Enough to Catch an Agent's Eye
If there was one major change Yohan felt after rising to the Primavera and settling in, it was this.
International competition.
The Primavera didn't only compete in Italy's domestic youth leagues — they took part in international youth competitions as well. The number of matches was small, but it meant opportunities to face the prospects of Europe's top clubs, to see with his own eyes and feel with his own body how those players moved.
Had the first team qualified for the Champions League, the fixtures would have been tied to that bracket. But Roma had finished seventh the previous season and failed to secure a place in European competition, so they entered a friendly league instead.
"Pass it! He's spinning right now!"
"Carlos! Just play it back!"
At the moment, Yohan was facing the U-19 side of Aston Villa, a Premier League club from England. True to a British club that recruited heavily from abroad, the squad was packed with players from Spain, France, and other corners of Europe, as well as Africa and South America. Playing against them, Yohan was filing each nation's style of play into his mind.
Breaking through their defense, in particular, felt fresh. Unlike the zone-oriented defending common in Italy, they pressed with aggressive man-marking. The physical battles were ferocious, and with the age gap working against him, he struggled more than a little.
Thud!
Why is this so heavy...!
The defender who drove in with his shoulder first carried a crushing weight. Yohan had bulked up steadily for years and prided himself on never being shoved off the ball no matter the size difference — but the collision rattled him down to the bone. It was nothing like facing teams within Italy. The world was vast, and the variety of players out there hit him with real force.
His body took a pounding on par with the Lazio matches, but they won all the same, so Yohan spent a cheerful day sightseeing through Birmingham with his teammates before heading home.
"I feel like my horizons are expanding."
"You're hilarious. Can you be quiet now?"
He had been chattering away to Haley about his first impressions of England, and that was the reply he got for free.
Once the two young players from Milan and Lazio made their debuts, football fans naturally began taking a keener interest than usual in Serie A's prospects. Among them, Yohan was the most talked about — the player widely regarded as next in line behind those two. His individual stats and match footage started circulating, and the chase sequence from his Esordienti-era match against Lazio drew particular attention. His overflowing attacking talent on display in other games was another detail the hardcore fans latched onto.
Word spread bit by bit, and by the time the new year had settled in, a growing number of fans were counting down the days to Yohan's debut. Aside from Lorenzo Lucca still showing off his veteran brilliance, Roma simply had no standout attacking options.
From the Primavera level onward, matches were streamed online often enough that fans had already begun watching Yohan's games. They were few in number, but they posted detailed write-ups on fan communities about every match the Roma Primavera side played — Yohan's included — stoking expectations higher still.
Reactions were starting to reach Yohan himself.
"Gio... is it okay if I call you that? The other kids do... Could I get your autograph?"
During a break, on his way back from the bathroom, a girl from another class stopped him with the request.
"An autograph?"
"You're a footballer, right? Aren't you?"
"I'm not on the first team yet..."
"Still. Please?"
"All right, then. Just don't go tossing it later."
His increasingly striking looks, his kind nature, and the fact that he was a player Roma had high hopes for — once those things became known, moments like this didn't happen constantly, but they did happen often enough. Plenty of his own classmates made a point of watching his matches. Yohan found the attention a little burdensome, but he treated everyone with the same quiet kindness.
Poke.
Watching the girl skip off happily with her autograph from inside the classroom, Haley jabbed Yohan in the back the moment he sat down.
"Hey. Must be nice being popular."
"Not really."
"Look at you playing innocent. So fake."
"I'm not faking it. I mean it..."
"You know what your problem is? You don't have enough masculine energy."
Haley suddenly folded her arms with a solemn face. Yohan's mouth fell slightly open in bewilderment.
"Where did that come from?"
"Ah-ah. Don't make that face, and listen carefully to what your big sister is telling you. Acting all soft and sweet might go over well at first, but eventually people get tired of it. And if you're always just saying 'okay' to everything like you do, the girl ends up becoming the superior. It stops feeling like a relationship and starts feeling like a boss and her subordinate at work."
"Hmm... I don't really get it."
"Ugh. Forget it. My mistake for talking about this with a romance zero like you."
"You've never dated anyone either."
"But my theory is second to none."
"I see. Should I take some lessons from you, then?"
"There's a tuition fee. Three hundred euros a week. No — make it dollars."
"That's highway robbery."
"Learning from a master always costs that much."
"I'll pass."
"You're dead."
Conversations with Haley had a way of always ending in death. At first Yohan had been baffled by these reactions of hers, but now he'd reached the point where if she didn't kill him off, something felt a little incomplete.
