Almighty Coach

Dai Li only saw the results of the triathlon online that night.

The Brown brothers only got the second and third place. Dai Li then saw Tell helping Hansen cross the finish line on the news. He was moved.

“The older brother gave up on becoming a champion for his younger brother. I hope that after this race, the brothers will become close again.” Dai Li closed the webpage and stood up. He had to go welcome a guest from Spain. It was Fernando, the department head of one of the football giants in the La Liga, FC Barcelona.

“Coach Li, we met again,” Fernando spoke in standard American English. People who didn’t know him might think he was a full-blooded American.

Dai Li had met Fernando when he went to visit FC Barcelona. It was then that Fernando promised Barcelona would give Halls a chance if he could grow taller. Fernando was there because of this promise.

A few minutes later, Fernando saw Halls. The Halls had grown taller in the past year.

“The child really has grown taller since last year,” Fernando nodded, satisfied.

“Mr. Fernando, we should let the data do the talking.” Dai Li reached out and pointed to a ruler on a wall that measured height.

Halls immediately went over.

“Wait a minute!” Dai Li stopped Halls and said, “Take off your shoes.”

Halls nodded. As Dai Li instructed, he took off his shoes. He then went over to the wall.

A staff member immediately stepped forward and measured Halls’ height.

“168 cm!” The surveyor reported the measured number and, at the same time, he moved his body to the side so that Fernando could confirm the result with his own eyes.

“The measurement is 168cm when he is barefoot. If you put on your shoes, you will at least be 170 cm. Although you can’t be a center-forward that constantly gets to shoot and score points, you are tall enough to be a winger that breakthrough the enemies defense.” Fernando gave a satisfied nod. In his opinion, Halls had reached the minimum height that was required to be a professional football player.

A height of 168 cm was considered small on the football field, but there were many football players that were less than 170 cm tall. There were many well-known “sideways killers.” Although they were not tall, they were flexible, technically sophisticated, and very fast. They could easily attack their opponent’s goal.

The technical characteristics currently displayed by Halls was clearly in line with the idea of the “sideways killer.”

Dai Li went on to say, “If we let Halls continue to train here, he should be able to continue to grow taller. Maybe he can grow up to 175 cm, but that will take time. Maybe one or two years. However, during this period, I’m afraid that he will not be able to get professional football training. I am not a professional football coach. I can’t provide professional football training here. I think football training should be handled by football clubs such as yours. If I handled his football training we would be wasting his talent.”

“Coach Li, you’ve really given this a lot of thought.” Fernando rose slightly to pay his compliments before saying, “I am very satisfied with Halls’ current state. I believe that he will have a future after joining Barcelona.”

…

Life in Argentina had been hard recently. The Argentine peso had depreciated by 10% in just a few days. It seemed that a new economic crisis was on the horizon.

However, the people of Argentina had long been used to this. Last century, the struggle between Peronism and anti-Peronism caused the country to slip from being a developed country to being a developing country. The rise of neoliberalism triggered the withdrawal of foreign capital, the collapse of exports, and pushed a large number of businesses to the brink of bankruptcy. It continually drained the vitality of the country. The country was at risk of defaulting on an astronomical debt. Argentinians had become numb to the constant and numerous problems.

No matter how bad the economy got, nothing stopped the Argentinians’ passion for football. Every weekend, during the domestic football league in Argentina, people would gather together and watch football matches.

In a dilapidated tavern, twenty people gathered in front of an old-fashioned CRT television which had been in use for more than a decade. They drank the cheapest beer and stared at the television with a chromatic aberration.

Frast was amongst them. As a football coach, he was naturally very passionate about the sport. Although raising four children put him under great economic pressure, he still came to the tavern on the weekends in the afternoon, drank two bottles of beer, and enjoyed the moment.

The phone rang. Frast was unhappy. A phone call during a football match ruined her mood.

Frast still picked up the phone. After a few seconds, his face changed drastically and he screamed wildly.

Everyone in the pub looked at Frast. It wasn’t that strange to scream here. Whenever there was a goal, the pub always went crazy. However, there hadn’t been a goal. Frast’s scream was of a different kind.

“Hey man. What’s wrong with you?” The person next to him asked.

“Barcelona has decided to give my son Halls a contract!” Frast yelled excitedly.

The people around the room surrounded him.

“What are you talking about? Barcelona? The Barcelona?”

“Is that the Barcelona in La Liga? Is your son there?”

“What is your son’s name? Is he a footballer?”

All sorts of questions instantly arose.

“Of course. Of course, my son is a footballer. He will soon be playing in Barcelona in La Liga!” Frast replied incoherently.

