Rafael arrived at the FC Metz training centre at twelve forty-five with his match bag over one shoulder and his boots held by their laces in his left hand.
The visiting team’s minibus was already parked near the entrance. Two members of their staff were unloading crates of drinks while a Metz assistant rolled a bag of footballs toward the pitch. Another staff member followed with a medical case in one hand and a bundle of training poles beneath his arm.
Beyond them, a club official stood over a tablet, checking the names Metz had entered on the electronic match sheet. The visiting team would confirm their own selection before the referee and both captains completed the licence and identity checks.
Nothing about the afternoon resembled the entrances Rafael remembered from professional football. There were no cameras waiting beside the gate, no supporters calling his name and no security staff guiding the players through a private door.
Parents and academy staff were gathering behind the barriers around the pitch. A few other spectators stood with paper cups in their hands, speaking quietly while the groundsman checked the nets.
Rafael entered with the other selected players and carried his own bag toward the changing room.
The starting shirts had been placed at each player’s seat.
He found the number nine waiting for him.
Rafael stopped for a moment, then set down his bag and ran his thumb once across the printed number. It was only an academy shirt. He had worn the same number in stadiums holding tens of thousands of people.
This one still mattered.
"You’ve been staring at that shirt long enough to ask it on a date."
Rafael looked to his right.
Yanis had dropped onto the bench beside him and was pulling his training top over his head.
"Concentrate on delivering one useful pass," Rafael said. "Then you can worry about my relationships."
"I deliver useful passes every week."
"To which team?"
Yanis threw the training top at him. Rafael caught it and pushed it back into his chest.
The changing room filled around them. One player sat near the physiotherapist while tape was wrapped around his right ankle. The substitute goalkeeper checked the number on his shirt against the team sheet pinned beside the door. Their captain removed a thin chain from beneath his collar and placed it inside his bag before the officials could tell him to take it off.
Players cut strips of tape for their socks, adjusted their shin guards and argued over the music coming from a speaker balanced on the shelf. Someone changed the song. Three people complained immediately.
Rafael changed without withdrawing from any of it. He laughed when Yanis accused the left-back of choosing funeral music and moved his feet when another teammate needed space beneath the bench.
The older mind inside him did not make these boys strangers. For most of his first life, they had been the people beside him before football became contracts, interviews and promises nobody intended to keep.
The door opened and the coach entered with his assistant.
The music stopped.
"We start in the same shape we prepared," the coach said. "Four-three-three. Stay compact when we lose the ball. The front line cannot press while the midfield watches from ten metres behind. We move together or we do not go."
His gaze shifted toward Rafael.
"Morales, don’t waste energy running from one centre-back to the other. When one receives the ball, close him on an angle. Take away the pass across the defence and force him toward the touchline. The nearest winger closes the full-back, and the midfield steps up behind you."
Rafael nodded.
The coach turned toward the board and moved the magnet representing Rafael between the two opposition centre-backs.
"When we have the ball, occupy both of them. Give us an option into your feet and attack the area when we go wide. You can come short, but if nobody runs beyond you, you stay high. We cannot have everyone asking for the ball in front of their defence."
Every instruction was familiar to Rafael. The curved press, the distance to midfield and the need for someone to threaten behind were principles he had learned across years of matches and several different coaches.
He did not need to add anything.
The coach spoke to the midfielders about collecting second balls, reminded the full-backs not to advance at the same time and finished with the opposition’s set pieces.
As the players stood, blue light appeared at the edge of Rafael’s vision.
[Active Mission: Return to Competition.]
[Objective: Complete Your First Competitive Appearance After Regression.]
[Bonus Objective: Register One Goal Contribution.]
[Reward: 1 Free Attribute Point.]
Rafael dismissed the panel and followed the others outside.
The warm-up began with mobility work and dynamic stretches before moving into short passing patterns. Rafael opened his hips, drove his knees upward and completed the brief acceleration runs without pushing beyond the pace set by the conditioning coach.
