Wednesday 12 December 2007

Little did he know...

Little did he know what was going to happen next.

He was probably the best football player in his town. He was only 14 years old, but he was very talented.He wanted to be part of one of these famous teams he watched on TV, so he decided to go to the capital to try passing the test.

At that moment, he was totally exhausted. Previously, he had been told to do a written test. It had two parts. At the first one, he ad to explain why he wanted to get into the club. The second was a general knowledge questionnaire. He had spent three hours writing.

After that, they drove him to the swimming pool. there, he had been swimming for an hour, mainly at crawl-style. He supposed he had made good times, because he had felt very tired.
Then, they asked him to do another test: A running one. He had been running for half an hour, around one of the buildings. He couldn't still prove his quality as a proper football player.

When he was wondering what would happen next and if more tests would be needed, a man shouted at him: Hey, come here!

He hadn't previously realised that the man was behind him. He felt so tired that he walked quietly towards the man.

While he was in his way, he inspected him carefully. That guy didn't seem to be part of the club. In fact, he was dressed in jeans. he wore a fashionable white shirt and a black cup. He was much taller than him, and should be in his middle-forties. he carried a small yellow notebook on his left hand, where he had been probably taking notes.

The boy finally reached the man. After a while looking at each other, the man started to speak. He asked him whether he was interested in joining his team.

What team?, he said. The situation was totally unexpected for him. He was pretending to get into a team, and that stranger wanted him to be part of another.

He asked the name of the team. The man said: "Altair" But the boy didn't know it. The face of the boy showed surprise and curiosity. The man explained that it was a baseball team, and that he could be a good baseball player.

Two days later, he got in touch with baseball. He enjoyed playing it more than football, so he ended being a professional player.

Nowadays, he is one of the best baseball players all over the world. Would he had been so successful if he had remained at football? Nobody knows.