Harbinger Of Glory-Chapter 57: Maestro

Manchester:

The city was just beginning to stretch awake — buses hissing along quiet roads, cafes flicking lights on, the low haze of morning cold clinging to parked cars.

Leo stepped out of the apartment, hoodie up, bag slung over his shoulder, and held the door for Mia, who popped out in her oversized blazer and bag too big for her back.

"Button that properly," he said as Mia groaned, but that wasn’t saving her.

"We’re walking, not going to Parliament," she couldn’t help but say, but Leo gave her a look, and she fixed the buttons.

.

They started down the pavement, side by side, after a while, with Sofia waving from the apartment window.

"So," she said, "you’re officially famous at my school now." frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

He raised an eyebrow.

"Hmm, already?"

She grinned.

"I might have told one or two people that my brother made his debut and is now a professional player."

"Just one or two, huh? Tell me more," Leo stared at Mia.

"Okay...maybe the whole group chat, but you get me."

By the time they turned the corner near her school, three girls had already spotted her.

"That them?" Leo asked as Mia nodded, suddenly trying to walk straighter.

As they reached the gate, one of the girls whispered something, and the others turned toward Leo.

Mia gestured dramatically.

"This is my brother. Leo. First team Wigan player. Youngest ever if what the panellists said is anything I can trust."

Leo gave a polite nod.

One of the girls spoke up.

"That was you on TV, wasn’t it?"

He shrugged.

"Few minutes off the bench."

"Still cool," another girl said.

Mia beamed like she’d just won a medal.

Leo leaned down to her, lowering his voice.

"Hey," he said.

"You look beautiful today. Have a good one, alright?"

She blinked, cheeks going pink.

"You’re being nice. Something’s wrong."

He smirked. "Just tired. I’m heading back after this."

Her smile dropped a little.

"You’ll come back when you can, yeah? When there’s a window?"

Leo nodded. "Soon as I can."

He watched as she joined her friends, their chatter picking up instantly as they disappeared into the school gates.

For a second, he didn’t move, then he turned, headed home, and grabbed his bag for the train.

....

10:57 a.m. – Wigan Training Ground

Leo stepped into the locker room just as a small burst of laughter broke out across the back benches.

Players were pulling on boots, tying tape, or still in various stages of getting dressed but a few or most were taking their time with it.

Fletcher was leaned over a locker, talking animatedly.

"I’m telling you — I should be godfather. No one wants a boring godfather."

"Yeah," McClean cut in from across the room, "and no one wants one who has fewer goals than the kid they’re naming as a striker."

"What, you think it should be you?" Fletcher fired back.

"I’m the eldest. That counts for something. Wisdom, status, all of that."

"You’re the eldest," Joe Bennet said, not looking up from his kit bag, "but no one’s letting their child inherit your attitude."

McClean pointed.

"Exactly why I’d be a great godfather — I’m fun. Free. Unpredictable."

Leo, now seated just down the bench, chuckled to himself, and McClean caught it.

"What’s funny, Calderón? Something stuck in my tooth, or you got something to say?"

"Just trying to picture a toddler under your influence."

Fletcher snapped his fingers.

"There you go. Calderón agrees with me. I’ve got the youth vote."

"Great," McClean said.

"We’re running a democratic nursery now."

The banter would have continued but was cut short by the door swinging open and Dawson entering, clipboard tucked under his arm.

"Alright, enough," he said, voice firm but relaxed.

"Boots on, now. Pitch in five."

The chatter, which had been ongoing for a while, stopped as the players rushed to finish dressing up before joining Dawson on the pitch.

........

The starters wore red bibs.

The subs and reserves were in grey.

But there weren’t smiles anymore.

The rondos and warm-up laps were long gone.

This was a full-pitch positional game: a structured eleven-vs-eleven, broken into phases — two-touch limit, one holding midfielder drop, keeper builds short, no long balls unless under pressure.

And Leo was in the grey.