Once the balls came out, he concentrated on the rhythm of the teammates around him. The right-sided midfielder preferred passes into his front foot. Yanis wanted the ball slightly ahead of him so he could receive while moving. The left winger took an extra touch before crossing whenever the pass arrived behind him.
Rafael adjusted to each of them.
The System’s earlier improvement was present without making his body feel unfamiliar. His planted foot remained steadier when he passed, his first touch stayed closer and his opening steps carried slightly more sharpness. He was still using the body of a talented seventeen-year-old. It had simply become a cleaner version of itself.
During the finishing part of the warm-up, Rafael guided one effort into the goalkeeper’s hands, sent the next inside the far post and struck the final shot over the bar.
"Saving the good ones for the match?" Yanis asked.
"I was making you feel better."
"About what?"
"Your shooting."
The whistle called them toward the touchline before Yanis could answer.
The officials completed the equipment inspection near the pitch. They confirmed that the players were wearing shin guards and checked that nobody had carried jewellery out of the changing room. Once both teams were ready, the referee brought the captains together for the coin toss.
Metz were given the kick-off.
Rafael walked to the centre spot and looked across the opposition defence.
The two centre-backs were similar in height, although the one on Rafael’s right was broader through the shoulders. Both moved restlessly while the referee checked his watch. The left centre-back glanced repeatedly toward the ball, then toward Rafael, trying to keep both inside his view.
Rafael felt no fear.
He had played in cup finals, relegation battles and stadiums where thousands of people wanted him to fail. Nothing waiting across the halfway line could overwhelm him.
What excited him was simpler.
This time, he could play the match properly.
The referee blew his whistle.
Rafael tapped the ball backward, and competitive football began again.
For the opening minutes, he did not chase a goal with every movement. He stayed between the centre-backs when Metz had possession, offered short when the midfield needed him and shifted with the ball whenever the opposition tried to build.
He watched while he worked.
The left centre-back checked Rafael’s position whenever the ball was travelling toward him, but his attention stayed on the pass once it arrived. Twice, Rafael moved half a step while the defender was watching the ball and saw him react late.
The right centre-back had a different problem. He was comfortable when the pitch remained in front of him, but each backward pass forced him to turn almost completely toward his own goal before controlling it. His first touch was not terrible. It simply took him longer to face forward again.
Metz tested that side in the sixth minute.
The opposition midfielder returned the ball to the right centre-back. Rafael waited until the pass had travelled, then approached on a curved line which blocked the route back across the defence.
The left winger moved at the same moment and closed the full-back. Behind Rafael, the nearest Metz midfielder stepped forward to remove the pass through the centre.
The defender looked up and found every comfortable option disappearing. He hurried a pass down the touchline.
Metz’s full-back arrived in front of the opposing winger, won the duel and headed the ball inside toward midfield.
The press had begun with Rafael, but it had only worked because three teammates moved with him.
Metz kept possession and built again.
Rafael’s first attacking touch came when the right-sided midfielder passed firmly into his feet. He checked over his shoulder before the ball reached him, placed his body between it and the nearest centre-back and laid it back with one touch.
Then he turned toward goal.
Yanis had already moved inside and tried to return the ball between the centre-back and full-back. The pass carried too much weight, allowing the goalkeeper to collect it before Rafael could reach the area.
Rafael lifted his thumb toward Yanis and turned back into position.
The opposition defenders began testing him physically after that. One pressed a forearm across his back before the pass arrived. The other stepped close whenever Rafael tried to turn.
Rafael did not fight both of them for the sake of proving he could. He used the slight improvement in his balance to absorb the first contact, released the ball before the second defender arrived and moved as soon as the pass left his foot.
Around the tenth minute, he dropped several metres from the defensive line.
The left centre-back hesitated, unsure whether to follow. That brief delay was enough.
Rafael received from midfield, laid the ball toward Yanis and spun into the space behind the defender. Yanis saw the movement but chose the safer pass toward an advancing midfielder instead.
The midfielder carried the ball to the edge of the penalty area and shot. A defender stepped across and blocked it before the goalkeeper had to move.
Rafael turned away without complaint. His movement had opened the route, and Yanis had found a teammate facing goal. The attack had still worked.