My Football Legends Chat Group-Chapter 36: Where do you think we’ll finish?

Rio felt his stomach rumbling in protest to the alarm that had woken him up. Since he parted ways with the remnants of his dinner last night, he felt the full effects of his hunger this morning.

He quickly turned the alarm off and opened the notification waiting for him.

[You have consumed: A-grade Ball Control Elixir.]

[Ball Control grade has been increased by 3!]

BALL CONTROL: (Avg. A+)

Balance and Coordination: B

Agility: A

Strength: C+

Dribbling: A+

Seeing the blue screen in front of him, Rio’s eyes sparkled. He finally had a grading of A+, filling him with pride and a sense of achievement. This was probably the highest he would be able to reach with the A-grade Elixirs.

Rio had never seen S-grade Elixirs even mentioned before by the System, but perhaps they would appear once he upgraded the System to a sufficient level.

Either way, he felt another layer of confidence after his Ball Control had increased. He needed to perform well in the first training session and get the attention of the Leeds United coaching staff.

There would be a few senior players who would be skeptical of a teenager from Spain. Ideally, he and Mateo would be able to shine on the pitch and move into the starting lineup which would set them up for a successful loan spell.

With these grand thoughts in his mind, Rio left his room to start his morning routine. Today was the first day of pre-season training which started at 10am. From there he would go to the media room for his official unveiling.

When he arrived at the training ground, Thorp Arch, everyone seemed to be in a much better mood than they were in the city. That was to be expected since it was the start of a new season full of hope.

Rio and Mateo were both more excited for the first session which would take place soon. Leo was due to send them the tactical analysis of the Leeds squad sometime today which the two were looking forward to.

As he walked towards the locker room, Rio could still feel the stares directed at him from the other players. A few academy kids walked up to him in the hallway and stopped in his path, looking as if they wanted to ask him something.

"Hey Rio, are you free after training today? Did you want to go to Nando’s in the city center with us? Your friend can come too."

Rio almost couldn’t believe his ears, turning to Mateo as if to ask him if this was an illusion. However, Mateo’s face was beet red and filled with panic.

Now that he thought about it, he had never seen Mateo talk to another player before apart from himself. His nervousness caused Rio to let out a mischievous grin as he had finally found out his best friend’s weakness.

Thankfully, Rio didn’t share the same hunger he had for pizza with Nando’s chicken, so he was easily able to decline their invitation. The reason he was so shocked in the first place was because he had never been invited to such things even as a rising star at Girona.

"I’m sorry, we both have media duties after training today. We’ll be busy with photoshoots after all." He replied with an apologetic face. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Seeing the kids look so disappointed, Rio’s eyes flashed for a moment as a wicked idea entered his mind.

"How about you exchange Snapchat usernames with my friend here and we can go to Nando’s next week?"

Mateo felt a shock run down his spine as he slowly turned to Rio with a horrified expression.

’This is what you get for wrestling me little bro.’ Rio laughed inwardly, snatching Mateo’s phone from his pocket and handing it to the three kids.

They all entered their usernames and turned to Rio expectantly.

"Ah sorry, my phone is out of battery. But don’t worry, you can reach me through my friend here."

Outwardly Rio looked apologetic, however inwardly he was cackling like an evil villain from one of those anime. Even after the kids walked away and his phone had been returned, Mateo had yet to recover from the whole ordeal.

Rio didn’t bother to collect Mateo, choosing to walk straight into the locker room in case he was stopped by anyone else.

’Have I gotten more handsome or something?’ He thought, humming a merry tune as he went and sat down at his locker.

"Ah..." Rio exclaimed, finally thinking of a reason for all this unwanted attention. His reward from the mission against Rotherham was that weird skill with hardly any description.

Everything started to make sense now. Charisma Oil seemed to not be limited to the pitch, working in his everyday life. While it wasn’t a lie to say that he was enjoying a little extra attention, it might turn out to be annoying in the future.

While he was deep in thought, Mateo finally managed to collect himself and sit down at his locker next to Rio. He was staring at his phone in a daze, looking at the 3 new entries in his friends list.

