THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME

Tuesday, July 30, 2013.

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"Brrring! Brrriiiiiiing! Brrring! Brrriiiiiiing..."

The sound of the phone ringing broke the silence in Coach Johansen's office, instantly forcing him out of his deep state of concentration. He smiled since he'd been anticipating the call. He immediately pushed aside his strategy game cards before picking up the phone by pressing the accept button — almost by reflex.

"Yes," he said after placing the receiver next to his ear.

"Coach Johansen, how is your evening? It's me, Kristoffer, calling from the city of San Juan de Pasto in Colombia."

As expected, it was the scout he'd sent to Colombia to initiate talks with Yerry Mina, one of the defenders on Zachary's list.

"I was expecting your call, Kristoffer," Coach Johansen replied, leaning back into his seat and smiling to himself. "Did you manage to make any progress with Yerry Mina?"

"Yes, coach," Kristoffer Nielsen, the Rosenborg scout, replied. "He has finally agreed to make the switch. But first, his agent, who also happens to be his uncle, has requested to video chat with you over Skype before they can put pen on paper. He still doubts my identity and thinks I might be a con artist trying to dupe them into a shady deal."

"Well," Coach Johansen said, smiling to himself. "That's understandable. I'm okay with having a chat with him at any time if that can verify your identity. Go ahead and set up the time for the video meeting."

"Ahh, coach," the scout said in an indecisive tone.

"Yes."

"The thing is this," the scout said. "There's no need for us to set up the time for the meeting."

"Why?"

"That's because both Yerry Mina, his uncle, and father are all here with me. They insisted that I call you right away, or they would call the police and have me sleep in jail. Moreover, I had to put you on the loudspeaker while making the call in order to assure them that I'm genuine and sincere. So, sorry about that, coach."

"Oh" was all that coach Johansen could manage for the next few moments.

He couldn't help but wonder whether his scout, Kristoffer, looked like a thug. None of his other scouts had run into issues while initiating talks with the other players. They'd all produced very positive results within a short time and even began the process of negotiating personal terms. On the other hand, Kristoffer was still trying to establish his identity so that the young player could take him seriously. The coach was perplexed.

"Coach," the scout said from the other end of the line after a few more seconds of silence. "Are you still there?"

"Yes, I'm still on the line," Coach Johansen replied. "I was just surprised. Do they want to have a video chat right now? We have to do it quickly since I have a pre-match tactical meeting to preside over in thirty minutes."

"Yes," Kristoffer replied emphatically. "They want to have the video chat immediately. But if you're busy, I can try to convince them to wait until tomorrow morning, Norwegian time."

"No, no, it's all right," Coach Johansen replied, sighing. 'Being a coach is really hard.' He thought to himself. "You can call me right now on my Skype. I'll talk to them right away so that you can start moving the negotiations forward. We don't have a lot of time since the Europa League is starting tomorrow."

"Okay, coach," the scout replied, his voice seemingly relaxing. "I'll call you in about a minute. See you then." He ended the call.

A few minutes later, Coach Johansen received a call from Kristoffer's Skype ID. He immediately accepted it.

"Yes, Kristoffer," he said, glancing at the bearded face of the scout, which had just populated the screen. "Put them on. I don't have much time."

"Aye, coach," the scout replied before stepping away from the webcam. A moment later, three smiling faces with dark skin populated the screen. "So, you're the coach of Rosenborg who wants to recruit my nephew?" The one that seemed like the oldest of the three inquired. Surprisingly, he spoke fluent English, although he was from South America.

"Yes, that's correct," Coach Johansen replied, nodding. "I was the one who sent Kristoffer to come and negotiate with Yerry Mina. We want to recruit him into the Rosenborg squad because of his incredible defensive talents."

"Oh, okay," the man remarked, without any noticeable reaction. No excitement or anxiety! The man was the true definition of stone-faced as he kept his eyes locked with those of Coach Johansen through the computer screen. "So, how can we verify that you're the coach of Rosenborg? Please understand. This deal appeared out of thin air. So, we have to be careful to avoid sending Yerry to some people who might want to harvest his kidneys."

Coach Johansen chuckled despite himself after hearing that. "Well, that's simple," he said after a while. "You can try googling my name and title, Boyd Johansen - the coach of Rosenborg. You'll be able to see my picture on the club website and on a lot more sports pages in Scandinavia. I think that should verify my identity. Shouldn't it?"

"Yes, that should be enough verification, coach," the man who seemed like Yerry's uncle and his agent replied, finally smiling. "Sorry for taking up your time. You know you can never be too careful in these parts of Colombia. But that aside, I'm glad you managed to take some time to talk to us. It shows that you really care about Yerry. And that puts our hearts at ease."

"You don't need to be so polite and apologetic," Coach Johansen said. "It's my pleasure to straighten out potential misunderstandings that may negatively affect my team..."

Coach Johansen continued chatting with the other party for the next ten minutes and outlined why he needed to sign Yerry Mina. They went over almost all the details regarding Yerry's potential move to Rosenborg, including his work permit and visa issues, language issues, plus his role on the squad. By the time the coach ended the call with the other party, they'd already agreed to the move.

So, with a lightened mood, Coach Johansen closed his laptop and then made his way to the tactics room for the pre-match tactical meeting.

"Good evening, everyone," he said, sweeping his gaze across the whole room when the players finished taking up their seats. He could see that they all looked attentive since it was the meeting preceding the first game of Rosenborg's Europa League campaign.

"Good evening, coach," they replied in unison.

"As I already said earlier today," he began, half-smiling. "We will play our first Europa League qualifying match against Crusaders Football Club in Belfast tomorrow."

"But before we delve into the tactics, I would first like to take the opportunity to announce the squad that will be traveling to Northern Ireland tomorrow morning."

"On the starting line-up," the coach continued without a pause. "We have Daniel Örlund as our keeper. Our defense will comprise Mikael Dorsin, Verner Rönning, Tore Reginiussen, and Peter Ankersen. Our midfielders will be Mike Jensen, Ole Selnæs, and Zachary Bemba. In striking we will have John Chibuike, Borek Dockal, and Steffen Iversen."

"On the bench, we'll have Nicki Nielsen, Lund Hansen, Jonas Svensson, Jon Inge Höiland, Fredrik Midtsjö, and Mohammed-Awal Issah. That's it for the squad. Any questions?"

All the players remained silent and didn't raise their hands.

"Good," the coach said after sweeping a glance around. "I'm glad that we're on the same page. Now to the tactics."

"Since we're playing away, we shouldn't take our opponents lightly," he continued. "We'll utilize our usual 4-3-3 defensive formation and focus on hitting them on the counter. I expect all of you to remain focused, creative, and hardworking for the entire duration of the game. Every man on the pitch, except the center-forward, has to rush back and defend whenever we lose possession. If you do that, I believe we'll crash the Crusaders team like a bug tomorrow. Are we together, guys?"

"Yes, coach."

"That's good."

For the next hour, the coach continued expounding on the game plan. He discussed the movements he expected the players to make on the pitch and went over their roles in great detail. He concluded the meeting by informing them that they would be taking the early morning flight to Belfast before sending them home.

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