The match has ended in a thriller 4-3 for Barcelona. Messi was the first to come and hug me.
" Today you were even better than me. Keep playing like this and the future is yours." The team came around and congralulated me. Walking towards the stands we thanked the supporters for coming to the match and supoorting us.
I saw Ronaldo walking up to me, " I really did not expect to loose this match. But it would be unsportmanly for me if I did not praise where it is due. Today in this cradel of stars, you were the brighest. You have a bright future ahead of you."
Exchanging jersey with him, I shook his hands and greeted the others who came to congratulate me. Fee minutes later an official came to inform us that the prize distribution will begin soon.
Just as everyone expected I won the MOTM. Accepting the trophy I was called for a small interview.
Interviewer," Hello Alexzandro. Walk us through what happened tonight."
" Hello good evening. It was a wonderful night. I honestly did not expect to start today. But chances comes like this and you have to take what is given to you. My aim was to help the team win and I am glad I could do that. "
" Three goals and an assit. Man of the match in your first professional game. Against Real Madrid. How do you feel?"
"Satisfied to be honest I did not take much pressure before the game. Because I did not know I was going to start in the game. Bud it feels amazing to be honest. I did not expect to score a hat trick but the ball was there I was there I believed in my ability to score and just happened you know. Barcelona is full of talented players and if all of them come together, I doubt any team could stop us. "
" What were the instructions before you came on the pitch?"
" Look for opportunities, score goals and win the game. " I replied.
" And you execution of the passes and cheeky nutmeggs. Do you prectice them often?"
" Not actually, I have no binding playstyle. My body flows as I want it to and the ball obeys. I saw the gaps and took advantage."
" Wonderul to have you with us today. Hope to see you more in the next games. "
"Thank you sir. Cheers."
The dreesing room was full of celebration when I entered. Players were taking pictures and scrolling through the internet.
" Man, you have become a celebrity overnight. Check your phone." Alba came to me and said.
And as he said, opening my phone I was bombarded with notifications. My follower count on Instagram went from 2k to 298k in just one night. Clips of my goal were going viral. Especially the one where I nutmegged Navas and the last goal where the ball curved so smoothly.
Barcelona's official Instagram had taken my celebration pose and posted " Exquisite."
As I scrolled through the comments I saw many praising me.
" Dude that goal was awesome." Fan 1
" Which one are you talking about?? All of them were awesome." Fan 2.
"Agreed, but to go past Varane and Pepe and nutmegg Navas on his first match... I can tell , this guy will be big." Fan3.
" +1. He is already better than Messi and Ronaldo at this age.". Fan 4
" Dude. There has been many talented players who have come and gone. But Messi and Ronaldo are different breeds. Don't compare them with him yet. He is good, but there is still a long way to go. " Fan 5 .
"+1 he is talented, but don't compare him to the goats yet.".
Even Real Madrid's official account posted a picture of me and Ronaldo shaking hands with the tagline," Talent recognises talent."
Twitter was flooding with people commenting.
Henry: What a talent. Hats off
Giroud: Wonderkid
Beckham: That curve had me jealous.
Roberto Carlos : Reminded me of my free kicks
Ibrahimovich: Zlatan likes this new fire
Ronaldo: Well done kid.
Messi: Fortunate to see it from the pitch.
A few days later...
Valverde walked into the locker room with a grim face.
" The results of Surazer's scans just came in. He will be out of the game for atleast 6 months.".
The mood dimmed as although we had won the previous match but Suarez was still one of the pillars on which the team depended on. Having him on the pitch would inevitably diminish the team's firepower.
" But on the other hand good news for Alex, you will be the one to replace him on the pitch. I hope that you can continue to deliver your magic just like the previous match. "
Nodding towards him I said," will try my best coach. "
" Good, now on to the pitch, we have to run more drills."
In the evening we received the updated first team choices.
GK: TER STEGEN
LB: JORDI ALBA
CB: PIQUE ,MASCHERANO
RB: DANI ALVES
CM: INIESTA, RAKATIC
CDM: BUSQUETS
LW: PAULINIHO
RW: MESSI
ST: ALEXZANDRO
The next two weeks we had league games against Gimnastic, Betis, Alaves and Espaniyol. We won all the matches quite easily. I had accumulated seven goals and 5 assists.
In the last match against Espaniyol I scored a hattrick again. But the most memorable match would be against Betis.
I did not score a single goal in that match but I got a 10 rating courtesy of 5 assists within a span of 20 minutes.
