Chapter 323: Hocus Pocus with the NFF III
Chapter 323: Hocus Pocus with the NFF III
*11:14 am*
Jason and Adele were seated at a table in the restaurant of the hotel, ready to have their breakfast after their time in the gym earlier.
Adele was dressed back in her blouse and trousers while Jason was casually dressed in a white shirt paired with black trousers and was seated on the table across from her.
Their phones were on the table and they had finally been turned on as the two of them waited for a call from the NFF.
While they waited their food arrived at the table.
Since they were in Nigeria, they were having a Nigerian breakfast which was bean pudding and pap, locally known as Moi-moi and Ogi.
Moi-moi/bean pudding was just as it name suggested, pudding made from beans, while ogi/pap was made from fermented corn that was ground finely and made into a paste.
Just as Jason and Adele were about to start eating, Adele’s phone on phone began vibrating, immediately calling the attention of the table’s occupants.
With a picture of calmness on her face, Adele put down her fork and picked up her phone, glanced at the screen but did not recognize the caller.However, that did not stop her from picking up her ear pods, handing one to Jason as she put the other one to her ear, letting it automatically connect before swiping across the screen of her phone and answering the call.
“Hello,” Her voice was cold as she began speaking, earning her a thumbs up from Jason who was enjoying the whole fiasco more than he should.
{Hello, is this Mrs Adele Joyce?} A sonorous voice rang in Jason’s and Adele’s ear, the speaker seemingly not noticing Adele’s cold tone as her voice was upbeat and Jason could hear the slight Nigerian accent leaking through despite the caller’s attempt at sounding very formal.
“Speaking…” Adele continued with the one-word answer shtick she had started with.
{Okay. My name is Vivian and I’m with the Nigerian Football Federation. We contacted you to ask when your client, Mr. Bolu would be arriving at our head office for his appointment} The caller said at a stretch causing a slight frown to appear on Jason’s and Adele’s faces.
“Arriving? We’re not coming to the NFF’s head office,” Adele replied immediately, her voice having a vicious edge to it despite sounding very civil.
{Huh? I’m not quite sure I understand what you mean} Vivian sounded confused as she replied.
“We. are. not. coming.” Adele spelled out word after word.
“There’s a flight back to Porto at 3 pm and two seats on that plane have our name on it,” she continued, still sounding very civil but the words coming out of her mouth had Vivian worrying for her job.
{But why? We have an agreement to meet at 1 pm with your client right?} Vivian asked, sounding very worried and confused and this immediately let Jason and Adele know that something was off somewhere, but that didn’t mean they were going to stop.
Despite Jason being unable to say anything to Adele at that moment, she understood Jason’s intent from his gaze and opened her mouth again,
“I don’t know if you’re playing ignorant but let me explain this so you’d understand our decision,” she began.
“My client was focusing on his football career for Porto and had been playing quite well lately when all of a sudden, you guys reached out to my client, even employing the help of a teammate to meet him behind my back and convince him to play for the Nigerian national team,”
“Moved by your sincerity, my client agreed to play for a country that he is only connected to by blood despite having three other options… In fact four other options,”
“He could play for the USA because he’s a citizen and was born there, he could play for Norway because his maternal grandmother was Norwegian, he could play for Samoa because his maternal grandfather was Samoan, and there is also the potential chance of him playing for Portugal, yet he chose Nigeria in a list of options where you guys would be ranked third at best, and yet…” Adele paused to catch her breath, but Vivian on the other end almost couldn’t breathe in the dread of the next words to come despite not knowing what Adele was going to say.
“… After getting him to agree and fly over to Nigeria, the very night we arrived, in the middle of the night I might add… We were stranded in the airport because the driver you had claimed you would arrange decided to go for a night party instead of doing his job and picking us up at the airport,” Adele’s voice didn’t rise even the slightest as she spoke in a level tone from beginning to end.
{I’m so sorry, we had no idea about this} Vivian immediately turned apologetic and wanted to strangle the driver who was the culprit in all of this.
“That doesn’t make things better because it shows that either your recruitment officer is a half-wit who hires just about anybody available, not considering their qualifications for a job, or, my client is not respected enough by the Nigerian Football Federation enough for them to make sure that everything concerning my client is done impeccably,” Adele said, not willing to let the apology build any momentum.
{I’m so sorry about this} Vivian began apologizing again, but Adele wasn’t about to let her do that and immediately interrupted.
“I’m sorry as well, but that doesn’t change the fact that my client has been terribly disrespected and disappointed by the Nigerian Football Federation, and the Nigerian country as a whole, hence he will be reevaluating his options concerning which country to represent on the international stage…”
“… And this time, Nigeria isn’t on the list of options to be considered,” Adele stated clearly before hanging up directly and not allowing Vivian to get another word in.
From the conversation with Vivian, it was clear that there was a discrepancy in the flow of information and Vivian didn’t know about what had happened with the driver.
Either she didn’t know about it, or she had been told and was acting like she had no idea, but Adele doubted it, hence she had made sure to explain the whole situation to her and enlighten her about what was going on.
“Now, we wait…” Adele sighed as she took out her ear pod.
“And eat,” Jason added and picked up his fork.