THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME

Dressed in his new all-black Rosenborg tracksuit, Zachary made it to the pitch when it was only nine minutes to nine. He let out a long pent-up breath when he noticed that the coaches hadn't arrived yet.

Most of the other players had long started going through warm-up exercises on the green. Some were stretching or gathered in groups playing rondos or juggling the ball. The rest were running cone drills.

It was still the pre-training session. The players were free to utilize it to train in whichever way they wished. Despite the lack of supervision, all of them went about their training with absolute focus, befitting their status as professional footballers of a top Norwegian club.

Zachary let his gaze roam over the whole pitch, passing over the four goalkeepers practicing their diving and catching—until it rested on a group going through a cone drill. He noticed Tore Reginiussen, the newly appointed Rosenborg captain, running triangles through the cones. His receding hairline and looming height of over six feet gave him a mean look. It was the sort of look that Zachary had seen on no-nonsense players like Rio Ferdinand, Marco Materazzi, and Gennaro Gattuso.

Contrary to his fearsome bearing, the captain was an easy-going person who didn't get into conflict with anyone unless they made a major blunder on the field. As long as you played to the best of your abilities, you would remain in the good books of the no-nonsense captain.

Accompanying him was Mikael Dorsin, the vice-captain, John Chibuike, the striker from Nigeria, and Nicki Nielson, Zachary's new acquaintance. They ran through the cones—at times moving backward and forward while making successive sharp turns.

As Zachary watched the four of them take turns running the cone drill, he guessed they were working on their quickness, reaction times, and agility.

He had a good understanding of the drill since he'd practiced with it even in his previous life. It helped improve quickness and agility for short sprints and fast changes of direction. It taught players how to control their bodies and maintain ready stances. Additionally, the drill improved reaction times since a player had to wait for a partner's cue before sprinting to a cone—similar to how one needed to react to the ball or opponent during a game. It was a very effective drill.

Since Zachary had already run six miles that morning, he had no intentions of joining in any intensive drills. So, he found himself a spot on the sidelines and started stretching.

He wanted to conserve his stamina by going through a lighter warm-up routine. That way, he would be able to perform at his best when the actual training session commenced.

However, when he was only a minute into the routine, Mikael Dorsin noticed him and paused running the triangle cone drill. "Zachary," he, the vice-captain, yelled, waving an arm. "Come over and join us. Don't just stretch on the sidelines alone." On hearing Mikael yelling, the other three players training with him also turned and cast their gazes towards Zachary.

"And here I thought I could take it easy during warm-up today," Zachary mumbled inaudibly, smiling wryly. He stopped stretching and jogged towards the center circle, where Mikael Dorsin and the rest were training.

Although Zachary wished to avoid the drills, he couldn't simply ignore the vice-captain's invite. He wanted to fit into the team, and the first step to doing that was to bond over-practice.

"A small bird informed me that you have finally joined our ranks," Mikael, the vice-captain, intoned, smiling. "Congratulations." He extended a gloved hand for a greeting.

"Thank you, and good morning to you too," Zachary said, shaking his hand.

Mikael had a Viking look about him, with blonde ear-length hair that was of a lighter shade. He was an imposing defender who had been a central figure at Rosenborg since 2008. If it wasn't for his more mature age, Zachary was sure that he would still be the captain instead of Tore Reginiussen, the newly recruited number-4.

Over the past few Rosenborg training sessions that Zachary had attended, he'd come to understand that he had to be on good terms with the vice-captain to fit into the team. But luckily, Mikael cared for only one thing—taking Rosenborg back to the top. As long as you were talented enough, he would treat you as a friend both on and off the pitch. He regarded Zachary particularly well since he was one of the most promising young talents on the team.

"Okay, let's get back to business," Mikael said after Zachary had finished bumping fists with Nicki Nielson and mouthing a 'hello' to the other players—Tore Reginiussen and John Chibuike.

Zachary then accompanied the four senior players as they ran the triangle drill over the next few minutes. They didn't converse among themselves but focused solely on the training. They repeated the exercise over and over again until they were out of breath. By then, the coaches had already arrived and were setting up the training equipment in the field.