The first goal came in the 21st minute by a curved pass to Messi. The ball curved right from the front of the defender to land right in the right foot of Messi. The Alien to a single touch and thumped the ball in the bottom left corner.
The next moment came in the 26th minute. Running down the left side of the pitch I passed through three defenders using stepovers in rapid succession. The Espaniyol midfielder came down to defend and tries to win the ball. Stepping over the ball with my left foot, I nutmegged the player by playing the ball in between his legs using my right foot. Now I was one on one the keeper. The keeper took a split second to decide whether to stay on theine or charge front. Deciding to take on the risk he charged forward.
What he failed to notice was Paulinho on my left. Just as the keeper dived to collect the ball, I dragged it back and flicked it to my left. Paulinho had no qualms slotting the ball in an empty net.
For the third goal I had to do nothing more than pass the ball to Messi. Man, I can't even begin to dascribe that goal. And I was on the pitch. Watching the entire backline of the opposition collapsing to a single man who used nothing more than feints and shiting his bodyweight. The way he teased gravity, the way he made the defenders commit and made them look foolish for diving for the empty ground... Breathtaking. Those move made me think. Even with Itosi Sae's capabilities, I am nowhere near that man's level. This made me understand. That in this team there were many stars , but this man, this alien shone the brighest. From that moment, Messi became something that I had to surpass. If I wanted to be the greatest football player ever then I have to compete with this man. No, I have to beat this man. Only and only then will I be on the path to be the best. It would not be easy, but being the greatest never is. After celebrating that fabulous miracle of a goal , we restarted the game.
In the 35th minute , we won a corner. I decided to take it. Seeing Iniesta lingering outside the penalty box, I decided to go for the Beckham- Carlos combo. Lifting my hand and showing two fingers I made my intentions clear. It was a signal that we came came up with in practice. Seeing the signal Inesta nodded and got ready. With the whistle of the referee I stepped up and took the shot. The ball was low and went straight to Inesta who had no one marking him. Iniesta did not even have to move as the ball came to him in a second. Lifting his right leg he hit the volley cleanly. The ball rocketed to the top right corner with such speed that the goal keeper couldnot even move.
In the 40th minute I won a free kick due to rash challeng by a frustrated Espaniyol midfielder. It was around 40 meters away from the goal post. Everybody thought that a direct freekick was out of the question. Unless your name is Cristiano Ronaldo. I wanted to try but I knew I could not generate enough shot power to do that yet. Seeing the defenders form the wall for a delivery I called Pique over.
" I am going to shoot. I want you to stand at the spot where we take penalties. When I shoot the ball, I want you to run towards the left post and jump. Three steps and then jump for a header. " I said.
Messi who was also there said," What are you planning?"
" An indirect pass."
" Will it work?" Pique asked
" Do as I said and it will. Don't see. Just take three steps diagonally to your left and jump for the header. Keep your eyes closed if you have to. The ball will come to you. " I replied confidently.
Seeing my confidence Pique was taken aback. Evan Messi was a little astonished.
Seeing Messi I said," Let me show you a trick I have been working on. I can't just let you do all the magic."
We stood in line to take the free kick. With the whistle of the referee I took a glance at Pique and saw him nod. Stepping up to the ball I shot it with my right foot in an outside curve. I saw the ball curve out first and then when everyone thought it would go astray it curved right back in. The opponent's defender did not jump as the ball was above the jumping heinght. Pique was the only one who jumped. The next thing that happened had everyone flabbergasted. The ball with all its spin dipped down and hit the crossbar at the center, then deflected left straight towards the face of Pique. The ball connected to his head and went straight to the back of the net. The goalkeeper, the defenders and even our own players who didn't know what was going to happen looked shocked. The stadium felt silent for five seconds before the cheering from the fans tore through the stadium.
" Damm . What the hell was that.?"
"Was that planned?. That was straight out of a movie."
" Alexzandro you fukcing beauty. That was awesome."
" I don't think Pieque even knows what happened."
IN THE COMMENTARY BOX
" WHAT WAS THAT ROB? WE NEED TO WATCH IT IN SLOW MOTION."
" YES STWEART, HERE IT COMES. FIRST THE BALL WENT OUTSIDE IN THE BEGINNING BUT IF ITS FROM ADRIANO WE KNOW HE KNOWS HOW TO CURVE IT PERFECTLY. THE BALL COMES IN. ITS HIGH SO THE DEFENDERS THINK IT GO OVER THE POST. SO DID WE..."
