THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME

"Zachary," Kasongo chimed in, yelling a bit to make himself heard over the loud music. "Will you be playing the World Cup qualifiers for our home country?"

"I don't know yet," Zachary replied, shaking his head. "The coaches haven't yet contacted me. So, I guess I might not be on the squad."

"What!" His three friends exclaimed, eyes widening.

"If you're not on the squad, then who is?" Paul said, shaking his head. "If it so happens that they don't invite you by the end of this month, you can think about changing citizenship and playing for Sweden. I'm sure our coaches there will welcome you with open arms." He added jokingly.

"Paul," Kasongo said, punching the Swede lightly on the shoulder. "You do love yourself a lot. You're even starting to poach my country's players even when you're not yet on the Swedish squad."

"But it's a viable proposition," Paul said, grinning. "Since he hasn't officially played for DR Congo, he can successfully change citizenship. Moreover, that'll increase his chances of winning the World Cup and other international competitions later. That way, he'll cement his status as a great player."

"And who says that Zachary can't win the World Cup with DR Congo?" Kasongo countered, frowning a bit. "For your information, we do have a good number of players playing in Belgium, France, Turkey, and other top leagues in Europe. So, winning the World Cup is not an incomplete impossibility."

"Hahaha," Paul laughed and took a sip on his drink. "That is surely almost an impossibility. If I might ask, when did Congo last qualify for the World Cup?"

"1974," Kasongo replied.

"You see," Paul said, shaking his head. "That's way before we were even born. I've got nothing against your home country. But I'm just being realistic here and saying that it will be hard for your national team to qualify for World Cup. It'll be even much harder to put up good performances in the competition if they do qualify. A team like that would hold back Zachary's rise to the top of skilled footballers if he committed himself to play for them. Do you see my point?"

"Nothing is ever set in stone," Kasongo intoned, sighing. "You never know. Maybe, Zachary's participation might be the spark that lights the way for DRC's ascent to the top rankings of the football world. Do you remember Senegal's first participation at the World Cup in 2002? The Senegalese managed to reach the knock-out stages after defeating France, the reigning champions, in the group stages. They then went on—to beat Sweden, your home country, in the round of sixteen and managed to qualify for the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals, they managed to put up a good performance. Turkey only managed to defeat them after scoring a golden goal during extra time. So, who says teams new to the World Cup can't put up proper performances? Senegal is a good example of a team that was only a few minutes from reaching the semi-finals on its first appearance."

"Had they qualified, they would have come across either Brazil or Germany," Paul Otterson observed. "They would have still gotten eliminated, nonetheless. So, they had no chances of winning the World Cup."

"Then, let me remind you of another example," Kasongo said, placing his glass back on the table. "Do you remember the Greece team in the Euros of 2004? The Greeks managed to defeat big teams like France and Portugal to emerge as European champions after the tournament."

"That was a once in a century occurrence," Paul countered. "Moreover, Greece was a well-known competitor in the football world. It wasn't obscure like your home country."

"When will you, guys, stop discussing this issue?" Kendrick chipped in before Kasongo could reply. "Moreover, I doubt that whatever you two say will influence whether Zachary will play for his home country or not. So, you're boring us with the topic."

"Well said," Zachary added, leaning closer to his three friends and lowering his voice. "This is a sensitive topic that we shouldn't be discussing in a bar. If we're not careful, the sports headlines for most blogs tomorrow may turn out to be something like: 'Zachary to abandon his home country as he searches for better prospects to win the World Cup.' I really wouldn't want to handle the backlash from that sort of news, especially when I'm about to return to Congo."

"Oh," Paul said, smiling sheepishly and scratching at his chin. "Sorry. Please forgive us for being so inconsiderate. But please do consider my proposition if you wish to contest for the World Cup."

"You're still as playful as ever, Paul," Zachary said, shaking his head. "Anyway, since you guys have graduated from the academy, where are you planning to live now? Have you searched for apartments yet?"

"Not yet," Kendrick replied. "But we'll start looking for one next week since SIT has already informed us to vacate our Moholt apartment by the end of June."

"So, you guys will continue living together, or you're thinking of getting separate apartments?"

"Of course, we'll continue living together for the time being," Kendrick responded. "Our wages aren't that much to warrant us to rent individual apartments. So, we have to continue sharing until we rise to the senior team. I do hope that that will be soon."

"Don't fret," Zachary said, smiling at him. "As long as you continue working hard, you'll make it to the senior team in at most a year. I've confidence in all your skills."

