The Long Shot

Since he was six years old, Adrian Nero has always had a dream. Thanks to his father's influence, he developed a great interest in football at a very young age. He loved the way the game was played, the way a team of eleven players worked together to score as many goals as possible against their opponents while conceding as little as possible, he loved the tactical aspect of the game with teams trying to play to their strengths and their opponent's weaknesses. But more than those, he loved watching the players lift trophies after winning a tournament. That's right, the thing Adrian liked the most about football was lifting trophies. Immersing himself in any game, his favourite teams played, he always felt like he was there celebrating and smiling with them. He loved that feeling. 'I'll really be there one day.' He always thought to himself. Despite his father's love for the game, his parents did not exactly support his dream to become a footballer and preferred him to go to a normal school to study and get a normal job. However, all hope was not lost as his high school was one of the schools that strongly supported having sports activities in their curriculum and it wasn't just for formality's sake. Adrian fought his way through, becoming the captain of the football team as early as the first year of senior high. With his help the team grew to become quite a formidable one and was named as one of the favourites going into the qualifications for the international highschool tournament, a competition taking place in his last year of highschool and his chance to lift his first trophy. That was when disaster struck. Due to work reasons, Adrian was forced to move back to his home country with his family leaving behind the team he had worked hard to put together. However, he was fortunate enough to find himself in a school eligible to take part in the qualifications for the tournament. Finding out about that, he felt that all hope wasn't lost, a feeling that was soon carried away by the wind. Sino Academy, although possessing a very good and well-maintained pitch alongside the basic equipment, was one that never took sports seriously. In all the times they had participated in the tournament, they had only been able to get through the qualifications once but miserably failed to get through the group stage. This was an event of fifteen years ago. Facing a school with a non-existent team and players that lacked teamwork, coordination and motivation, Adrian couldn't help but feel that his dream was far beyond his reach.