Proact Stadium was only sixty-five kilometers from St George’s Park, about a forty-minute drive.
Normally, after such a thrilling comeback, those forty minutes on the England U17 team bus would have been filled with singing.
But today, most of the England boys were asleep.
The reason was simple.
They were exhausted.
The high-pressing tactics had drained everyone’s stamina.
The only one who had pressed hardest, Zayn, was not particularly tired.
First, he had only come on in the second half.
Second, during the final ten minutes or so, he had practically been coasting around the pitch.
Zayn sat by the window in the back row, playing with the football in his hands.
It was the match ball.
In football, it was customary for a player who scored a hat trick to take the match ball home.
The ball was already covered with his teammates’ signatures.
Clearly, Zayn had not only taken the ball with him thanks to his hat trick, he had also earned the recognition of these Young Lions from clubs across England.
…
At the front of the bus, less than an hour after the match ended, Steve Cooper had already received twelve phone calls.
The callers came from all over the place.
Scouts from different clubs.
Their target, of course, was Zayn Ryder.
Cooper rubbed his temples.
A forward who came off the bench for forty-five minutes, scored a hat trick, and turned the match around.
Who would not want another look?
More importantly, the boy had not come through the academy of a major club.
And what did that mean?
Cheap.
Cooper was already used to these kinds of calls.
Most people were simply calling with the attitude that there was no harm in asking first.
After all, it was only one match.
One good performance had merely put Zayn on their radar.
Of course, there were also decisive types who could watch one match and immediately decide they wanted to take a player.
But as soon as the match ended, Cooper had hurried the players onto the return bus.
Under the Youth Development Protection Regulations jointly established by the FA and the Premier League, scouts from any club were not allowed to directly contact a player or his family without written permission from the player’s current club.
They first had to submit a written report to that club’s academy recruitment department, along with a detailed match assessment and video analysis.
Only after the recruitment department approved it could the club step in and arrange contact.
Of course, there were always ways to get around the rules and find a player’s contact details.
But that was none of Cooper’s business.
After Cooper led England to the U17 World Cup title earlier that year, the attention on Foden, Sancho, and the rest of that group had been more than ten times greater than this.
He had plenty of experience dealing with these situations.
So he simply turned his phone off.
In truth, even if he had left it on, Cooper could not have given the scouts much information.
Zayn Ryder had been added at the last minute by Dewsnip.
Cooper had known the boy for less than three days.
Seven years in Villa’s academy, all spent in defensive positions.
Converted to forward less than two weeks ago, yet his scoring efficiency was terrifying.
Thinking of that, Cooper’s mouth twitched.
Fine.
Let the scouts go and dig around for themselves.
…
By the time the bus drove into St George’s Park, the sky had already gone completely dark.
The boys yawned as they got off the bus and returned to their dorms.
Zayn had just finished showering when his phone rang.
It was David Hughes.
“Coach?”
“Zayn, I watched today’s match. You played well.”
Before Zayn could be modest, Hughes continued.
“When you get back from St George’s Park, the club wants to talk to you. About your future.”
The word “future” carried real weight.
“Is it about my contract?” Zayn asked tentatively.
“You’ll know when you get back,” Hughes said without answering directly.
“Focus on playing the remaining matches well.”
The call ended.
Zayn tossed his phone onto the bed and lay back.
Hughes’s call had come at just the right time.
[Main Quest 3: Making the List] had clearly made progress.
A pay rise was coming.
Once the three matches were over…
Zayn pulled the blanket over his head.
Sleep first.
There was still training tomorrow.
…
Over the next six days, England U17 played two more matches.
On November 11, their second match was against Russia U17.
The Russian boys were tall and strong, with an average height three centimeters above England’s.
When they lined up in the penalty area, they looked like a row of utility poles.
But their foot speed was on the slow side, and against England’s intricate high press, their build-up from the back was forced into chaos.
Zayn started the match.
In the 33rd minute, he received a through ball from Curtis Jones, beat the offside trap, and finished one-on-one.
Throughout the first half, he tore the Russian defense apart.
Greenwood added another goal, and the final score was 2-1.
On November 14, their third match was against Germany U17.
This was effectively the title decider of the Four Nations Tournament, as Germany had also won both of their previous matches.
From the opening whistle, the match became a grinding battle.
The pressing intensity from both sides in midfield was so fierce that the ball could barely stay on any patch of grass for more than two seconds.
In the 56th minute, Zayn scored the only goal of the match from a counterattack.
The match ended 1-0.
With that, England U17 won all three matches and claimed the Four Nations Tournament title.
The hosts brought the tournament to a perfect close.
Zayn scored five goals in three matches and took home the tournament’s top scorer trophy.
…
On the night before leaving St George’s Park, Zayn was packing in his dorm room.
Training kit, boots, trophy, and the match ball covered in signatures.
He placed each item into his bag one by one.
His phone suddenly rang.
The number on the screen was from London.
Zayn paused, searched through his memory, and could not recall his original body having any friends or relatives in London.
After hesitating for a moment, he answered.
“Hello, is this Mr. Zayn Ryder?” An unfamiliar man’s voice came from the other end, carrying that polished, professional London tone.
“This is Zayn.”
“Mr. Ryder, I apologize for disturbing you at this hour. My name is Daniel Walker. I’m a senior consultant at the sports agency Stellar Group.”
The man paused briefly, as if giving Zayn time to process that.
“I’m calling on behalf of Mr. Jonathan Barnett.”
Jonathan Barnett.
That name carried enough weight in English football that no explanation was needed.
His agency represented more than nine hundred players across the Premier League, the Championship, and the major European leagues.
It was the largest player career management force in England.
His client list included some of Britain’s biggest stars, such as Bale, Grealish, Luke Shaw, Pickford, and Joe Hart.
And now, that team’s attention had fallen on an Aston Villa U18 forward who had just won the Golden Boot at the Four Nations Tournament.
As a major force in British football, Barnett’s team had naturally been following this Four Nations Tournament closely.
Not only this tournament, in fact.
Every training camp and every match involving England’s youth teams at every age level produced professional scouting reports that landed on their desks.
After Zayn scored a hat trick in the opening match against Portugal, they immediately launched a background check.
With their network of contacts across clubs large and small throughout England, they not only discovered that Zayn had no agent, but even found out details such as his current weekly wage of just four hundred pounds.
After watching him for two more matches, the team finally confirmed that Zayn’s talent was exceptional.
So they decisively made their move.