八字万年历

Chapter 251: Young Talent Joins the Team

Looking into the eyes of the people staring at him, Jason managed to discern that none of them looked like they recognized him, so he quickly began moving.

Pulling his card out of his pocket to pay, Jason walked to the counter to pay.

The female checkout clerk at the counter somehow managed to operate the computer and enter in Jason’s purchase before swiping his card.

“Approved,” she muttered and handed Jason back his card and bag which Jason put his former clothes in.

Putting his mask back on before he grabbed the bag, Jason walked out of the store.

He had just escaped from 14 days of boredom hell called quarantine and wasn’t willing to go back for any reason even though it was stifling to put on the mask after having his face free from the mask for a while.

After acquiring a change of clothes, he didn’t have anything else he was looking for and headed back but on his way back he branched to a store that sold food.

As Jason picked up a gummy bear pack and some chocolate he suddenly remembered,

“Should I get souvenirs?” He muttered as he glanced at some lebukchen that were a bit excessively packaged.

Lebkuchen was a soft gingerbread that was acknowledged as a German version of a cookie and it was usually flavored with spices like cinnamon, cardamom, and mace.

They looked especially delicious from where Jason stood, but they were packaged a bit too exotically for something that people would buy and eat on the go, hence Jason’s conjecture.

“Well, no one would say no to food,” He muttered as he picked a few pieces.

He also picked a few packs of chocolate, gummy bears, cheese, and a few spices that he hoped to try in his future kitchen adventures.

After buying quite a bit, Jason paid and left the store now holding two bags in his right hand.

It was beginning to get heavy so he immediately headed out of the mall resisting the temptation to visit any other stores as he didn’t have the capacity to carry anything else.

As he headed out, he had called Joshua to bring the car around so luckily for him the car was right in front of the doors of the mall with Joshua waiting outside to open the door for him.

This gesture which would normally feel a bit extra to Jason now felt very helpful because Jason couldn’t spare another hand with one injured and the other holding bags.

Once again, this scenery attracted attention, but Jason and Joshua remained just as unperturbed as before and smoothly finished their actions and the car drove out of the mall less than a minute later.

The car immediately headed to the airport at a respectable pace while Jason in the backseat opened a pack of lebkuchen, wanting to stave off the pangs of hunger that had begun to disturb him.

“Hmmm?” Jason’s eyes widened slightly as he began eating one of the soft, deliciously-smelling softbread cookies.

‘That tastes a lot better than I remember,’ He acknowledged internally with some surprise.

This was not his first experience with the German shortbread cookies as he had eaten them in his past life when he played for SV Elversberg in the 2. Bundesliga.

That period would have been one of the peaks of his previous life’s football career, but he was merely a reserve member of the team and didn’t play more than 7 games in the two seasons he had spent in Germany in his previous life.

He had ended up looking for greener pastures so apart from learning the language and experiencing the culture in Germany, he hadn’t gained much from his move to Germany in his previous life.

Anyway, the past was past, but Jason was more than surprised to find out that the cookies tasted a lot better than he remembered them to be.

‘Yeah, no more lebkuchen for Sofia, she’ll manage the chocolate and gummy bears,’ he instantly made a decision in his head.

As he munched on the cookies, the car finally arrived at the airport and Jason got out holding the bags he got from the mall while Joshua helped him hold his suitcase and other bag.

Since he already had a COVID test done on him just barely two hours ago while he was still at the health center, there was no hassle with checking in and getting on the plane though it was a bit difficult to handle all the bag but Jason managed somehow and found his seat after boarding the plane.

Taking his seat after struggling with his bags for a while, he reclined in his seat and pulled out his phone.

As he scrolled through his phone to check for missed messages, he saw a message from Mylo that said,

“See you on the field soon”.

“What’s this idiot talking about now?” Jason wondered to himself as he went to check his emails and it was there he saw a notification from the club that was meant to notify him about an addition to the team.

Due to the team’s current shortage of first-team strikers at the club especially considering the club’s predominantly used formation, the head manager who had already been looking for strikers outside to fill in the empty space had also decided to look inside and this was a boon for the players in the second team and the junior team.

After a lot of deliberations and tests in the club, Sergio Conceicao had chosen the first player that he would be promoting to the first team for the 2020/21 season, and this player happened to be Jason’s former roommate.

*Addition of a new member to the team: Mylo Baumgartner*

Jason stared at the title of the mail for almost a full minute before a small smile broke out on his face,

“That idiot actually managed to make it to the first team.”

Jason had long known that Mylo was actually quite talented and could perform at first-team standard, though he didn’t know if he’d be exceptional on the first team, but he had met Jason’s criteria the last time they played together and if there was one thing that was accurate, it was Jason’s judgment skills.

Jason had thought that as long as Mylo could cut down on his ‘habits’, then entering the first team wouldn’t be far off.

He didn’t know if Mylo had actually cut down on his habits because although Mylo was acting a bit mildly before he left the apartment, that didn’t mean much and Jason hadn’t particularly kept up with him enough to know whether Mylo had gone back to his habits.

At least since there was no news about Mylo being arrested for breaking any safety regulations, that meant he didn’t go to any nightclubs at the very least, but that was just about it.

Jason didn’t know what criteria the manager had used to judge the players he was going to sign from the junior team and the second team, and neither did he know what had prompted the manager to pick Mylo out of all the available options, but Jason was happy for Mylo.

Now Jason could only hope that Mylo could do well for the team because the striker role that Mylo would be taking up was a position that was a driving force for the team and they needed all they could get from the frontmen if the team wanted to win anything in the coming season.

Of course, Mylo may not actually end up getting many chances on the team if the manager brought in a few good strikers and they performed well enough to keep them on the starting line-up, but that was Mylo’s business.

Not bothering to read the rest of the email, Jason went back to reply to Mylo’s text.

{Alright, I’ll miss the start of the season, but you could pop in a few goals in my absence} he typed into his phone and sent the text.

Moving to Instagram to check for any interesting posts, Jason saw that the official Porto Instagram account had posted about Mylo’s signing.

There were pictures of Mylo signing the contract and shaking hands with club officials.

Jason liked the post and was about to scroll past when he suddenly thought of a witty comment and quickly began typing in the comment section.

{Welcome to the team… How may I assist you?} Jason typed and pressed send.

After commenting, he continued scrolling down and viewing other posts, but he soon started receiving notifications that his earlier comment was already receiving a lot of likes.

Before he could check, another notification popped up at the top of his screen and this time it was a message from Mylo.

{A few goals? I’m taking the golden boot home with me!}

{Nothing for you this season apart from the assist ranking}

Mylo had sent two audacious texts and Jason couldn’t help but give a wry smile after reading the texts.

{Your stupid a** would be lucky if you managed to join me in celebrating my goals from the bench} Jason typed in his reply and pressed send with a mocking smile on his face.

{Ouch!}

{I’ll prove you wrong though} Mylo replied back.