Greatest Of All Legends

Chapter 331: First Training Session with the National Team III

The ball rolled past the goal line, and Osimhen jogged toward Jason with a smile on his face.

“Nice one,” he said as he dapped Jason before glancing over at Zaidu who was getting up from the ground with a wry look on his face.

“Why you go dey dribble me like that now? E no make sense,(Why will you dribble me like that? It’s not cool bro),” Zaidu said aggrievedly to Jason as he walked over.

“You sef, no dey jump enter tackle like mumu(Well, you shouldn’t jump into tackles like an idiot),” Osimhen said while laughing, not caring to display any sympathy for his teammate.

“Don’t worry, I won’t dribble you like that next time,” Jason said with a smile, amused by the situation.

Jason and Zaidu usually trained together back at Porto, but most of the time, they were usually on the same team so Jason didn’t usually go up against Zaidu.

Even the few times they had gone up against each other, Jason usually just tried running past him after doing a few step-overs and didn’t do anything fancy, hence this was a first for him and Zaidu.

However, they did not have time to go over this matter as the manager quickly told them to go back and kick off again while also shouting out instructions, pointing out the obvious faults of the players.

Joseph Yobo blew his whistle again to signify kick-off and the internal scrimmage resumed.

Team A once again kicked off and after the kick-off, they looked sharper on the ball and the ball flowed smoothly between them better than before, but Team B’s players weren’t just for show and they performed equally as well to match up to their opponents.

Soon the ball was with Team B again and Shehu Tijani who was in possession sighted Jason making a run at Team A’s defense line.

With his confidence in Jason’s skills bolstered by Jason’s earlier performance, Shehu didn’t hesitate to send a forward pass that swept across the green at an amazing pace, making its way behind the defensive line.

The ball passed between William Troost-Ekong, the LCB, and Zaidu Sanusi, the LB, but Jason angled his run to burst past William’s right before chasing after the ball and receiving the ball behind him.

Troost-Ekong was only able to watch Jason pull away from him as he was no match for Jason’s pace, but Zaidu wasn’t giving up on the ball so easily and gave chase to the ball.

Jason and Zaidu approached the ball from different angles, but Jason had a slight edge and reached the ball first with his first touch on the ball, he flicked the ball a little towards the right and the ball rolled in between the approaching Zaidu’s legs as he was moving too fast and couldn’t react.

“YEEEEEEHH!” some of the players shouted as they watched Zaidu get nutmegged, but Zaidu paid them no heed and immediately tried to recover as he was now in front of Jason, but just as he was turning so he could put himself into Jason’s path, Jason flicked the ball forward, sending the ball between Zaidu’s legs once again before he could recover his posture.

This time, Zaidu’s legs involuntarily tried to react, but he only succeeded in tangling his legs up and falling over while Jason ran past him into the penalty box at Maduka Okoye.

“YEEEEEEEEHHH!” the exclamation from the viewers of the massacre(players included), was louder than the first time, but Jason wasn’t done yet.

As he faced off against Maduka Okoye, he swung his leg at the ball to shoot, but just as the Super Eagles goalkeeper lunged into his path, Jason’s leg stopped behind the ball and he flicked it towards the right instead, evading the goalkeeper before chipping the ball into the back of the net.

“YEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHH!!!” this time, the “Yeeeeeehssss ” were accompanied by the Nigerian players running at Jason in excitement.

Even the members of team A weren’t left out of the excitement as they surrounded Jason, celebrating like they had just scored a goal in the FIFA World Cup Finals.

Gernot Rohr watched the training session turn into a rambunctious mayhem, but could only smile victoriously at the rowdy players surrounding Jason.

It seemed his decision to pull out all the stops to ensure that Jason played for the national team was correct and Jason had begun to validate his sense of judgment by winning over the team after less than an hour of training together.

Nigerians were among the most devout football fans all over the world and they loved their football teams playing exciting football which was exactly what Jason brought to the team.

Goals, assists, electrifying pace, and, amazingly swift but flamboyant dribbling skills were traits that were guaranteed to make any Nigerian football fan fall in love with a player, yet, Jason had all this and more, and even better… he even for them.

The moment Jason got on the pitch in Nigerian colors and displayed his skills, Gernot Rohr was sure that Jason would repeat what he had just done to his teammates to the Nigerian citizens.

Zaidu Sanusi had been used as a sacrifice, but it was all for the greater cause.

The situation soon quietened down and Zaidu walked up to Jason with his aggrievation written all over his face.

“It has been two minutes… two minutes bruhhh,” Zaidu couldn’t say more than that and kept repeating it like a broken record.

Jason had quite literally promised that he wouldn’t dribble him like that again and he hadn’t… instead he had done worse.

At this point, Zaidu was already feeling a little regret that he had personally helped open up Jason’s path to joining the Super Eagles, but the thought that it would be a lot worse if Jason decimated him on the field while wearing another country’s colors, kept his regret from building up and he could only swallow his pain.

He had brought it on himself and now he had to face the consequences of his actions.

After getting some comforting from some of the players, the training session once again continued.