Chapter 32 - 30 - The Meeting That Never Happened

Chapter 32: Chapter 30 - The Meeting That Never Happened

Rafael finished showering, changed into his academy clothes and left the dressing room alone.

Most of his teammates were still downstairs. Their voices carried into the corridor as he climbed toward the academy offices, although the noise faded by the time he reached the upper floor.

The assistant coach had given him a room number without explaining anything else.

Rafael found the office near the end of the corridor and knocked.

"Come in."

He opened the door.

The first-team head coach sat at a small meeting table with his assistant and a senior member of the academy staff. One chair had been left empty opposite them.

Rafael recognised the head coach immediately. He had seen the man around the club during his first life and knew enough about his time at Metz to remember him clearly, but they had never sat down together like this.

At the same point in Rafael’s first career, a more physically developed reserve striker had been taken into preseason while Rafael returned to the academy after the summer break.

This meeting had never happened.

"Rafael," the coach said. "Sit down."

"Thank you."

Rafael took the empty chair and waited.

The coach glanced toward his legs. "Anything from the match?"

"No."

"No knock we need to know about?"

"Nothing. Just normal soreness."

"Good."

The coach rested his hands on the table. "What did you make of Paris?"

Rafael thought about the question for a moment.

"Delorme read me early. I was showing for the ball too soon, so he was moving before the pass got there."

"What changed for the goal?"

"I waited longer, and Yanis was finally high enough to use the space behind him."

The coach nodded. "Then they changed how they defended you."

"Yeah. Delorme stopped following every time, and their midfielder started dealing with some of the deeper movements."

"And you?"

"I stopped trying to make the same thing work."

The coach glanced briefly at his assistant before looking back at Rafael.

"That’s one of the reasons you’re sitting here."

Rafael said nothing while the coach continued.

"We’ve been following you for a while. Not only today. Your recent U19 matches, the reserve game and the reports coming through from your coaches."

Rafael had known his form would attract attention eventually, but he had not realised the senior staff were already receiving regular reports.

"You’ve improved," the coach said. "The goals help, obviously, but that isn’t the part I’m most interested in. You’re making better decisions away from the box, and you’re starting to recognise when being involved would actually hurt the attack."

The assistant leaned slightly forward.

"What we don’t know is whether those decisions still hold up when everything happens faster."

Rafael looked toward him.

The head coach took over again. "Our season is finished, and we’re putting together the group for preseason. One of our forwards will still be completing rehabilitation when we begin, while another will start under a controlled workload."

Rafael listened more carefully.

"We’re bringing a striker from the reserve group into the opening block."

Rafael knew immediately which player he meant. The same forward had received that opportunity in his first life.

The coach continued before Rafael could think about it for long.

"You’ll be joining him."

Rafael looked at him.

"With the first team?"

"For preseason."

The coach gave him a moment before adding, "This is an assessment, Rafael. You haven’t been permanently promoted, and nobody is promising you a senior place. You come in, we see how you handle the level, and then we decide what makes sense."

Rafael nodded.

"If you’re ready for more, we’ll know. If you aren’t, you go back to the academy or spend time with the reserve group and keep developing."

That suited Rafael better than vague promises.

"What do you want to see?"

The coach answered simply.

"You made good decisions today. I want to see whether you can make them when you have less time."

He leaned back slightly.

"The defenders will be stronger, the pressure will arrive earlier and mistakes won’t stay alive as long. That’s what we’re testing."

The assistant added, "And don’t walk into training thinking you need to score every chance to impress anybody. We’ll be watching what happens before the shot as much as the shot itself."

Rafael understood.

"When do I report?"

"June twenty-ninth," the assistant said. "Medical screening that morning before the group starts."

"What about before then?"

"The performance staff will send you a programme. Recovery first, then conditioning. Follow it as written."

Rafael nodded before asking the other question he had been considering.

"Do you want me preparing only as a centre-forward?"

"Yes," the assistant said. "That’s the position we’re assessing you in. If a session puts you somewhere else, follow the instruction, but you’re joining the group as a nine."

The academy representative opened the folder in front of him.

"You’ll receive the complete schedule tomorrow. Your mother will receive a copy, Moreau will receive the relevant documents as your representative, and we already have your remaining school dates so the education staff can coordinate those."

"All right."

The head coach pushed his chair back.

"Your season ended today. Recover before you start worrying about the next one."

Rafael stood with them.

"Thank you."

The coach nodded. "We’ll see you in June."

Rafael left the office and headed downstairs.

His mother was already home when he arrived.

She was in the kitchen when Rafael placed his academy bag near the door.

"You took your time."

"The coach asked me to stay."

She looked over immediately. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah."

Rafael pulled out a chair and sat down.

"The first-team coach wanted to speak to me."

His mother stopped what she was doing.