"Thank you," Kendrick replied, grinning. "So, we were all wondering how you ended up coming here. I would have never pictured coming across you in a pub."

Zachary sighed, shaking his head. He went ahead to tell his friends the entire series of events that led to his arrival at the Familien Pub. After that, they continued making small talk, discussing mainly sports until it was almost 2:00 AM in the night. By then, Zachary was feeling quite tired and starting to doze. So, he was about to excuse himself and head back home to rest for the night. But then he felt a slight tap on his shoulder.

"Hello, Zachary," a sweet feminine voice, colored by a Russian accent, said from over his shoulder. "Long time no see. How have you been?"

Zachary winced slightly despite himself after hearing that voice.

"Oh, my!" Paul Otterson whispered from across the table. "What a hot lady! Zachary, how did you manage to get acquainted with such a beauty?"

"Don't be rude, Paul," Kendrick chipped in, slapping his brother's back. "She can hear you, silly." But he also kept on stealing glances at the girl standing over Zachary's shoulder.

Zachary ignored his friends' reactions and slowly turned his head around while maintaining a polite smile on his face. He felt his heart start to race when his gaze settled on a perfect oval face adorned by the most captivating eyes he'd ever seen in both his lifetimes. They were emerald-green and seemed to brighten the entire pub when he gazed into them. [What a beauty!] Zachary sighed inwardly, standing up from his seat to greet the lady he'd last seen at the Audi showroom at Møller Bil Trondheim.

For the first time, he couldn't help but become conscious of the fact that she was surprisingly tall for a woman. Her lean body stood almost at shoulder-level with him—giving rise to an enchanting figure that could rival that of any supermodel out there. She was the true definition of flawless beauty in her short black party dress.

"Hello, Camilla," Zachary said, going into porker face mode right away. "I've been well. What about you?"

"Sad and feeling less confident about myself these days," Camilla replied, pouting a bit and giving him a one-armed hug.

"Why?" Zachary queried, deciding on going with the flow and returning the hug.

"You took my number, but you didn't even send me a text—not even once," Camilla said, leaning closer into Zachary. "Am I that unappealing that I totally failed to catch your interest? Why didn't you keep in touch?"

"Have been busy," Zachary chose to go with the age-old excuse. "The training at the professional level doesn't leave me with much time to do anything else. For instance, last year, I ended up forgetting my birthday because my schedule was too hectic."

Camilla chuckled at that. "But now your schedule should have freed up since you're going on a break," she said, her face blossoming into a charming smile. "So, would you like to share a drink with me? We can find a table and maybe even catch up on some business. You know, I'm supposed to be your contact person with Audi. Or have you already forgotten?"

"I would love to have a drink with you," Zachary said, smiling wryly. "But the problem is I'm with my friends right now. So, I can't abandon them and leave with you at the moment."

"Zachary," Paul Otterson's voice called out to him as soon as he'd just finished voicing the excuse. "Some of our teammates are here, and they're calling us to join them right now. So, we have to leave you for now. But since you have company, I hope you won't mind that."

"You're leaving now?" Zachary said, turning away from Camilla to face his three 'unreliable' friends.

"Yes, we've got to go," Kasongo hurriedly replied, grinning. "Hello, there," He added, ignoring Zachary's frown and waving to Camilla.

"Hello there, guys," Camila replied, waving back at them. "So, you're Zachary's friends. Nice to meet you."

"The pleasure is all ours," Paul Otterson quickly chimed in, bowing slightly at the waist. "But I'm afraid we can't get better acquainted since we have to leave right away."

"Oh, too bad," Camilla said, tone regretful. "I would have loved to interact more with Zachary's friends. But since you've got to leave, I guess that can't be helped."

"Well, then, Zachary," Kasongo cut in. "We've got to say our goodbyes now. We shall talk tomorrow." He added. The three of them stepped away from the table and disappeared within the crowd a few seconds later.

"So, can we get ourselves some seats and have that drink?" Camilla probed, hooking her arm with that of Zachary's. "I would like to get to know you better."

Zachary sighed in resignation, blaming his situation at that moment on his friends who'd abandoned him at the first sign of trouble. "Okay. Let's find ourselves some seats," he said after a short while. "I'll buy you a drink."

"Great," Camilla said, leaning closer into Zachary as the DJ started playing 'I Need Your Love' — a recently-released catchy song by Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding.

****    ****