GEM TALENT

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William sat quietly on his soft bed, and after taking a very deep breath to gather all of his courage, he finally made a bold step by picking up his mobile phone to call Mr. Stewart.

He dialed the familiar number with slightly shaking fingers, because he knew deeply in his heart that this single phone call was the very first step toward reclaiming his lost dream.

When the busy manager answered the phone with a strict, formal tone, William quickly cleared his throat and said very politely that he truly wanted to see him for something very important regarding his future.

He did not want to explain all the complicated details over the phone, because he strongly felt that he needed to speak to the manager face to face to show exactly how serious he was about returning to the pitch.

Mr. Stewart listened quietly for a brief moment, and then he replied with a very calm and professional voice as he carefully checked his busy daily schedule.

"Okay, William, I will absolutely not be available tomorrow, because I am officially out for another important task," Stewart explained, but he did not want to leave the young boy waiting forever, so he quickly offered a brand new time.

"Please, let us properly meet on Thursday, exactly by 9 AM in my office, so we can carefully discuss whatever is currently on your mind," the busy manager added. William felt a sudden rush of nervous energy, but he answered politely that he is completely okay with that specific time, and after saying a quick, respectful goodbye, he ended the call and placed the phone gently back on his bed.

As soon as the bright screen of his phone went totally dark, William felt a massive sense of relief wash over him for a little while, because he had finally stopped running away from his fears and had taken a real, brave step toward his true passion.

He felt very proud of himself for acting like a strong man, but at the exact same time, he also started to feel very bad and deeply nervous, because he honestly doesn't know the final outcome of the upcoming meeting.

He knew perfectly well that Chelsea could easily reject his return or punish him severely for his previous quitting behavior, and this scary thought made his stomach twist into tight knots as he sat all alone in his silent bedroom, even he knows that some fans would be very angry with his decisions in the past few weeks. He knows that some of them will come out to criticize him and make fun of him. But he did not care about them, he only want to revive his career.

Even though he had Coach Lincoln's powerful words of encouragement ringing loudly and clearly in his head, the terrifying fear of the unknown future still hung heavily in the invisible air, making him deeply wonder if Mr. Stewart would truly listen to his heart or just treat him like a piece of worthless business property.

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The second day came so early with the bright morning sun shining beautifully through his window, and as William slowly opened his tired eyes, he firmly decided to stay at home for the entire day.

He completely ignored his heavy school backpack sitting quietly in the corner of the room, because he had already totally lost all his interest in the boring campus life, and he absolutely did not want to sit in another confusing chemistry lecture ever again.

His busy mind was completely fixed on a much bigger and brighter goal, because he deeply wanted to chase his beautiful dream, and he passionately wanted to play professional football with all of his heart and soul.

He knew that if he wanted to face Mr. Stewart on Thursday with true confidence and power, he needed to feel exactly like a real athlete again, so he told himself that he could not afford to waste such a wonderful, sunny day doing absolutely nothing.

Because he really didn't want to waste that wonderful day just lying lazily on his bed, he quickly walked over to his dark closet and proudly brought out his old, trusty football boots and a long-time used training jersey.

He slipped the familiar blue jersey over his head and tied the strong laces of his boots very tightly, feeling a sudden, electric rush of pure joy as he stepped outside so he can train happily at the wide, green garden directly behind his house.

The grassy garden was not as huge as a real stadium, but it had enough soft, green space for him to run freely, so he quickly set up a few old plastic cones to serve as imaginary defenders, he remembered that he used to train there before going to Blackpool, and also his father would stand aside and cheer him up, but no one is there now. He ignored the pain.

He decided that he desperately needed to do a lot more of intense fitness training to quickly call his sleeping body back to proper order, because staying away from the fast-paced pitch for so long had made his strong muscles feel a little bit heavy and totally stiff.

William started his high-level training with some fast, explosive sprints across the garden, deeply imagining a real match where his team was making a quick transition from defending into a rapid counter attack.

He vividly imagined himself being tightly marked by a stubborn low block of tough, giant defenders, so he used the strong brick wall of his house to bounce the ball back and forth, practicing a perfect one-two pass to easily break through the invisible defensive line.

As he smoothly controlled the bouncing ball with his broad chest, he pretended to quickly receive a beautiful through ball from a passing midfielder, making absolutely sure he timed his fast run perfectly so he would not be caught offside by the imaginary referee.

He sprinted powerfully toward the edge of the garden, which he pretended was the highly dangerous penalty area, and he quickly imagined a fast teammate making a smart overlap run right behind him to cause total confusion for the enemy defenders.

After completely beating the fake defender with a clever, lightning-fast step-over, William kicked the ball hard, practicing a sharp, curling cross straight to the near post where an imaginary striker would perfectly tap it into the back of the net.

He did not stop there, because his athletic body was craving the intense physical action, so he set up a pretend wall with his plastic cones and practiced bending a powerful free kick right over their heads and directly into the bottom corner of his wooden garden fence.

After scoring the brilliant imaginary goal, William decided to work heavily on his defensive skills to become a complete, unstoppable player, completely focusing on keeping safe possession of the ball even when he was heavily tired.

He threw the ball high up into the blue sky to simulate a dangerous corner kick from the opposing team, and as it dropped down rapidly toward the box, he jumped very high into the air to practice a massive, powerful clearance with his head to save his team.

He quickly followed up by sprinting fast to the other side of the garden to make a perfectly timed interception, completely cutting off an imaginary pass before diving down onto the soft grass to gracefully execute a fierce, sliding tackle.

He trained non-stop for two solid hours, sweating heavily and breathing very hard, but a massive, bright smile was completely glued to his handsome face because he was finally doing exactly what he loved the most in the entire world.

After the intense and exhausting training session finally came to an end, William picked up his plastic cones, wiped the heavy sweat from his dripping forehead with the bottom of his dirty jersey, and happily went inside the house to properly clean up.

His muscles were aching beautifully and his breathing was still a little bit heavy, but his mind felt sharper and clearer than it had been in a very long time as he walked straight into the bathroom to take a warm, relaxing shower.

When he finally finished washing off all the dirt and stepped back into his quiet bedroom with a clean towel wrapped tightly around his waist, he grabbed his mobile phone from the bed to quickly check the time.

As soon as he unlocked the bright screen, his happy smile faded just a little bit, because he instantly saw several missed calls from his close university friends, Adam and Stone, who were clearly wondering why he had skipped their classes today.

William stared closely at the glowing notifications on his phone screen, deeply wondering exactly how he was going to gently explain his massive, life-changing decision to the caring friends who strongly believed he was going to become a brilliant chemist alongside them.