Chapter 221: Sweet Sixteen
February 06 2013
Amani woke up on the morning of February 6th expecting it to be just another training day. He’d mentioned his birthday to a few teammates in passing, but hadn’t made a big deal of it. Birthdays in professional football were usually low-key affairs - a cake in the canteen, a few congratulations, and back to business.
He couldn’t have been more wrong.
The first sign that something was different came when he arrived at the training ground and found the car park unusually full. Not just the first-team players’ cars, but vehicles he recognized as belonging to academy staff and youth players.
"That’s strange," he murmured to himself, checking his phone to make sure he hadn’t missed a message about a special training session.
As he walked toward the main building, the doors burst open and what seemed like the entire Utrecht organization poured out, led by Mark van der Maarel carrying a massive cake shaped like a football.
"SURPRISE!" they shouted in unison, and Amani nearly dropped his training bag in shock.
"Happy birthday, superstar!" van der Maarel grinned, setting the cake down on a table that had been set up in the courtyard. "Did you really think we’d let your sixteenth pass without a proper celebration?"
Amani looked around in amazement. Not only were all his first-team teammates there, but he could see academy players, coaching staff, medical team members, even some of the administrative staff who worked in the offices. Someone had clearly put a lot of effort into organizing this.
"How did you...?" he started to ask, but was immediately engulfed in a series of hugs and back-slaps from his teammates.
"Sophia might have mentioned it to a few people," Jacob Mulenga said with a wink. "And you know how word spreads around here."