*FWEEEEEEE*

At 9:30 AM, the assistant coach's whistle sounded. Every player on the pitch, including Zachary, immediately stopped whatever they were doing and got into their lines at one end of the pitch. When the assistants finally finished setting up the cones into two lines, Mr. Rolf Aas, the fitness coach, started leading Zachary and his new teammates through the dynamic warm-up.

The Rosenborg first-team training had officially begun.

"Let's start slow and warm-up those sleeping muscles," said Mr. Rolf Aas as he stepped through the cones, demonstrating what he expected of the players.

The players followed him, starting with slow and light dynamic actions such as stretching calves. They continued adding more vigorous movements such as frog-hops and walking-front-leg-raises as they made rounds around the cones. They made the exercise progressively more intense—until they were sprinting and all drenched in sweat towards the end of the workout.

By then, Zachary was already breathing like a fish just taken out of the water. He was exhausted since he'd been training intensively since before dawn. However, Zachary still forced himself to keep up with the rest until the workout ended. He understood that he could get better quicker only when he pushed himself beyond his limits. And since he possessed a cheat like the physical conditioning elixir, he was determined to utilize it to improve his fitness as quickly as possible.

After completing the dynamic warm-up, the players were allowed a short water break. But two minutes later, Trond Henriksen, Rosenborg's assistant coach, blew his whistle, signaling for the start of passing drills.

Zachary and his teammates didn't complain in the slightest. They started passing the ball through training-mannequins set up in rectangular formations around the field. For the next twenty minutes, they didn't do anything complicated. They 'simply' kicked the ball to their colleagues when it was their turn as they moved clockwise around the mannequins. They mainly focused on practicing the basics such as passing, ball control, and positioning—doing the associated routines in the drill over-and-over-again to achieve perfection.

Zachary was amazed once again at how professionals could use simple basic training routines to achieve their goals. But he was well aware that it was all thanks to the coaches who were supervising the players.

The coaches were constantly yelling at the players to remain sharp or correct their kicking postures. They didn't allow for any laxity, making the drill very intense and effective. When a player made a mistake, they wouldn't mince words with him. They would give him a mouthful of their harsh critique as they pointed out what he had done wrong.

As the session progressed, the players transitioned into doing more complex movements involving many variations of give-and-go routines. Since Zachary wasn't new to professional team training focusing on passing, he went through the passing drills without making any mistakes. He was very motivated to make an impression and win a spot on the squad heading to Sweden the following day. Moreover, his mastery of the Zinedine-Pirlo Mental Juju had helped refine his passing skills. Thus, he went through the drill without losing much energy since he was more efficient with the ball.

At exactly 11:00 AM, Trond Henriksen, the assistant coach of Rosenborg, blew his whistle once again and signaled for all the players to head to the touchline where Coach Johansen was waiting. Everyone on the pitch, including Zachary and his group, halted their drilling immediately and trekked towards the coaches.

"Good morning to you all," Coach Johansen greeted after the players had formed a semi-circle around him. He spoke in English since he was aware that many of the newly recruited players hadn't mastered the Norwegian language.

"Good morning, coach," the players replied, more or less in unison.

"Without wasting time, we shall in a moment continue the positioning training that we started yesterday," said the coach, rubbing his red-bearded chin. "In this session, we won't focus on any position-specific training drills, but teamwork. This session aims to help us adapt to the new 4-3-3 formation that we'll mainly use during this season. For your information, that's the formation we'll be using in the friendly game against Malmo tomorrow. So, be sharp."

Coach Johansen went on to explain what he expected of the players during the following session. They would play an 11-vs-11 game, focusing on passing and positioning in the 4-3-3 formation. Each player could only make a maximum of two touches on the ball before passing it on. Otherwise, he would incur a penalty for holding onto the ball longer than allowed.

When Coach Johansen finished explaining the drill, his assistant Trond Henriksen divided the players into two teams—one in the red bibs and the other in green bibs. Zachary was eager to play since it had been a long time since he'd participated in an intense match.