After leaving the club, I went home. It was still around midday. Sofia had gone out to hang out with her friends, so I was alone at home.
I went straight to my room and sat on the edge of my bed, lost in thought. Today, I had officially taken the first real step of my football career. From now on, I was a member of the Greenfield Rovers U16 team. All I had to do was climb step by step toward the top. I had made up my mind, and I knew I would have to work harder than ever before.
The position I was in right now was still very far from the peak. In my previous life, amateur clubs didn't have facilities anywhere near this level. Because of that, joining amateur clubs there was much easier than it was here. Of course, one reason was the much larger population of this world, but the real difference lay in the status of football as a profession.
Thanks to the system devices used in this world, major developments had taken place in all professions. Football was one of the fields most affected by these advancements. It was no longer seen as just a sport; in the eyes of society, football had become an elite and prestigious profession. As a result, the number of footballers was many times greater than in my previous life.
For that reason, even with my system, becoming one of the top footballers would not be an easy journey. I would have to give it my all and keep pushing myself without holding anything back.
The region I currently lived in had a population of about one million. Despite that, there was only one football club competing in the 4th League. There were six football academies that did not compete in professional leagues and fourteen amateur football clubs. Only two of those amateur clubs were playing in the Regional Amateur League.
The teams competing in the Regional Amateur League fought against teams from other regions in a league system to earn promotion to the 4th League.
The remaining eighteen teams competed among themselves in a league format to gain promotion to the Regional Amateur League. The team that finished first earned direct promotion for the following season. Whether the second-place team would be promoted or not was decided through knockout matches against runners-up from other regions.
Greenfield Rovers Football Club was one of those eighteen teams, competing for a place in the Regional Amateur League.
After seeing how challenging even the amateur level was, I had given up on attending trials for 4th League teams or clubs already in the Regional Amateur League. For now, Greenfield Rovers seemed to be my limit.
With these thoughts in mind, I started planning my career path. I didn't intend to leave Greenfield Rovers until I was promoted to the U18 team. If things went well, I might even stay until I reached the first team and fought for a place there.
For now, my first goal was clear:
to rise to the U18 team within this club.
After thinking about all this for a while, I headed to my workplace.
In my previous life, I had worked in construction and interacted with many shop owners. Because of that, I was good at communicating with older people. Thanks to this, I had built a good relationship with the owner of the market where I worked.
Using that advantage, I went to ask whether I could continue working under different conditions.
The market owner, Mr. Albert, was in his fifties but had a very energetic personality. I found him standing in his usual spot in the shop. As always, I started a friendly conversation with him. Having worked in this business for many years, he quickly noticed something and looked at me with a smile.
"There's something different about you today," he said.
"I guess you came to talk about something important. Go on, tell me."
As usual, he was right.
Without dragging it out, I explained the situation.
"I've joined a youth team. Because I'll have training sessions and matches, I won't be able to work on certain days. Would it be possible for me to keep working on days when I don't have training or matches?"
Mr. Albert thought for a moment, then nodded.
"As long as you let me know your rest days within the month in advance, you can continue working."
I welcomed his answer with great joy. Due to my new nutrition program and club-related needs, I would have additional expenses, and I didn't want to put pressure on Clara because of that.
Knowing I could keep this job meant I could continue my weekly routine more comfortably.
I thanked Mr. Albert and then went to start my work for the day. After finishing my shift, I left the market and headed home.