There were certain joys in life that most people never got to feel. The joy of discovering things.
Not just finding them, but recognising them.
That's why people talk about rare discoveries like they were miracles, because they are. There is a certain joy in discovering things others never noticed or failed to see.
Just like a miner striking the ground and finding a diamond instead of dull stone.
A fisherman dragging in his net expecting catfish and pulling out something he'd only seen in books.
A mechanic finding a classic car hidden under a dusty tarp.
A prospector in a mine could walk past the dull, dirty surface of a raw diamond without knowing anything special was in his hand. But a jeweler would feel his breath hitch the moment he saw the faint sparkle beneath the grime.
The joy wasn't in the rock itself, it was in the realization of what it could be.
Collectors felt it too.They dug through forgotten attics, rummaged dusty bins, flipped through old vinyls and yellowed comic pages—hoping not to find something perfect, but something worth perfecting.
That type of joy was rare. It required vision, patience and belief. Most people never experienced it because most people never looked deeply enough.
Parents felt it when they realized their child wasn't just 'smart,' but brilliant. Scientists felt it when they saw an unexpected spark of truth in a messy experiment.
Coaches felt it when they saw not talent, but potential. True potential wasn't loud, it didn't brag, it didn't demand attention.
It whispered.
It sat quietly, waiting for someone with eyes sharp enough to notice. Waiting for someone who could say, "There. Hidden under everything. That's it. That's something special."
For Coach Jidenna, that feeling was rare. Almost extinct.
He had coached for years: young boys, older players, the stubborn ones, the lazy ones, the hardworking ones.He had seen enthusiasm, passion, and on rare occasions, natural ability.
But what he witnessed today wasn't just ability, it was the joy of discovery.
The same way a historian might feel finding a lost manuscript.The same way a scout might feel stumbling upon a world-class player on a forgotten pitch.
He hadn't expected it, he hadn't even gone looking for it. It had simply… appeared in front of him.
Covered in dust, sweat, and a quiet face that didn't even seem to realize what he was capable of.
One boy among dozens, yet unmistakably different.
And that joy, the realization of something valuable, warmed his chest as he walked to his car.
Night had settled now. The floodlights buzzed overhead, catching the last grains of dust still drifting from the pitch.
The players had gone home either laughing or complaining, stretching their tired legs. The field was quiet again, just like it always was after training.
Jidenna unlocked his Corolla and sank into the driver's seat. He turned the key but didn't shift into drive, not yet.
He needed a moment to sort his head. His heartbeat was steady, but his thoughts were racing.
The root of those thoughts was Ayodeji. The kid had caught his eye during the weekend but today was a different statement.
The scrimmage had ended 3–1, with your red team winning the game. But the score wasn't what Jidenna was thinking about, it was the way that boy played.
The boy was absolutely brilliant, surprising him each time the ball was at his feet. He had impressed him from the first goal, where he did a solo run, dribbling past players before giving the assist—a trivela to the striker.
But it didn't just end there for him, the boy continued terrorising the opposition.
From the way Ayodeji receiving the ball with one touch that killed its bounce completely.
That drop of the shoulder that fooled two defenders at once.
The way the entire pitch seemed to tilt whenever he started running.
One would have thought that he was a professional player who disguised in order to participate in the match.
And the calm on his face the whole time, no nervousness or fear. He didn't even show signs of his ego inflating as he played extremely well.
Just focus.
"We've been training boys for years." He recalled the assistance coach muttering, his eyes widening as Ayodeji dribbled past the right back. "How does he just slip past everybody?"
Jidenna couldn't even find a response to that, just as he couldn't during the scrimmage. Obviously, he was disappointed and angry at the players for such poor performance but again there was this warm feeling deep in his chest as he saw Ayodeji play.
He wouldn't fully call it excitement but he was surely alert to the boy.
***
Ayodeji gritted his teeth as he pressed the bar upward. His arms trembled, elbows flaring just slightly before he forced them back in line.
"Six… seven…" he muttered under his breath.
Sweat slid down the side of his ribs and pooled on the bench padding beneath him. The bar shook for a moment, but he steadied it.
Three more. He inhaled sharply, his lungs burning and his forearms on fire. His chest felt tight, swollen from strain.
"Eight… nine—"
He paused halfway up on the ninth rep, eyes squeezed shut. The weight stalled above him and he almost thought his arms would quit. But he pushed again, inch by inch, until the bar finally reached lockout.
He lowered it, slow and controlled, feeling every fiber in his pecs screaming.
"One more," he growled.
The bar descended, touching his chest. His body tensed. He pushed but nothing happened, his muscles didn't respond.
Then he forced more power, legs digging into the ground, breath bursting from his lungs.
"Ten!"
He racked the bar with a loud metallic clack and collapsed back, chest heaving. His arms fell to his sides, limp and vibrating with exhaustion. The ceiling of the gym swam in his vision.
"Fuck, that was really heavy today." he muttered.
His heart hammered as sweat rolled down his temples and into his hair. The gym was quiet except for his heavy breathing.
There were no people there, just machines, weights, racks and mats all perfectly tidy and arranged for him by FEI. It was another essential part needed for his training—the physical aspect required to fend off defenders and also defend the ball....plus Coach Jidenna told him to work on his physicality.
He sat up slowly, rolling his shoulders, feeling that pleasant soreness starting to settle into his muscles.
[Task Complete!]
[Task: Upper Body Training: Complete]
He'd done five sets, heavy reps. His form was neat and steady. One hour here equaled one second outside, and he had spent hours grinding.
