went into a little detail, using his hands to gesture to what he meant, doing his best to make them understand what he wanted.

He didn’t know that a camera was trained on him right at that exact moment, capturing him describing tactics and looking every bit the tactician he wasn’t sure he was.

After the break, Jason’s team went back on the field to finish off the game with clear instructions on how to dismantle their opponents.

Martha was the first one to score this time, pouncing on a loose ball, dodging the last defender and slotting the ball past the goalkeeper fo give her team the lead.

Dim then finished off the game when he pounced on a throw-in fought off his marker and hit the ball at the goal.

On the sidelines, Jason celebrated with the kids as they ran to him after winning the first game.

"Good win guys," Jason high fived everyone and told them to rest as the second group took to the field to play their own match.

They watched the second group play their games and were soon back on the field for the semi final game of the tournament.

This time it was Jason’s team against Eric Dier’s team and Jason wasn’t left disappointed by this players performance.

A landslide victory of 3 goals to nil was already enough to keep a smile on Jason’s face but with how spectacular the goals were Jason was now wondering why these kids weren’t at a football academy yet.

Guessing it all chalked down to their familial situation, he began having some thoughts of his own on the side.

Tim who was playing as a goalkeeper wasn’t an exceptional goalkeeper, but Jason’s instructions for him to step up and act as support revealed his talent as an exceptional ball holder with a good physique and an eye for long passes, somewhat like Bonucci.

Jim and Dim weren’t exceptionally good defensively either, but their ball handling skills and innate positioning skills made them a huge help and a huge threat when they moved up the field.

Clearly they had potential and while Jim was more attacking than defensive, Dim was the opposite and their abilities helped Jason’s team find a balance between attacking and defending.

Martha was perhaps the most surprising player to him. She was amazingly technical and her abilities seemed very advanced for her age.

Due to being a girl, she didn’t have a physical advantage against the boys, but she had surprisingly high stamina that helped her keep up and her quick,dainty, but sharp movements made her opponents unable to stop her.

On top of all that, she was unselfish and knew her role was mostly creative and she was damn good at it, her above average passing able to get the ball into the right place after she used her movements to create space.

Finally... Madara.

The kid was really as cold as his name suggested.

His obsession for goals was something Jason hadn’t seen in some professional strikers.

The kid was always looking to get into dangerous areas to score and though his eye for the offside line needed training, his skills more than made up for it.

He was fast, he always threw himself at the ball, and surprisingly, he could use both feet.

He had scored all three goals in the second game, two of them assisted by Martha and the third assisted by Jim.