"What did he want?"

"They’re bringing me into preseason."

She stared at him for a second.

"The first team?"

"For the opening part."

A smile spread across her face.

"Rafael."

He smiled too.

"It’s only an assessment. They’re taking me and another striker into the group."

"You’ll still be training with the first team."

"Yes."

She crossed the kitchen and hugged him.

Rafael returned it before she stepped back and looked at him again.

"When do you start?"

"June twenty-ninth."

"That soon?"

"There’s a break first. They’re sending a recovery programme and everything else tomorrow."

"Did they give you anything today?"

"No. They said the schedule comes by email."

"Show me when it comes."

"I will."

She smiled again, although it softened when she looked at him more carefully.

"You’re happy?"

Rafael thought about the question.

"I am."

"But?"

"We still lost."

"I know."

She had been there. There was nothing else he needed to explain.

His mother touched his shoulder.

"You don’t have to choose which one you feel tonight."

Rafael looked at her and nodded.

"Yeah."

She turned back toward the kitchen counter.

"Have you eaten since the match?"

"Not properly."

"Then sit down before you start thinking about preseason on an empty stomach."

Rafael stayed where he was.

For once, he did not correct her when she said preseason.

The club email arrived the following afternoon.

Rafael had been checking his phone more often than usual, so the FC Metz address at the top of the notification caught his attention immediately.

His mother received the same message.

Moreau called less than twenty minutes later.

"Have you opened it?"

"Yes."

"I’ve checked what they sent me."

Rafael sat at the dining table with the email still open on his phone.

"Everything all right?"

"Yes. Your existing agreement hasn’t changed. This is exactly what it says it is: a temporary invitation to train and be assessed with the senior group."

"That’s what the coach told me."

"Good. Then there’s only one thing I want you to be careful about."

"What?"

"Don’t announce it."

Rafael stopped scrolling.

"I wasn’t planning to."

"Keep it that way. Your mother knows, I know and the club knows. You don’t need somebody telling a friend who tells somebody else until it becomes ’Morales promoted to the first team’ before you’ve even reported."

Rafael understood. Moreau had warned him before about the difference between genuine interest and the story people built around it.

"If the club chooses to make something public later, that’s their decision," Moreau said. "Until then, train quietly."

"Understood."

"Good."

There was a brief pause. ℴ

"Congratulations, Rafael."

"Thank you."

"You earned a look. What happens with it is the next part."

The call ended.

Rafael remained downstairs for another minute before taking his phone upstairs and closing his bedroom door.

He sat on the edge of the bed and called up the System.

The pale panel opened across his vision.

[PLAYER STATUS — CORE PROFILE]

[Name: Rafael Morales]

[Age: 17]

[Club: FC Metz]

[Registered Squad: U19]

[Position: Striker]

[Overall Rating: 62]

[Unassigned Free Attribute Points: 2]

[TECHNICAL]

[Ball Control: 65.5]

[First Touch: 66]

[Finishing: 67.5]

[Heading Accuracy: 62]

[Short Passing: 60.4]

[MENTAL]

[Off-Ball Movement: 67]

[Anticipation: 64]

[Composure: 62.2]

[Decision-Making: 59]

[Work Rate: 60]

[Determination: 73]

[PHYSICAL]

[Acceleration: 71]

[Sprint Speed: 73]

[Agility: 69]

[Balance: 65]

[Stamina: 60]

[Strength: 57]

[Weak Foot: 3/5]

[Skill Moves: 3/5]

[STRIKER SKILLS]

[Two-Touch Finisher]

[Hold-Up Play]

[VIEW COMPLETE PROFILE]

Rafael read through the condensed profile.

His pace, movement and finishing were good enough to explain why Metz wanted another look at him, but several numbers underneath them made it equally clear why this was still only an assessment.

Strength: 57.

Short Passing: 60.4.

Decision-Making: 59.

The two unassigned attribute points remained at the top of the panel.

He could spend them before June twenty-ninth, but he still did not know which weakness senior training would punish most. Guessing now would only make the decision feel useful before he had enough information to know whether it actually was.

Rafael left both points untouched and closed the System.

The club email was still open on his phone.

Most of the document covered medical forms, arrival instructions and the programme the performance staff would send separately, but Rafael scrolled past those sections until he reached the block near the bottom.

Player: Rafael Morales

Programme: First-Team Preseason Assessment

Status: Temporary Training Invitation

Medical Screening: Monday, June 29 — 8:00 a.m.

Training Group: First Team

Reporting Location: Senior Training Building

Rafael read the final two lines again.

The first time he had been seventeen, the reserve striker had received the senior invitation while Rafael returned to the academy after the break and waited for another season.

Back then, he had believed another chance would always come eventually.

This time, the instruction beside Rafael Morales’s name was different.

On June 29, he would report to the first team.