The Football Agent System

Chapter 19: Chapter 19: The Friends He Left Behind II

Garcia set his glass down and let a pause settle.

"I started my own agency," he said.

Ben stopped mid-chew.

Theo turned his head slowly and looked at Garcia with an expression that was trying to decide whether to be impressed or alarmed.

"G11 Sports Management Ltd," Garcia said. "Registered, licensed, approved. I built it from nothing after Vantage. It has no clients yet and no income, but it is real."

Ben swallowed. Then he laughed, and it was the genuine kind, not the covering kind. "Only you," he said. "Only you disappear for half a year and come back with your own company. Only you."

"It can be real and still be stupid," Theo said, but under his breath there was something that sounded like it might have been respect.

"I found a player," Garcia said.

The table shifted. They all heard it in his voice.

He told them about the showcase, about the trial ground at Croydon, about watching sixty-three players and narrowing it down. He told them about Jamie Holt — sixteen, right-back, released from Millwall, stood at the far gate with his father while the whole touchline moved around them. He told them what he saw in those twenty minutes without telling them how he had seen it, because the system was not something he could explain at a corner table in a South London pub.

He told them he had gone over. That the father was guarded. That he had given them ten minutes beside the fence, and this morning he had sat in Alan Holt’s living room and walked out with two weeks.

"Two weeks to do what?" Theo asked.

"Prepare Jamie for a trial programme that starts August 3rd. Five days, training first, match at the end. Five League One scouts expected."

"Expected," Theo said.

"Yes."

"How solid is that?"

Garcia looked at Ben.

Ben raised both hands. "My source is good. I would not have passed it if it wasn’t."

"Then it matters," Garcia said. "And for it to matter, Jamie has to walk into that pitch looking different from the boy who got released from Millwall." He paused. "Which means he needs a coach."

Rafi went still.

He had been eating. He stopped.

"No," he said.

"Rafi—"

"No. I can hear what’s coming and the answer is no. You cannot vanish for months and come back and ask me for a favour in the same night."

"I know," Garcia said. "But I am asking anyway."

Rafi put his fork down. "Why me?"

"Because you are good," Garcia said. "Not just good enough. Good. I have seen you work with players nobody else would bother with and I have seen what you got out of them. Jamie needs exactly that."

Rafi sat with that for a moment. "You cannot pay me."

"Not yet. Not upfront."

"So you want me to work for free."

"I want you to work for a share of the first money G11 makes from Jamie, and I will put that in writing before Monday."

"In writing," Theo repeated, already sounding like a man making a note.

"In writing," Garcia confirmed. "If Jamie signs and G11 earns, Rafi is first out of that money. If it comes to nothing, I owe him the time and I will find another way to pay it."

Rafi looked at him for a long time. "What is he like?"

"He is not lazy," Garcia said. "Trust me on that."

"I do not trust you on anything tonight," Rafi said. "I will judge that myself."

"One session," Garcia said. "Monday. If Jamie wastes your time, you walk."

Another pause.

Ben held his beer up slowly and said nothing for once, which meant he understood this was not his moment.

Rafi exhaled through his nose. "One session. Monday. If I think he’s wasting my time—"

"You walk."

"And you will put the payment terms in writing."

"Tonight if you want."

Theo looked at Garcia. "I’ll look at it before you send it."

Ben let out a loud breath. "The agency has its first coach, its first accountant—"

"I am not his accountant," Theo said.

"—and its first client in progress. This is a very small Premier League and I love it."

"Nobody has been paid," Theo said. "Nobody has signed anything. The player hasn’t agreed. Let’s be accurate."

"You are going to be terrible for morale," Ben told him.

"Good," Theo said. "Someone has to be."

Garcia stepped outside for a minute while Theo drafted something short and simple on his phone. The street was quiet. He pulled up Alan’s number and typed.

Coach confirmed for Monday. He’ll work with Jamie on the specific areas we discussed. Can you confirm Jamie will be there?

He sent it and stood in the cold for a moment. The pub noise came through the glass in a warm, low hum. Theo’s voice, Ben’s voice, Rafi saying something that made Ben groan.

His phone lit up.

He’ll be there. 9am.

Garcia looked at the message for a moment. Then he went back inside.

The table was arguing about something else by the time he sat down. Ben was insisting Theo was secretly excited. Theo was insisting he was not, and would like to stop being told what he felt. Rafi was eating again, which Garcia took as a good sign.

The system appeared in his field of vision, quiet and unhurried, like it had been waiting for the right moment.

[SIDE MISSION GENERATED]

Mission: Prepare Jamie Holt. Objective: Complete Jamie Holt’s two-week development block before the August 3rd trial programme.

Progress: 0 / 14 Days

Reward: — Skill Points +300 — Scouting SP +20 — Client Management SP +20 — Network SP +10

Failure Penalty: Jamie Holt’s trust decreases.

Garcia read it while Ben was telling Theo he was secretly a romantic. Theo told him to lower his voice. Rafi said they were both embarrassing and went back to his food.

Fourteen days.

One player. One coach. No signed contract. No money yet.

He let the panel close.

Ben leaned across the table and said, "You’re smiling."

"Am I?"

"It’s weird. Stop it."

Garcia picked up his beer.

For the first time since the conference room at Vantage, he was not building alone. It was not much — a borrowed car, a borrowed pub table, one coach who was still half-angry and two weeks on a clock that had already started.

But it was not nothing either.