So this is what they mean by a teaching assistant?
The thought crossed his mind as he grinned at Haley, who was glaring at him with all her might.
"What are you smirking about."
Her rough voice made him scratch his head.
"Gio, do you have a minute?"
Walking through the now-familiar grounds of Trigoria, Yohan stopped when a staff member called his name.
"Yes, what is it?"
"Could you come this way for a second?"
"Of course."
Without any particular curiosity, Yohan stepped into an empty meeting room and sat when the staff member gestured for him to take a seat.
"Want something to drink?"
"No, thank you. I just had some water."
"All right. I'll get straight to the point. If you're open to it, we'd like to introduce you to an agent. What do you think?"
Yohan's eyes went wide at the unexpected offer from the middle-aged woman.
"An agent?"
"That's right. Having an agent makes a lot of things easier. Everything from the big money matters down to the small day-to-day stuff — they handle it all. Think of them as someone who lets you focus entirely on football."
"Doesn't the club take care of that?"
"The club only offers a bit of support. Managing your personal finances is something you have to do yourself. That's why you need an agent."
"Ah... so that's how it works?"
"Exactly."
"Would it be all right if I asked my mothers first?"
Mothers — plural. It was a word that usually sounded strange. But anyone who knew Yohan simply took it in stride. The staff member, well aware that four nuns had raised him, answered with a warm smile.
"Of course. Talk it over and let me know."
"Yes."
After training that day, Yohan came home and told the sisters about the agent. By now the nuns had opened a bank account and carefully set aside the small weekly wages Yohan had started receiving once he reached the age to be paid. Not a single euro of it had been spent. Convent rules were one thing, but more than that, it was money Yohan had earned himself — they had never even considered touching it.
The sisters all felt that hiring an agent would be a good idea. Yohan, however, felt differently.
"If managing my money wouldn't interfere with the convent's daily work... couldn't one of you just do it for me?"
He wanted the nuns he trusted more than anyone in the world to handle anything related to money. Of course, an agent officially introduced by the club was vanishingly unlikely to stab him in the back — but the idea of a complete stranger still made him a little uneasy.
Seeing the earnest look in his eyes, Sister Caterina smiled gently.
"As it happens, the club mentioned agents to us a little while ago, so we looked into it ourselves. From what we gathered, it's better to hire one if you can. They handle everything from money matters to taking national team calls on your behalf and passing them along, salary negotiations — they know that side professionally. They take care of all the everyday inconveniences too. They're the person who lets you pour every bit of your focus into football."
"Do I really have to hire one?"
"Once Yohan moves up to the first team someday, you'll almost certainly need one, don't you think?"
"Hmm..."
"When it's time to sign the contract, Sister Melissa and I will go with you. You're still a minor, so a guardian has to be present for those things. We'll talk things through carefully with whoever it is, so don't worry too much."
"What if I don't like the agent?"
"Then we'll find a different one. We'll do the legwork ourselves. How does that sound?"
"Mm... all right, then."
Yohan trusted the sisters' judgment. To him, the four nuns were the most reliable people in his life. He already thought of them as his parents, so their answer put him thoroughly at ease.
"Good. How's football going these days?"
"I think I'm doing well."
"You don't sound very confident."
"I am doing well."
"I thought so."
"You still haven't watched any of my matches, have you, Sister?"
"What do you mean I haven't? We watch them all the time on the other sisters' phones."
"Really?"
"Of course. They stream them online these days, you know. Watching you take the ball and run — you looked wonderful. But Sister Melissa and I are both soft-hearted, so whenever you take a hard challenge, we get so nervous we can't watch properly."
Being recognized and praised by the four of them was one of Yohan's greatest joys. But the thought of them fretting through his matches made his own chest ache in turn. Still, physical battles were an unavoidable part of the game — there was no way around them.
"I see... If it startles you that much, you don't have to force yourselves to watch. Once I debut, maybe just watching the highlight reels would be a little easier."
"We're watching within our limits, so you just focus on the things you want to do, Yohan."
"Yes, Sister."
"No problems in your room?"
"What kind of problems?"
"A desk leg giving out, the bed not sitting level — that sort of thing."
"Nothing at all."
"Good. Shall we have dinner, then?"
"Yes."
An agent. Until the club staff member brought it up, the thought had never crossed his mind. Still, with his mothers coming along, there was nothing much to worry about. Yohan cleared his head and headed into the small kitchen, where he gathered with the sisters around a shared plate of pasta.