THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME



As planned, Mr. Omar Sangare picked Zachary up immediately after breakfast. The clock hands around Abidjan had just pointed to the 8:10 o'clock mark when they drove out of the gates of Hôtel Ivoire and joined the busy streets of Côte d'Ivoire's largest city that doubled as the economic capital.

Mr. Omar Sangare's car was a Toyota Landcruiser. Lorenzo, the bodyguard, sat in the front seat beside Sangare, the driver. As for Zachary, he had made himself comfortable in the back seat of the spacious vehicle.

While conversing among themselves, the car moved quickly, and they passed by many high-rise buildings, large shopping malls, two bridges, and an extensive golf course. Then, after cutting two final corners, they eventually arrived at the Abidjan-M'pouto training complex, which was the venue for the Ivorian National Football Team training that day.

After finding a parking spot, Zachary said his goodbyes to Lorenzo and walked into the training facility with Mr. Omar Sangare. The complex was well-maintained, with clean walkways and extensive gardens adorned by meticulously mowed natural grass.

Zachary followed Mr. Sangare along one of the walkways. They passed by a few of the facility's staff maintaining the gardens and finally arrived at a two-story building that housed the offices and conference area. They walked into the building and stopped before a door.

On the door, there was a plaque with the words conference room. Mr. Sangare knocked once on the door before pushing it open and stepping forward into the room.

Zachary followed him inside, and his eyes immediately landed on three men in orange and green tracksuits. They were seated around a long table, and it seemed they had been in the middle of a serious discussion.

The man seated closest to the door was all too familiar to Zachary. He was Yaya Touré, the captain of Côte d'Ivoire's National Football team and a Manchester City legend. The second man was someone Zachary had only gotten to know recently after deciding to switch his international football allegiance. He was Hervé Renard, Côte d'Ivoire's National Football coach, who had just helped them win the African Cup of Nations a few months prior. As for the third man, who sat at the far end of the table, Zachary didn't recognize him.

"Zachary! Let me introduce these fellows to you," Mr. Omar Sangare spoke in French as they walked into the room. "I guess you already know Yaya Touré and Hervé Renard. They are your captain and coach. As for the gentleman at the far end, he is Sidy Diallo, the Ivory Coast Football Federation president." Omar then turned to the three and continued in a formal tone, "Gentlemen! This one here is Zachary Bemba in the flesh. He's here to report for National team duty."

Yaya Touré chuckled at that and got up from his seat. Extending his hand to Zachary, he said, "Zachary Bemba! The wonderboy and number 10 of Juventus! I have heard a lot of good things about you. Welcome to the Ivory Coast National Football Team."

Zachary smiled and took the hand for a firm handshake. "Thank you, Mr. Yaya Touré. I have also heard a lot of incredible things about you. It's really an honor to make your acquaintance."

"Is that so?" Yaya Touré smiled.

"Indeed!" Zachary smiled back. He had the utmost respect for the Ivorian midfielder, who happened to be one of the most underrated playmakers of the generation. Zachary was really looking forward to teaming up with him on the national football team. He also hoped that Yaya Touré's career wouldn't follow his previous life's trajectory, which saw the midfielder retire from international football before the 2018 World Cup.

"I have a feeling that we might just be good teammates," Yaya Touré said while releasing Zachary's hand.

"I have the same feeling," Zachary said before turning to the other two gentlemen. He followed the same etiquette and exchanged greetings with both the Ivory Coast Football Federation president and Hervé Renard, the coach. Then, after some more small talk, they settled around the table and started discussing the important stuff.

"So, Zachary!" Sidy Diallo, the Ivory Coast Football Federation president, breached the topic of Zachary's nationality switch. "What are your goals for joining the Ivory Coast National Football Team? What do you hope to achieve?"

Zachary smiled and replied with confidence, "My goal is simple. I wish to work with everyone on the team to win and continue winning. With my skills, I hope to contribute positively to all endeavors of our national team. Hopefully, with my addition, we can become a team that can overcome all opponents to achieve big things in upcoming World Cup tournaments."

"Those are lofty goals," the Ivory Coast Football Federation president remarked. "But I like them. Once again, welcome to the National Football team again. We'll discuss more later. But now, let me first leave you in the hands of your captain and coach."

"Thank you," Zachary replied.

The president nodded and said a few words to Hervé Renard, the coach. Then, after saying his goodbyes to everyone, he walked out of the conference room with Mr. Sangare, who had been quiet for a few minutes.

