The Football Agent System

"So you were talking to them while we were coaching him. Housing him. Feeding him." Kjetil didn’t raise his voice, which made it worse. "Three weeks of our staff’s time. We had our own contract drawn up, Garcia."

"You did. I know exactly what you put into him." Garcia didn’t reach for a clean defence, because there wasn’t one. "I’m not going to stand here and tell you it cost you nothing. It cost you. But I can’t sit a player down and tell him to turn down the Eredivisie so I can protect a relationship with your club. That’s not advising him. That’s using him."

"Has he signed the Dutch contract?"

"No. The terms are agreed. It’s subject to the medical and final execution. He has not signed an employment contract with anyone."

Kjetil took a breath Garcia could hear down the line.

"Then there’s no reason for us to keep training a player who’s committed elsewhere," he said. "The evaluation ends today. The offer’s withdrawn. He returns the kit and the access pass. The flat’s his until tomorrow morning, not past it. You’ll get the final expense statement and a departure note."

"That’s fair," Garcia said. "All of it."

"One more thing." Kjetil’s tone didn’t rise, and that was what made it land. "How this ended will sit with us the next time G11’s name comes across my desk. I want you to know that going in."

"I understand," Garcia said. "I’d feel the same."

He didn’t argue it, because Kjetil wasn’t wrong. Egersund had built the platform another club used to find Jay, and G11 would carry the cost of that for a while.

That was the shape of the thing. He’d done right by his client and it had a price, and the price was his to pay, not Jay’s.

(Jay, briefly)

Jay heard it from Sindre in the corridor outside the medical room, short and businesslike. Evaluation over. Kit and pass back before he left.

He walked into the changing room and went to the peg at the end that had started, somewhere in the second week, to feel like his.

He took the temporary top off the hook. Folded it once, badly, and set it on the bench.

He handed the access card across when Sindre held out a hand for it. Pulled his own boots and his own bag out from underneath, and left the club’s gear where the club’s gear went.

Malik found him mid-pack.

"So that’s it," Malik said. "You’re off. Before the month’s even done."

"Yeah."

"Congratulations. I mean it." He didn’t quite smile. "Bit gutted, though. We were only getting started, me and you."

"I know." Jay didn’t have anything better than that. "I know we were."

Sander was blunter, arms folded by the door.

"You were meant to stay," he said. "I was getting used to where you put it. Now I’ve got to teach the next one all over again."

"You’ll live," Jay said, and Sander almost cracked.

Aksel took it easiest of the three. He clapped Jay once on the shoulder.

"Eredivisie’s a big step," he said. "Keep it simple over there. Don’t try to prove all of it in a week."

"That’s the plan."

"You’ll be alright." Aksel meant it, and moved off.

A couple of the others said nothing at all, and Jay felt the cool of it. The club had been embarrassed, and some of them wore it on their faces.

"I didn’t come here to use you lot," Jay said, to the room more than anyone. "That’s not what this was. I came to get fit and get seen. I got seen. That’s all it was."

Nobody threw him a farewell. He hadn’t earned one in three weeks and he knew it. He shouldered the bag and left the peg empty behind him.

Garcia confirmed the rest by phone and email that evening. Kit returned, pass returned, nothing of the club’s still in Jay’s hands. Accommodation vacated by morning. No expense outstanding beyond the trial terms, and the final statement on its way.

[SIDE MISSION COMPLETED]

Mission: Close the Norway Route Cleanly

Requirements Completed: — Egersunds IK informed before departure. — Written Go Ahead pathway disclosed. — Trial formally terminated. — Club property returned. — Accommodation closure confirmed. — Final expenses recorded. — No conflicting agreement signed.

Rewards: — Skill Points +300 — Client Management SP +100 — Negotiation SP +100

[CAREER CONSEQUENCE APPLIED]

Reputation: -10

Egersunds IK Relationship: Positive → Damaged

Norwegian Network Access: Reduced

Garcia looked at the reward and the consequence sitting in the same box, and did not feel like a man who’d won anything.

The points meant nothing set against the two red lines under them. He’d done the right thing for Jay and watched his own reputation drop for it in real time.

A club that had been decent to a player nobody else would touch now had G11 filed under handle carefully, and it was Garcia’s name on that file, not Jay’s.

That was the job some days. You did right by the one person you were actually there for, and you paid for it everywhere else.

A new panel opened once the Norway route had fully closed.

[NEW SIDE MISSION GENERATED]

Mission: Complete Jay Cole’s Eredivisie Contract

Objective: Secure Jay Cole’s first professional employment agreement with Go Ahead Eagles.

Requirements: — Jay must complete the club medical. — The final contract must contain all negotiated amendments. — Jay must review and sign voluntarily. — The work-authorisation application must be initiated. — January registration documents must be prepared. — G11’s representation and service fee must be properly recorded. — No playing-time guarantee may be falsely promised.

Reward: — Skill Points +1,000 — Negotiation SP +200 — Contract Knowledge SP +200 — Client Management SP +200 — Network SP +100 — Reputation +20

Failure Penalty: — Go Ahead Eagles pathway closes. — Egersunds IK route remains closed. — Reputation -15. — Jay Cole’s trust significantly decreases.

Garcia closed it without doing the maths on the reward. None of it counted until Jay passed a medical he hadn’t taken and signed a contract he hadn’t seen in final form.

Go Ahead booked Jay’s journey straight out of Norway to the Netherlands — flight, hotel, local transport, all on the club.

Garcia booked his own seat to Deventer separately, because the one thing he would not do was let Jay sit in front of a final contract without Garcia beside him to check every line against the draft they’d fought over.

Jay left the club flat the next morning with the same suitcase he’d arrived with three weeks earlier, no heavier and no lighter, the peg behind him already waiting for the next trialist.

Garcia’s phone buzzed with the itinerary while Jay was still in the taxi.

GO AHEAD EAGLES

Player: Jayden Cole

Medical Examination: Friday — 08:00

Location: Deventer

Contract Execution: Subject to satisfactory medical clearance

Jay had given up the safe road. He hadn’t reached the bigger one yet.

Everything now hung on Friday morning.