Rise of a Football God-Chapter 297: Making new friends

"Hola Sam!"

Sam grinned, looking at the young teenager. "Hola Lamine!"

"Estas… listo para… sugar?" He asked the young winger if he was ready to break a sweat, chuckling and hoping that he didn’t just say rubbish after spending the past 30 minutes of his morning to learn it.

The young Spaniard, Lamine Yamal chuckled. "Lo pronunciaste mal, estas listo para sudar?"

"Haha," Sam laughed, scratching the back of his head.

"This Spanish thing…, I hope I learn it fast enough". He grinned.

At that moment was when he noticed that someone else came with Lamine Yamal. After informing the young Spaniard of his desire to find a jogging partner in the FC Barcelona squad, Lamine Yamal agreed to be his jogging partner.

Due to being occupied with other things for the past few days, Lamine Yamal could not keep up with his promise but after the game against Girona where they got to know each other more on the competitive stage, Lamine Yamal finally decided to honor the invite.

He drove down to Sam’s apartment in Barcelona early in the morning.

But he didn’t come alone, another FC Barcelona player followed him.

As soon as Sam saw him, his eyes widened in surprise. "Hola Gavi!" He greeted, pleasantly surprised even as his smile widened.

"Hola Sam!" The slightly short but energetic midfielder grinned.

Sam didn’t even need any explanation to know what was happening here.

Clearly, Lamine Yamal told Gavi of Sam’s proposal and interested in it, Gavi tagged along. Sam had heard long ago that Gavi was a training freak just like his energy was relentless on the pitch. Today, he confirmed it.

The 3 FC Barcelona youngsters did not linger much longer as quickly wearing his jogging boots, Sam joined them and together, they jogged through the streets of Barcelona, exercising their cardio.

From the first day that Sam became a professional football player, there was one attribute of his body that he was always proud of, his stamina.

With time as his career grew, his stamina also grew.

But before Gavi’s relentless energy, to Sam’s shock, he discovered that Gavi’s stamina was even higher than his which prompted him to look at the midfielder’s stats through his system snooping tool.

~----~

[You have made use of Snooping Tool!]

[Player Name: Pablo Gavi]

>Description: A combative and technically gifted midfielder Pablo Martin Paez Gavira, better known as ’Gavi’. Was born in the town Los Palacious y Villafranca near Seville<

[Player Position: Midfielder]

*Pace: 85

*Shot: 82

*Pass: 84

*Dribbling: 84

*Defending: 51

*Physicality: 78

*Stamina: 88

Overall Rating: 85

[Player Title: Solid Player]

…

Gavi’s stamina was more than Sam’s by 2!

Even among all the players that Sam had used his snooping tool on, Gavi was on the higher spectrum among all of them in terms of stamina. No wonder the midfielder’s energy was so relentless and constant always on the pitch.

Apart from his stamina though, most of his other attributes were weaker than Sam’s, Sam was a better player than Gavi already.

The sight of it left him breathless.

’To think I’m this good already…, I almost can’t believe it’.

’Just 2 years ago, I was still playing in Nigeria’.

Sam sighed. At this moment, all he felt was gratitude for how smoothly his football career progressed since he made his debut in professional football.

After using his snooping tool on Gavi already, out of curiosity, he extended it, also using it on Lamine Yamal and the result was a bit surprising to him.

…

[You have made use of Snooping Tool!]

[Player Name: Lamine Yamal]

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>Description: Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana is a Spanish professional football player who plays as a winger for La Liga club Barcelona and the Spain national team<

[Player Position: Winger]

*Pace: 79

*Shot: 81

*Pass: 85

*Dribbling: 88

*Defending: 33

*Physicality: 76

*Stamina: 81

Overall Rating: 83

[Player Title: Flair Player]

~----~

Sam didn’t expect Lamine Yamal’s overall rating to be 83.

Yes, the boy was still just 18 years old but what he did on the pitch spoke about his lethal ability with the ball.

But in hindsight, it was expected. What Lamine Yamal had in abundance was natural talent and footballing intelligence, in the end, most of his physical attributes were yet to peak so 83 was a fair overall rating.

Sam expected that in 2 to 3 seasons, Lamine Yamal would peak, skyrocketing his overall rating to 87, 88, or maybe even 90!

That was how high Lamine Yamal’s potential was.

Besides, at such a young age, he already had the flair title.

Of Sam’s myriad opponents that he played against in the English premier league, one of the few prominent players he played against with the flair title was Cole Palmer.

For Yamal to already attain the title spoke of the boy’s talent.

Sam enjoyed his work-out that morning.

Since by the time they were done, it was already getting a bit late, Lamine Yamal and Gavi just took the opportunity to crash at his apartment and change before driving to training alongside him that morning.

It was weird but that was how boys were.

All they needed was that common element which in this case was football. They’ve seen each other play, they respected each other’s ability, and now working out together was all it took to take their relationship to the next level.

Today was just the precedent.

In the next few days, the 3 of them became much closer even as they continued their training together. Find your next read at novelbuddy

In this time, Sam kept on improving his chemistry with the team in training even as he tried his best to adapt his game.

His greatest hurdle of adaptation at this point was not his football ability, but rather it was a mental hurdle.

To get his mojo back, Sam needed to fight that mental hurdle.

He didn’t know if he succeeded yet but he knew that he was making progress and just like this, a few days passed.

In no time, it was D-day again, time for a new matchday.

In matchday 3 of the Spanish La Liga, Sam was finally scheduled to play his first home game in the Spotify Camp Nou before the FC Barcelona fans as Barca took on Sevilla in a blockbuster encounter.

Sam made the starting XI.

Hours before the game though, he finally accessed his system, checking his new season system quests.