" YES, AS YOU CAN SEE, NONE OF THEM JUMPED. YES, ONLY PIQUE HAD JUMPED. WE SAW HIM TALKING WITH MESSI AND ALEX BEFORE THE KICK WAS TAKEN. BUT WHAT THE HELL. WHY IS HIS EYES CLOSED??"
"DON'T TELL ME. HERE IS WHAT I THINK HAPPENED. ALEX TOLD PIQUE TO JUMP AT THAT PLACE IN THAT EXACT MOMENT. PIQUE FULLY TRUSTED HIM AND DID AS HE WAS TOLD. THE BALL HIT THE BAR AND CAME TO WHERE ALEX WANTED IT EXACTLY. SUCH PRECISION IS NOT SOMETHING YOU GET WITH PRACTICE. ITS STRAIGHT OUT OF A MAGIC SHOW."
" THIS IS NOT FOOTBALL ANYMORE. THE CONTROL ALEX SHOWED OVER THE BALL, THE WAY HE COMMANDED IT TO BEND AND DELIVERED IT EXACTLY WHERE HE WANTED IT TO. THIS IS SOME HIGH LEVEL SORCERRY. "
" WE NEED TO SPEAK TO HIM IN THE AFTER MATCH INTERVIEW. I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED. BECAUSE IF IT IS WHAT IT IS, THEN I MAY HAVE SEVERLY UNDERESTIMATED ALEXZANDRO."
The match ended with a Scoreline of 5-0. Camp Nou became alive for the match. The quality of play and goals were something mesmerizing. The coach decided to sub in Messi and me to give the other playes some playtime. The match was already won with the morals of th e opponents broken. So they just fell back and just defended. In the second half they took only three shots which were all saved.
In the post match interview the interviewer asked me," Alexzandro, another .agical.performance by you today. Walk us through the match and especially the last goal. We all saw ot and are still working on believing it. So please quell this curiosity and tell us."
" Haha, thank you. Well the first goal was a simple pass, the second was a little tricky to bait the goalkeeper. The third, well Messi is, as I say an alien. He does things I cannot even imagine to begin doing. The fourth was well practiced with Inesta. We had tried different combinations the past few days and this one was one of the most effective ones. "
" Yes and the fifth. Tell us what you were discussing with Pique. What did you tell him?"
"Well, I just told him one thing. When I hit the ball just run diagonally to the left and jump for a header. That's all really. " I said.
" But that delivery. As much as I would like to call it a fluke I dare not think it was. So please. Just how do you do that?".
" Practice actually. I tried to hit the ball from differnt angles and differnt power adding diffent spin. I have noticed how the ball bounces off when it hits the different parts of the crossbar at different angles, power and spin. And when I took that freekick I assimilated all my understanding and told Pique to go to the spot where I knew the ball would bounce back. If ot was thirty meters I could have directly scored, but at forty meters I knew I could not dip the ball enough without sacrificing it's speed. So the indirect pass was the way I chose for the play. " I explained.
The people who heard were wide eyes for a few seconds. The interviewer after getting over his shock said,
" You mean to say that you have practiced to kick the ball to the crossbar at different speed , angles and power from different distances for both foot and have perfected that ability to the point you can precisely tell where the ball will land after you hit it. Are you sure you are sure you are 16 and not some 60 year old veteran coach?"
" Haha. No no I am just a 16 year old footballer. "
"I don't know if you have seen the replay yet. But Pieque had his eyes closed from the moment he started to run. This level of precision is something that I have never seen live. I hope you continue to bring this king of magic to the pitch. Good luck gmfor the next matches. "
" Of course I will try my best. Thank you . Cheers." It's a good thing I did not tell them that I had to calculate the height Pique could jump so that the ball comes directly to that exact point. If I tell them that I think it will break them.
Speaking of breaking the internet was already breaking form the last goal. Captions of " Prince Alex " was already flowing like a stream. Many showed that Alex was the next successor in line of Messi. That with Alex the future of Barcelona os secure. There were also many who said that the presence of Alexzandro was greater than even Neymar. The gap left by the Brazillian had been wholly filled by another brazillian. And this one was young and more focused.
The biggest shift came in the Barcelona management. They knew that they had to renew the contract with the young prince because if they don't then any club can just come and claim him in the winter window, something that they did not want.
After the whole week, I was resting in my apartment that I rented from the fees that I get when my phone suddenly rang. Seeing an unknown number I first ignored it. But when the same number rang for the second time I picked it up.
" Hello, who is this?"
" Hello Alexzandro. I am Jorge Mendes, a football agent. I would like to represent you. Would you be able to meet to discuss my proposition face to face?"