"Well..." Coach Hervé Renard said. "Since the outsiders have left, let's get down to team business. Zachary! You're new on the team. So, I'll briefly introduce to you how we usually go about our training before international games. First and foremost, let me bring to your attention that training approaches for international football are vastly different from club football due to the limited time teams have before games."

"For instance, we'll play Angola tomorrow and Equatorial Guinea three days later, on March 29th. That leaves us with only a day of training before the first match and only two before the second if we're to squeeze in the one day of recovery after the first game."

"As you can see, we have fewer days to train as a team and learn away from the pitch with coaches and teammates. Due to the limited training time, establishing a stable game plan becomes significantly more challenging. How do we overcome this, though? We focus only on the crucial elements of the game, including the tactics, the player roles on the squad, and the dynamics of our playing formation. We utilize our limited time to refine those crucial aspects so that we can refine our chemistry as a team and put up a decent performance. As for squad selection, we usually base it on the recent performances at the club level and a player's readiness to adapt to our game plan. That implies that you'll always have a high chance of being considered for the starting line-up if you continue putting up consistent and impressive performances for your club. Are we together, Zachary?"

"Yes, coach," Zachary replied.

"Good." Coach Hervé Renard smiled and glanced at his watch. "It's already coming to a quarter past nine. The others should have arrived. Let's wind up here and head to the tactics room for our pre-match tactics meeting. Touré! You can take Zachary to meet his new teammates before we begin official business. I'll be there in a few minutes with the other coaches."

"Okay, coach," Yaya Touré responded and turned to Zachary. "Zachary! Let's go. The others should already be waiting in the tactics room."

Zachary nodded and followed Yaya Touré out of the conference room. They walked quickly while conversing and finally arrived at the tactics room, where Zachary met up with his new teammates.

Players like Eric Bailly, Gervinho, Max Gradel, Wilfried Bony, and many others were in the room. They didn't put up any airs but welcomed Zachary warmly to the team.

After briefly interacting with his new teammates, Zachary was even more delighted with his decision to join Ivory Coast's National Football team. As such, he was in high spirits when the tactics meeting commenced. He listened attentively as Hervé Renard introduced the game plan for the game against Angola.

The coach went straight to the point with his address. He talked about how the team would utilize a 3-4-3 formation for the game and emphasized the need to take a safe approach while on the pitch. Then, after about an hour of explaining the tactics and game plan, he finally ended his speech by reading out the starting eleven that would feature in the game.

Except for the missing Kolo Touré, who happened to have just announced his retirement from international football, the line-up didn't vary from the one that won the African Cup of Nations final two months prior. Boubacar Barry was in goal, the four players - Eric Bailly, Wilfried Kanon, and Simon Deli were in defense, while Serge Aurier, Serey Dié, Yaya Touré, and Siaka Tiéné were in midfield. Finally, the coach named Max Gradel, Wilfried Bony, and Gervinho as the three strikers to complete Ivory Coast's 3-4-3 formation.

As for Zachary, who had just joined the team, he was left out of the starting squad for obvious reasons. Like in all football teams, it didn't matter whether a player was a superstar, but he had to earn his place by putting up impressive displays for any given team before joining that team's starting eleven. Zachary was in the same situation. He would start on the bench for the game against Angola. Nevertheless, if he came into the game and impressed, the coach would not hesitate to select him as one of the starters for Ivory Coast's following match against Equatorial Guinea. That was just how football worked since it was a team sport.

After reading the line-up, Coach Hervé Renard didn't continue wasting time with meaningless talk. He led the players to the training turfs, where they spent the next few hours working on the tactics for the game against Angola. They focused on the individual roles of each player in the game plan and then refined their set-piece plays during the later stages of training. They ended the session at around 4:00 PM in the evening, and with that, the coach sent them back to their respective places of residence.

Zachary didn't return to his residence, though. After leaving the training facility, he linked up with Eric Bailly, his former teammate, who gave him a brief tour of Abidjan. They then ate dinner together while catching up before parting at around 8:00 PM to head back to their respective hotel rooms for the night.

On returning to his hotel room, Zachary followed his customary practice and went through a pre-bedtime yoga routine. Finally, after ensuring that he had stretched all his crucial muscle groups in a proper manner, he washed up quickly and then went to bed.

He had completed all his preparations, and what remained was to wait for the following day to arrive. If all went according to plan, he would debut for Ivory Coast as a substitute and kick-start the international aspect of his football career.

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