Nicholas Marjan, known as Niels, was an Asian football-obsessed loner in the modern world. A master of FIFA Career Mode, addicted to YouTube tactics videos, and followed every twist of the transfer window like it was life or death, he lived the beautiful game from behind a screen.
Until the day he died.
And woke up in the late 2000s, in the body of a once-promising young player at a lower-league English club. A player whose career had been cut short by a brutal ACL injury. With his playing career over before it could truly begin, his second life offers no glory on the pitch.
But Niels still has one weapon: his mind.
Armed with future knowledge of football's evolution, and guided by a mysterious, almost cheat-like instinct for scouting raw talent, Niels steps into the world of coaching. As an assistant at a struggling lower-league club, he begins to reshape the team from within challenging outdated tactics, unearthing hidden gems, and reigniting hope in the dressing room.
His methods are unorthodox. His instincts, uncanny. And soon, whispers about the "young coach with a gift" begin to spread.
This isn’t the story of a player chasing glory. It’s about someone reborn to change the game from the sidelines. From forgotten training grounds to Europe’s biggest stages, Niels is on a mission, 
not just to win, but to rewrite what it means to lead.
He once dreamed of lifting trophies as a player.
Now, he'll do it as a coach.

Crawley Town's 2-1 triumph over West Ham United at Upton Park had set football ablaze, Thiago Otero Silva's 75th-minute strike and Max Simons' header a lightning bolt that stunned 30,000 Hammers fans and rippled across the world. Third in League Two with 69 points, five points shy of second-placed Bournemouth, promotion was a pulse pounding in their veins, but the FA Cup semifinal against Aston Villa at Wembley on April 18 loomed like a mountain. With ten league matches left until May 8, including three before the semifinal (Grimsby, Bournemouth, Torquay). Could Crawley's flame blaze through Wembley's spectacle, with a potential FA Cup final against Chelsea or Tottenham on the horizon, or would the weight of glory flicker under the floodlights?


Chapter 67 - The Road to Wembley