The Graystone FC offices are exactly what the rest of the club suggests they will be functional, slightly worn at the edges, the kind of space where work happens without anyone worrying too much about how it looks while it's happening.
Marco sits across from the club secretary and Patrick. The contract is on the table between them two pages. Patrick has read it three times.
The wage is not good. Patrick has already said this privately, diplomatically, in the way he says things that are true and uncomfortable. It is not a wage that would move anyone who had options. Marco does not have options.
He reads it without expression.
Then he reaches the clause near the bottom of the second page.
MARCO: "This one. The name on the jersey."
SECRETARY: "Yes. Standard for this arrangement. The club requires Santos on the back. For commercial purposes."
Marco is quiet for a moment.
MARCO: "I would prefer my mother's name. Ferrante."
The secretary looks at Patrick. Patrick looks at the contract.
SECRETARY: "I understand. But the commercial value of the Santos name it's significant. For the club, for kit sales, for the media attention around the signing. We're not in a position to —"
MARCO: "She raised me alone, she worked her whole life, she never asked for anything from anyone."
The secretary says nothing.
The clause does not move.
Marco looks at the contract for a long moment. Then he picks up the pen.
PATRICK: (quietly) "Marco —"
MARCO: "I know."
He signs.
The name on the jersey will be Santos.
The club posts it at eleven in the morning.
@GraystoneFC: "Welcome to Graystone FC, Marco Santos."
Within four minutes it has forty thousand likes.
Not because of Graystone FC, not because of what the second division of the English football league means to most of the people liking it, because of the name, because of everything that came before the name, because the world has been watching this story since the interview went viral and now the story has a next chapter and the next chapter is a professional football contract.
@FutebolPuro: "MARCO SANTOS IS A PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALLER. I don't care what division. He did it. HE DID IT."
@SantosWatch: "Graystone FC just became the most followed second division club in England. Marco Santos. Welcome to professional football."
@GlobalFutbol: "The Santos name on a professional jersey once more. Rico, Klaus, Lucas, Emma and now Marco. What a family."
@TaktikFussball: "Twenty-eight years old. No professional background. Started in the streets of Milan. Signed his first contract today. The football gods love this family."
Emma Santos likes the post within two minutes of it going live.
She comments :
@EmSantos: "You can do this"
Lucas likes the post twenty minutes later.
A notification from Klaus Santos does not come.
People notice.
@SantosWatch: "Emma liked it, Lucas liked it, Klaus… nothing. The family situation is still complicated and we all know it."
@FutebolPuro: "Klaus not liking the Marco signing post. Make of that what you will."
@FootballTwitter: "Not trying to start anything but Klaus Santos has not acknowledged his brother's signing at all, Interesting."
The Premier League season opens on a Saturday in August.
Queensgate City win their first match 3-1. Lucas get's an assist . He is everywhere the kind of performance that reminds everyone why the Ballon d'Or conversation never really stops where he is concerned.
In the mixed zone after the match a reporter catches him.
REPORTER: "Lucas brilliant performance today. How are you feeling going into the new season?"
LUCAS: "Good, sharp and the team is in a good place. Today felt like a proper start."
REPORTER: "Your brother Marco just signed his first professional contract with Graystone FC this week. What do you make of that? Do you think he can do it?"
Lucas is still slightly out of breath. He runs a hand through his hair.
LUCAS: "I'm happy for him. It's not easy to do what he did come from nowhere, put himself out there, go through the trials. That takes something."
He pauses.
LUCAS: "And for a Santos, the sky is our limit. That's always been true. He is a Santos. I believe in him."
REPORTER: "You said 'he is a Santos' quite naturally there."
Lucas looks at the reporter.
LUCAS: "That's what he is."
He moves on down the mixed zone.
Real Blanco win their opening La Liga fixture 2-0.
Klaus scores both goals.
In the press conference afterward he answers several questions about the match, the season ahead, the squad, the manager's new system. He answers all of them with the measured precision that has become his trademark in these rooms.
Then the last question.
REPORTER: "Klaus , your brother Marco signed his first professional contract this week with Graystone FC in England. Do you have a message for him? Do you think he has what it takes?"