The first few minutes were sluggish.

Touches were too heavy, and choices were too slow to count, and Leo watched it unfold like a puzzle not yet solved.

Chris Sze dropped into the left half-space and gave him a nod.

Leo checked his shoulder, drifted wide, and stayed patient.

When the ball came, he was ready—not just for the pass, but for the pressure behind it.

He dragged the pass wide with the inside of his boot, flicked it into space, and shouted for space.

The ball went to the left-back, who took it, and hesitated but, Leo was already angling in.

"One more! Centre!" Leo called as he took the ball, back inside before slipping it to Chris and that became the longest the reserve team had, had the ball in a while.

And then something shifted.

The tempo tilted.

One clean pass after another, the grey shirts began to hum with movement.

It wasn’t flashy or spectacular, but it was one that could get the job done on any day.

Fletcher, forced to play with the reserves, peeled off the shoulder of Whatmough.

"If you see it, play it!" he called out to Leo as the latter lifted his chin.

The gap was thin, just inside the centre-back’s hip, but that wasn’t going to stop Leo.

He drew his left leg back before slapping the side ot the ball, adding top spin as the ball floated into the path of Fletcher.

Fletcher took two touches, held off a chase, and lashed it bottom right, past the forest of bodies and into the back of the,

"Net," Fletcher called out after the ball nestled into the goal.

From behind the goal, one of the red defenders groaned. "Whose man is he?"

Leo jogged back to shape.

"Nice ball," Chris Sze said as he stuck out a hand for a high five.

The red side restarted pushing harder and pressing higher.

McClean yelled from the left channel, calling for his mates to track Leo, but Leo was everywhere.

This time, the move came down the right in the form of a switch.

Leo shouted for it, then barked for the overlap from Joe Bennet.

The fullback obliged and cut inside, forcing the midfielder of the red team to chase, but Leo spun back out, forgetting he had ever called for the run.

He drew in two defenders, then stabbed a low cutback across the face of goal, and Fletcher again dragged his marker just enough to flick it first time.

Another goal.

Whistles sounded from the sideline as one of the assistant coaches clapped twice.

Even the subs were shouting more.

Chris yelled mid-play, "Leo—drop behind me!"

"Not yet," Leo snapped.

"They haven’t settled yet", he called as the red team restarted the match again, but this time, it was getting a bit irksome for them.

"He’s orchestrating the f*cking tempo—are we doing nothing about it?" McClean turned, frustrated in the midfield, while Whatmough, in defence, barked for pressure.

The red midfield stepped up — finally — but now space opened behind them.

Sze found it, and Leo replicated it with a quick one-two ball that slid into the channel again.

"Play through!" Leo called, already moving to receive again.

The grey team swarmed forward, their touches lighter, faster, instinctive.

The reds weren’t disjointed, but they were scrambling.

One late challenge went in, clipping Leo’s heel, but he stumbled and stayed up before he spun out of the blockade and got going.

And Dawson — standing still on the sideline, arms folded — finally murmured to his assistant beside him.

"He’s finally got there. He’s not playing like a kid anymore."

The smiles on the faces of the red team at the start of the match had turned to strains and groans as they reached out for the ball with slides and tackles, but still weren’t getting to it.

Because even though this was just training, nobody wanted to be spun in and out like a web.

The grey team were running the drill.

Not because they were sharper.

But because Leo had stopped asking for the ball.

And started telling them where it needed to go.

A/N: Another Chapter. Sorry for the Chapters not loading. It all had to do with the privilege tiers. I had set one up for this month but had forgotten about it and had therefore failed to put in the Chapters that it would make up off. I’ll be releasing double of this to compensate for it so hopefully it gets resolved soon. With that out of the way, thank you for reading and I hope to see you in a bit as I’ve got a Chapter to release for the other book. Have fun and I’ll see you in a bit. Also, tell me what could change and what should stay in the comments and don’t forget to leave a review as it really helps the book.