“Hey Frast, I think you’ve gone insane. I remember that your son has dwarfism. He is only 1.5 meters tall. He can’t be a professional player,” someone said from the side.

“My son has grown to 170 centimeters!” said Frast.

“170 centimeters? How is that possible? How can someone who suffers from dwarfism grow to 170 centimeters?” No one believed Frast.

“Believe it or not. You just wait and see. It will be reported on the news within the next two days,” Frast said as he stood up. He wasn’t in the mood to watch football anymore. He decided to return home immediately and share the good news with his family.

…

The Argentinian media did in fact report on the news.

Although Argentina had a lot of football talent, someone being able to play in the La Liga was definitely big news. Barcelona was a very famous club as well. Even if he were just entering the youth training system in Barcelona, every sports news outlet in Argentina would still focus on it.

When the manager of the Riverbed team, Aguero, saw that familiar name, he was in disbelief.

How could Halls be chosen by Barcelona? Isn’t he suffering from dwarfism? He can’t be a professional player, so how could Barcelona choose him?

Aguero couldn’t help but reread the content of the news article word by word in great detail.

The newspaper said that Halls is 1.7 meters tall. How is this possible? He has dwarfism. There is no way he would have grown to 1.7 meters, Aguero thought.

However, there was a picture in the newspaper. It showed Halls training on the field while wearing a Barcelona training jersey. In the photo, although he was shorter than the other players, he was definitely not a dwarf.

The very next moment, Aguero remembered how crazy talented Halls was at football.

What a loss! If I knew that he could grow to 1.7 meters, I would’ve definitely signed him on. With his talent, I could’ve obtained at least ten million euros in transfer fees when I sold him to a European team! Aguero was full of regret.

…

In the conference room of the Real Madrid Club, the intelligence officer held a document in his hands, and he was giving a report to the management.

“In a U15 practice session yesterday, Barcelona’s U15 youth team defeated Valencia’s U15 youth team with a score of 7 to 1,” the intelligence officer said. He lifted up his glasses.

“7 to 1? Such a big difference? This must have been a very one-sided game. As far as I know, Valencia’s youth team is not weak. Even if it were just practice, they wouldn’t lose so much to Barcelona, right? That would be too embarrassing,” someone immediately questioned the intelligence officers.

“Indeed, this score is unusual. The players at the U15-level already have a firm grasp on defensive techniques. They also know about a few complicated tactical cooperation tactics. How could there be such a big difference? Was there anything unusual about the game or did anything happen during the game?” Someone else asked.

“Yes. All of Barcelona’s seven goals were related to a player named Halls Frast. He is an Argentinian. He was just recruited by Barcelona. During this practice game, Halls Frast scored four goals, two of which were penalty kicks that were caused by him. He also scored in a direct free kick. He also helped his teammates with three assists,” said the intelligence officer.

“What did you say was his name,” Henry suddenly said.

“Halls Frast.” The intelligence officer turned to look at Henry and then asked, “Mr. Henry, do you know this player?”

“Is it him?” Henry immediately shook his head. “Impossible. I do know a child named Halls, and he is indeed an Argentinian, but he suffers from dwarfism. It is impossible that him became a professional footballer.”

“Then maybe they have the same name,” the intelligence officer said.

“Do you have a photo of the Argentine?” Henry asked.

“Yes,” The intelligence officer took out a piece of paper from a folder and handed it to Henry. He said, “The third one in the first row is Halls Frast.”

Henry took the paper and looked down.

“It’s him. This is the Halls Frast I know. How is it possible? He has dwarfism, how could he be playing football?” Henry screamed. He completely lost it.

“Mr. Henry, what is going on?” Someone besides him immediately asked.

“This Halls visited our club a year ago. I’d already noticed him at the time. He was very talented. It could be said that he was a football genius. But he suffered from dwarfism. It was impossible for him to become a professional player, so I didn’t try to get him to stay,” Henry said.

“The information I have here shows that the height of Halls is 1.7 meters. Obviously, his height has reached the standard of professional players. He could at least be a winger that breaks through the enemies defense.” The intelligence officer paused for a moment and then said, “Mr. Henry, I think you may have been cheated. He may be short, or he may have reached puberty a little later, but he does not suffer from dwarfism.”

“No. That’s probably not true. Coach Li wouldn’t deceive me. After all, he won Best Coach at the Laureus Award and he had no conflict of interest with Real Madrid. He wouldn’t lie about this kind of thing,” Henry suddenly stopped talking. He remembered that when he had met Dai Li a year ago, Dai Li said that Halls was going to be training with him.

“Did Coach Li actually do it? Oh my God! He actually got a dwarf to grow to 1.7 meters through fitness training!”