It had been days since he had joined his team and played the scrimmage, assisting two goals. The reception and atmosphere from his teammates were quite warm and receiving, not judging and skeptical like before.
Almost everyone wanted him on his side of his team during the scrimmage and for some reason, he noticed that Jidenna's focus was usually more on him or was he just overthinking it?
[00:16:28]
He stared at the timer, realising he still had time to rest and recharge his body.
He grabbed his towel and stepped toward the exit door. It slid open without a sound. The gym lights dimmed behind him as he walked through the connecting passageway.
The moment he entered the next room, he stopped.
A huge indoor pool stretched across the space, easily Olympic-sized. The water surface was perfectly still, like glass, reflecting the LED lamps embedded into the ceiling. The area smelled clean and sharp, the scent of chlorine barely noticeable.
The tiles around the pool were white with a faint grey pattern, modern and spotless. It didn't feel like a public facility—more like a private, premium sports institute.
Then he looked up.
The walls weren't normal walls. They were enormous glass panes, stretching from floor to ceiling. If he didn't know better, he'd think they were just windows to the outside world.
But outside wasn't the real world.
There were clouds—thick, white clouds drifting lazily, like cotton spread across a blue sky. No buildings, no land, no horizon.
Just sky. Endless sky.
If he leaned forward and stared closely, he could almost feel the openness, like the room was floating hundreds of meters above the world.
He dropped his towel on a nearby chair and stepped forward. Beneath his bare feet, the tiles were cool. He inhaled deeply, the air here was refreshing, lighter than in the gym.
It wasn't the first time he came here but every single time, he was mesmerized by the sight of the place.
A metal ladder dipped into the calm water. He held the rails and slid in slowly.
The water hugged him instantly—warm, not hot, just right. He felt every muscle loosened as soon as he sank in. His shoulders, chest, back… all the strain from lifting and exercising.melted away.
He drifted backward until only his face remained above the surface. His head rested against the pool's edge, the rest of his body floating weightless.
"Status" he murmured, his tone weary due to both exhaustion and relaxation.
...
[Profile]
[Name: Ayodeji Olaleke]
[Age: 16]
[Height: 5'9"]
[Position: Left Winger]
[Stronger Foot: Right]
[Overall Rating: 60]
[Attacking Prowess: 58 (↑30)]
[Ball Control: 60 (↑30)]
[Dribbling: 62 (↑30)]
[Low Pass: 51 (↑20)]
[Lofted Pass: 49 (↑20)]
[Finishing: 64 (↑20)]
[Place Kicking: 65 (↑20)]
[Swerve: 57 (↑30)]
[Header: 32 (↑10)]
[Defensive Prowess: 46 (↑20)]
[Ball Winning: 45 (↑20)]
[Kicking Power: 65 (↑30)]
[Speed: 63 (↑20)]
[Explosive Power: 72 (↑28)]
[Body Balance: 62 (↑ 20)]
[Jump: 39 (↑10)]
[Weak Foot Usage: 2 (↑1)]
[Weak Foot Accuracy: 2 (↑1)]
[Stamina: 66 (↑20)]
[Skill Cards￬]
- Stats Multiplier ✮✮✮✮✮
...
He couldn't help but smile faintly as he stared at his stats, seeing his growth. For now his best weapons were his agility, speed, stamina and dribble.
But he still felt like his stats was slow, it should be more than this. "Hey FEI, I'm just wondering but shouldn't my abilities be much better with the multiplier?"
[Yes, it should be.]
"So..." He raised an eyebrow.
[Your environment limits your growth. Your ability improves based on the area and environment you're in. You can't become a world class player from where world class cant be produced.]
[Your abilities are by far the best here, continuing in this place would just make your stats increase at an extremely slow rate.]
"So I have to scouted, that's what you're saying." Ayodeji's jaw tightened. Getting scouted in Nigeria or Africa as whole wasn't easy.
Most scouts were usually told to find a particular player in a position, meaning if you were a CM and played absolutely well, you might not picked if they needed a ST; you could just be recommended but it's up to the team to decide.
And it was also rare for scouts to randomly appear at a game, they mostly appear during tournaments but there are lots of communities or LGA matches/tournaments happening within a state that a scout could just pick one.
And the chances of a scout from an European team was extremely low. Most scouts that came were usually from a grassroot academy who then send players to the teams in the Nigeria Premier Football League.
Not to sound unpatriotic but he wouldn't rather go to the Nigerian League, the chances getting scouted from there was 0.001.
Heck, the chances of making it into the national team would be 0.00001 unless there's no player who was in an European team to fill that position.
A player could score 100 goals in the league and the chances of him starting over Osimhen would be extremely low. So he had to hope, cross his fingers and pray that a scout from Europe finds his way—even by accident to the tournament.
He couldn't help but sigh as he glanced at the timer.
[0:09:23]
———
AN: Hello guys, for now I'll be showing less of his stats, because I'm trying to not make it too op before he gets his first pro contract. I've been trying to do the math and I don't want to make him too good (really OP)at such an early stage of the story. But you would see his training session e.g dribbling, crossing etc but not his stats.
Also, I'll be a bit fast paced with time skips because I believe his real journey starts in Europe, no time to be dwindling here in Nigeria (I love my country ಥ_ಥ) This means that I wouldn't give names to the characters in the upcoming tournament, you'll see sth like no 10 of Khaki FC or Khaki FC striker or the striker etc.
Hope you are enjoying story. Do bless the kid with power stones and your comments would be appreciated.
Bless.
Verty.