My Goalkeeping System



"So, Frankfurt are pushing to sign me this January transfer break," Dave said with his phone placed against his ear.

"Yeah, they must have contacted your club by now," Clark replied from the other side.

"Oh, I see. Well, I don't plan on leaving halfway with everything we've set up this season, and also, I don't think my father would allow me to leave even if I wanted to."

"Yeah, I already told them about that, but they said they won't give up easily and asked me to check if you had a change of heart, I think they desperately need a good goalkeeper and they're not holding back with their enticing offer." Clark elaborated.

"Enticing offer?"

"They're offering twenty-seven million euros to get you."

Dave's jaws dropped as soon as he heard Clark say that.

"Twenty-seven million? That's way more than I'm worth." The goalkeeper.

"Yeah, but it looks like they see more than that and I don't blame them," Clark said. "That part is mainly to coerce the club into selling you, the offer they're making to convince you is offering you a salary of a hundred and two thousand euros per week with a couple of off add-on benefits."

"They're offering that much? That's almost two times what I earn here."

"Yeah, they really want you, looks like they've been watching you for a long time now," Clark said. "So, what are you saying?"

"I want to hear what you think first." The goalkeeper said.

"I'll tell you what I think after you tell me your decision."

"Okay. Well, they are making a pretty juicy offer, I'm pretty sure my dad would say yes to this if he had a decent enough backup goalkeeper to see the team through for the rest of the season, I have to say I'm a bit tempted to go for it, but then again, I did say something to you at the beginning of this season, do you remember?"

"Um….yeah, you said something about making your mark for the club before leaving, you also said something about making sure the club makes a huge profit from your departure which I'm sure this offer from Frankfurt meets," Clark remarked.

"Yeah, but I feel like it's not enough, I know a club from the EPL or La Liga would offer more. We're still in every competition we're supposed to be in so far this season and lifting any of those trophies will go a long way in helping me achieve both of the goals I want to achieve this season."

"So, what you're saying is that…"

"I'm not leaving till the end of this season, I know everything may not go exactly as I wish, but I strongly believe that I will at least lift one trophy with this team this season, and if I don't, then finishing top four on the table will be considered as a win." The goalkeeper expressed.

"Hmm, I see, good choice bro, I think I know what to do now. I'll speak to you later."

"Okay, later."

The call ended after that and Dave had to drop his phone back on the floor.

<You know, nobody would blame you if you went to Frankfurt because of that offer, they're a pretty decent team too>

'Are you trying to convince me to accept the offer?'

<No, that's your choice to make, I'm just stating that you may be missing a good opportunity here>

'Then so be it, I know they'll be back at the end of this season and even if they don't come back, they're all other teams and even ones better than them that want me on their squad, the only problem is if they want me as a backup goalkeeper or the starting goalkeeper.'

<That's why I said you may be missing a good opportunity, it's very obvious that they want you as their new starting goalkeeper and they're offering you way more than you're worth at the moment when they could easily go for another cheap choices, there's no guarantee that any of the good clubs will want you as their starter next season, it may only be the small clubs and I know you don't want to go there>

'Now, it sounds like you're really trying to persuade me to say yes.'

<No, that's not it, if anything, I want you to be in a top club next season, a club better than Frankfurt, that would be a huge jump for you sometimes those huge jumps don't just work, most people had to work their way up slowly>

'That's ironic coming from a system that helped me defy the odds of slow and steady improvement. However, this is more about what I want to do for Unique FC before leaving, if I had already done what I wanted to do, then I would be leaning toward accepting that offer since they are the first ones who have openly made an offer.'

<Hmm, okay>

"Okay, let's get back to training now." He said before he got up from the floor and kicked the ball up.

_____ _____

The players had a couple of days off after that victory against Tereville City, and Mateo was going to use that free time to head over to the shop and get some of the things he was lacking at home.

Shopping was a bit of a chore for him because of all the attention he got and how he would almost get crowded at the entrance until security interrupted.

Today he was putting on a hoodie and had a pair of glasses with him to conceal his identity at least for those who weren't always looking out to find him.

"I really wish I had someone to help me with this." He muttered with a sigh before opening the door.

He was about to take a step out when he spotted something sitting in front of his door.

It was some kind of mini basket which was properly covered and had some kind of letter on top of it.

"What's this?" He muttered before stretching his hand to pick up the letter.

He already had an idea of who it could be from but he just had to be sure.

After picking up the letter, he opened it and began to read it.

The letter read this:

'I know you hate me now and won't even read my text messages so I wrote this with the hope that you would at least read it but it's okay if you don't want to.

I know what I did was stupid and I tried to brush it off but I am deeply sorry for that, I truly am. I may be a bit jealous of how close Sofia is to you but I didn't really have any bad intentions, you know I didn't even tell her anything to cause any misunderstanding, I only told her that we somehow meant when running.

Anyway, I know I've already made my feelings clear to you but if we can just go back to being the way we were as friends, I would be glad.

I understand if you don't want to and if you don't want to eat the cupcakes, please don't throw them away and give them to someone else at least.

I know I disgust you, I'm sorry.'

After reading all that and the name tag at the end, Mateo let out a sigh before sliding the piece of paper into his pocket.

He had a couple of thoughts going through his mind now, and after thinking about things for a while, he picked up the basket and took it inside.

"Maybe I have been a little too harsh."

After dropping the basket on the table inside, he made his way back outside and straight to his car.

"I just hope no one recognizes me with this get-up." He mumbled before he entered the car and closed the door.

_____ _____

"Welcome everyone to this week's episode of the Bilbeth Premier League stars. Today we have three stars from the same team, Minino Small, Mateo Smith, and Dave Richards." The lady introduced before pointing toward the teammates who were all sitting beside each other on the seats provided for them.

The Bilbeth Premier League Stars was a live TV show where a lady got to speak with a couple of players from the league and asked them a couple of questions.

Sometimes it was silly and funny and sometimes it was just educative, it all came down to the vibes of the players involved.

"Unique FC are arguably the best team so far this season with the only ones who can have an argument of being better than them are Supreme United who are one point ahead of them so that makes sense.

"All these players have been quite sensational for their teams, Dave has fifteen clean sheets in nineteen matches, Perez Zoe who is in second place only has six so far this season so I can say he has that golden glove in the bag.

"Mateo has been a force to reckon with so far this season ending the first half of the season as the player with the most goals and assists, that's very impressive if you ask me.

"And then finally we have Minino, one of the best midfielders in the league so far this season, he's basically Unique FC's tiger on the pitch." She said with a smile.

"I think I like that name," Minino said.

"Then you can take it, he's the tiger on the pitch from today everyone." She said with a little chuckle before taking her seat.

"Yep." He emitted.

Both Mateo and Dave couldn't properly hold in their chuckles.

"Alright, to start off today with Unique FC's stars, we will be asking what their most embarrassing moment on the pitch has been so far this season."

"Most embarrassing moment?" Mateo muttered with a horrid look on his face.