A young teenage boy was smiling from ear to ear looking at the stack of documents. His black eyes moist a little from remembering his beloved country thousands kilometre away. He travelled from a small country Malaysia to the United Kingdom to further pursued his football career with his family. It's been over 9 years since he received the magical football aid. And this teen was Abdul Azim.
At 9 years old, Azim discovered the 'Football System'. Every day the system forced him to train football in the virtual training ground during sleep, a.k.a Dream Training Space. He hated it in the first couple of months, but slowly accepting it as his daily dream football training. As he progressed, Azim noticed that his physical body became stronger, faster, and more well-tuned with football.
At 10 years old, he started attending football practice at his previous primary school. Azim entered the first team and able to play in inter-school competition. Due to his polished basic techniques, he was placed as a midfield. Further into the competition, he was able to be first-runner up (silver) and was awarded as the best midfielder in the competition.
At 11 and 12 years old, he was invited to represent Perak U12 in the annual National Youth U12 Competition as a Striker. Unfortunately, he lost in the quarter-final against Pahang U12 in 2008 but became a champion in 2009's competition.
At 13 years old, Azim entered Sekolah Sukan Bukit Jalil (Bukit Jalil Sport School) in the capital city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. It's difficult to persuade his family as never anyone in his family become an athlete before. Luckily, the curriculum provided and school academic performance was excellent and it helped a lot to convince them. His parents agreed for him to be a professional football player if Azim took the SPM (the final high school exam) when he turned 17 years old.
At 15 years old, Azim was enlisted in Malaysia U16 line up in AFF (ASEAN Football Federation) U16 Championship 2012 in Myanmar. The team progressed smoothly to be the winner. And at 16 years old, Azim entered AFC (ASEAN Football Confederation) U16 Championship 2013 in Thailand. The national team lost 2-3 to North Korea in Semi-final.
At 17 years old, Azim entered AFF U19 Championship 2014 in Laos. Thankfully, the national U19 team players were physically ready and had stronger defensive players, thus they won the championship against the Thailand U19 team. After the game, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) generously sent three players including Azim to Cardiff City Football Club (Cardiff) for a trial. As the owner of Cardiff FC was from Malaysia, Cardiff offered a two days trial, thanks to the FAM and Berjaya Corporation, as one of the club sponsors (Visit Malaysia).
In all, the trial was fun. In October 2014, a phone call from FAM congratulate Azim and informed him the good news, he was accepted into Cardiff FC U-18s and can sign the 1-year contract on 17 December 2014, before the transfer window starts. And that's where it all began.
But, he heard a lot of bad stuff about the club. In brief, the current Cardiff City FC is in a huge problem due to possible FFP (Financial Fair Play) and the club can be sentenced with a transfer embargo for the January transfer window. So, the club cannot register new player into the squad and can only loan players and can promote Academy or Second Team player to the unstable First Team.
With the problems the Bluebird currently facing, the board pulled a string to quickly sign Azim to be the next Youth Prospect to the club. But, his agent informed him about the club main objective was to nurture him to be a Striker for the First Team next season. But it all depends on his performance and adaptability to fly reaching the sky and slowly be among the stars. And it all started with a whole day medical test scheduled tomorrow.
Azim looked at the night sky from the balcony. It's been a long journey, and if everything goes smoothly tomorrow, then he's able to sign his first professional contract with an English club. Cardiff FC is a big club for him. The first Malaysian to be able to sign a professional contract with Europe's big clubs and to be able to play with Europe big names made him so excited. Before this, he was like a frog in the well.
Azim went to bed and looked at his stats.
Player Stats
Name: Abdul Azim
Age: 17 years old
Profession: Football Player
Position: ST, CAM
Overall Stats: 79/100
Offensive Awareness: 86%
Ball Control: 84%
Dribbling: 81%
Low Pass: 79%
Lofted Pass: 73%
Finishing: 87%
Set Piece Tacking: 73%
Curl: 76%
Header: 78%
Defensive Awareness: 62%
Interception: 72%
Balance: 82%
Physical Contact: 80%
Stamina: 86% [100%]
Kicking Power: 82% (164km/h)
Pace: 81% (32.4km/h - 33.5km/h) [reaching top speed instantly]
Jump (Vertical): 82% (300cm)[193cm+107cm=300cm]
'Need to brush my teeth first and then sleep, and then do Dream Training.'