They were easy to locate because he only had 3 contacts on his phone to begin with. Rio, Leo, and Carlos.

The whistle was what finally woke Mateo up from his mood, prompting him to put his phone away. When he looked over at Rio all he could see was a giant toothy grin, giving him the feeling of wanting to wipe it right off his face.

Once the manager walked in, the room went silent and the tactical briefing for the session commenced. Since the session was focused on possession, Rio was able to understand the instructions in record time.

While it may have been a breeze for himself who came from Spain, the rest of the squad was in crisis mode. Mateo seemed to have a better time considering he had been actively trying to learn English with Rio at home.

Since the two wanted to join the Premier League in the future, it would be best to learn the language as soon as they could.

Once the briefing ended, there was a collective groan around the room. Pre-season fitness tests had officially started and they wouldn’t have a reprieve for 6 weeks.

Rio and Mateo quickly left the locker room and headed down to the pitch. This was the first time they would touch the ball on English soil.

When they arrived, everyone seemed to be in high spirits despite the impending running.

The fitness coach took the players through some warm ups and a light ball session. Considering the intensity of the Championship, he didn’t want to break them too early, yet he was a little worried that since there hadn’t been training all summer that there might be some fitness issues.

However much to his surprise, everyone seemed to be in good shape. That was especially the case for Rio and Mateo who looked like they could run laps around the rest of the team if asked to.

After a little over an hour, Manager Farke called for everyone to gather around.

"You’ve all looked sharp today and I couldn’t be more proud as a Manager. This is probably one of the strongest squads we’ve had at Leeds, but none of that matters if we can’t win promotion."

He moved his gaze over his players, stopping on Rio for a few moments longer than the others before continuing.

"The Championship is a tough league, we’ve blown out most of our opponents thanks to our strong attacking line up. Summerville, Piroe, you will need to work your magic in the final third for us to have a chance."

Summerville and Piroe both nodded, their faces solemn.

"Mateo, Rio, your job is to create chances no matter what it takes. It’s going to be a long season so we’ll need all the advantages we can get from the very start of the campaign."

The two also nodded, understanding their roles. As long as they could create chances, Bamford and Piroe their two big strikers would have a chance to send them all home and maximize the points total.

"I won’t say too much else. All I ask is that we do our best and have fun while doing it."

Manager Farke then extended his hand, prompting the players to place them on top.

"Captain, take it away."

Liam Cooper had a serious expression as he called out.

"LEEDS!"

"FIGHT!"

Everyone else shouted the word fight as loud as they could, raising their hand together in unison. Afterwards, the Manager sent them to get changed and headed to the showers, reminding everyone to be at the media room an hour early for interviews.

Summerville walked next to Rio and Mateo with his hands behind his head, he seemed in a weird mood.

"This will probably be a crazy season." He said solemnly.

"Yeah. We’ll be too busy with games every three days to participate in much else." Rio replied, feeling a little nervous.

However, he was even more excited for the Premier League and the chance to play at Old Trafford. The real Old Trafford, not the empty stadium within his image training.

"Where do you think we’ll finish?" Mateo asked Summerville curiously.

Summerville smiled wryly, "My number 1 choice is champions, but I’m not sure if we’ll be consistent enough. If that doesn’t work out I’ll probably just settle for playoffs."

"It’s always good to aim high. We’ll be trying for the title." Rio replied, his face full of determination.

"Wow. Mateo probably has a good chance of making the Team of the Season, but you?" Summerville scrunched his face, squinting as he looked at Rio.

Thud.

Rio sent a quick kick to Summerville’s behind, propelling him forward a few steps and almost causing him to trip over.

"Eek! I’m kidding!" He yelped, causing the other two to break out into laughter. Summerville soon joined in, feeling his nerves calm down significantly.

If he was honest, he didn’t think that the new kid was good enough to displace Gnonto with his current reputation. However, seeing Rio work so hard to make it into the starting XI after coming from Spain made him want to better himself.

He would never admit it out loud, but he was thankful to Rio for giving him the motivation to improve his skills this season.

His gaze moved to the person in question and he couldn’t help but take a closer look.

’Did this guy get better looking or something?’