Klaus looks at the reporter.
The room waits.
KLAUS: "Thank you."
He leaves.
The press conference room does not know quite what to do with that.
@MarcaDeportiva: "Klaus Santos walks out of his press conference when asked about Marco. No comment. Just leaves. The Santos family situation remains… tense."
@SantosWatch: "Lucas: "he is a Santos, I believe in him." Klaus: stands up and leaves. They are not in the same place on this at all."
@TaktikFussball: "Not a word from Klaus Santos about Marco. Not the post like. Not a comment. And now this. Whatever is happening in that family is not resolved."
GRAYSTONE FC — MATCHDAY 1
The season starts on a Tuesday evening.
Graystone FC vs Northend Athletic. A home fixture. The ground holds four thousand and tonight there are more cameras than usual not because of the match, not because of the club, because of the name on the squad list that has been circulating since Monday.
Marco is not on the bench.
He is in the stands, in civilian clothes, watching.
After the match a 1-1 draw that the local press will describe as uninspiring. he finds the coach in the corridor outside the changing room.
MARCO: "Why wasn't I in the squad today?"
The coach a direct Yorkshire-man named Terry Briggs who has been managing at this level for fourteen years looks at him without flinching.
BRIGGS: "Because you're not ready."
MARCO: "I've been training every day since I arrived."
BRIGGS: "I know you have and you'll keep doing it but training and matchday are two different things at this level and right now there is a gap between where you are and where you need to be. When that gap closes you'll be in the squad. That's not a punishment, that's just where we are."
Marco looks at him.
MARCO: "What do I need to work on?"
Briggs looks at him for a moment. Then he takes out his phone and pulls up a notes file.
BRIGGS: "Positioning under pressure, aerial work you're winning the ball but you're not directing it well enough yet. Distribution from the back and reading the second ball, your instincts are good but they're street instincts and this pitch is bigger and faster and the patterns are different."
He puts the phone away.
BRIGGS: "But I'll say this. Your attitude in training is the best in the building and I've been doing this a long time. Attitude gets you further than talent when the talent is close."
Marco nods.
MARCO: "What time is the first session tomorrow?"
Briggs almost smiles.
BRIGGS: "Seven."
MARCO: "I'll be there at six."
Rico arranges a personal trainer.
A man named Joel who has worked with professional defenders for fifteen years and who agrees to drive to Graystone three mornings a week after Patrick explains the situation. Joel does not care about the Santos name. He cares about the work. Marco and Joel establish a rhythm within the first session that Patrick reports back as "encouraging."
But the sessions that matter most are not with Joel.
They are on Saturday mornings. When Marco's schedule allows and the weather is tolerable and Rico puts on his old training shoes and they go out to the garden together.
Rico does not coach Marco the way a professional coach would. He does not have a clipboard or a structure or a session plan. He just talks ,asks questions, puts Marco in situations and watches what he does and then tells him what he saw.
Marco listens the way people listen when they are hearing something they have needed to hear their whole life and are aware of that while it is happening.
RICO: "Stop thinking about where the striker is. Think about where he wants to go. Those are different questions."
MARCO: "How do I know where he wants to go?"
RICO: "You watch his hips. Not his feet, not his eyes, feet lie, eyes lie. Hips don't."
Marco tries it. Gets it wrong. Tries again.
RICO: "Better. But you dropped your shoulder when you moved. That's a habit. We need to fix the habit."
They work for an hour. Sometimes longer. Neither of them watches the clock.
After the sessions Rico makes coffee and they sit at the kitchen table. Sometimes they talk about football. Sometimes about other things. Sometimes they say very little at all. The silence between them is not the silence of two people who don't know what to say. It is the silence of two people who are still learning the shape of each other.
One Saturday morning Emma comes over unannounced and finds them in the garden. She stands at the kitchen window watching for a moment before she comes out.
Rico demonstrating a defensive stance. Marco copying it. Rico correcting the angle of his feet. Marco adjusting. Trying again.
A father teaching his son.For the first time in Marco's life, his father is by his side.
Emma turns from the window.
She puts the kettle on.
She does not say anything.
Some things do not need saying.
END OF CHAPTER 27