THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME
chapter-431-30041322

Kingsley Coman, Juventus' 19-year-old recruit from PSG, was the first to step on the hilarious excuse of a stage that was a chair positioned in the middle of the room. The young French footballer outdid himself by performing P. Diddy's classic hit - Bad Boys for Life. His lyrical flow was spot on — as if he had practiced the rap song several times beforehand. He even elicited a wave of thunderous applause from his new teammates when he left the stage.

Then, it was Patrice Evra's turn to sing. The other Frenchman stepped on stage and introduced himself before getting into the groove. He sang Marvin Gaye's Let's Get it on and strained his voice to hit all the high notes. Naturally, his sorry excuse of an attempt to sing elicited frenzied waves of laughter from the other Juventus players.

After Patrice Evra, it was Roberto Pereyra's turn to perform. The man freshly signed by Juventus from Udinese sang a Spanish song that sounded uninteresting and totally alien to Zachary. But surprisingly, the other Juventus players seemed impressed by the song. They applauded the player as he stepped off the stage and returned to his seat.

The next on stage was Morata, who produced a somewhat acceptable performance of another Spanish hit single before returning to his seat. And then finally, it was Zachary's turn to step on stage. It was the time for Juventus' most expensive signing that summer to go through the initiation ceremony.

"Can I really sing anything?" Zachary asked after standing atop the stage that was the chair positioned in the middle of the room. He had already come to terms with his circumstances and wasn't nervous.

"You can sing any song of your own choosing," Pogba replied in English. "Just do your best."

"Okay, here we go." Zachary smiled and breathed in deeply to prepare himself, and a tune from his childhood slowly emerged from the deep confines of his mind. Without delay, he faced the crowd of his new teammates and started singing, "Baa Baa black sheep! Have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full. One for the master, one for the dame, and one for the little boy, who lives down the lane..."

His deep voice reverberated across the room, grating and scratching upon the ears of his new teammates. He repeated the catchy rhyme, not once or twice but a dozen times, and only stopped when he realized that the rest of the Juventus players were looking at him with strange expressions.

"That was the only song I could remember," he said, smiling and stepping off the stage. "Thank you all for listening."

In response, all the players remained silent while continuing to gaze at him with weird expressions. A few seconds passed, and suddenly, someone within the crowd started laughing. Then another followed — and soon, all the players in the room were doubling over with laughter. They laughed so hard and didn't stop even when Zachary settled back in his seat.

"Seriously, Zachary!" Pogba finally spoke after the waves of laughter died down. "What was that? Was it a song? We can't allow this."

"But, you all agreed that I can sing any song of my own choosing," Zachary argued, glancing at the Frenchman. "Are you trying to go back on your words by declaring that I haven't completed the ritual?"

"Don't mind Pogba," Buffon chimed in to save the situation. "He's just making trouble. Since you have already sung for your teammates, you're now fully initiated as a Juventus player. Welcome to Juventus, once again."

"Thanks," Zachary said, letting out a breath. He didn't wish to ever step on stage to sing again. Otherwise, he might become the joke of the entire footballing community in Europe with his poor excuse of a singing voice.

With the matter settled, Buffon said a few more welcoming remarks to Zachary and the other new signings before allowing the coaches to take center stage. Finally, after going through all the foolery, the time to discuss the main themes of the meeting had arrived. And, of course, Zachary was excited as he was about to attend his first tactical gathering at his new club.

"On behalf of the coaching staff, I would also like to welcome all the new players to this great club," Maurizio Trombetta, the assistant head coach in charge of the first team, spoke in English after stepping forward. "We'll do everything possible to ensure that we make you feel at home during your tenure at Juventus. But I also wish to remind you that we only utilize Italian during meetings at this club. As you should have realized, the coaches and most of your teammates speak only Italian. So, I urge you to start learning the Italian language as soon as possible if you wish to fit into this football community. Is that clear, my friends who have just arrived in Turin and don't speak Italian?" He swept his gaze over Zachary, Patrice Evra, Kingsley Coman, and Álvaro Morata, the new Juventus recruits.

"We understand, coach," Zachary and the other three responded, more or less in unison.

"Excellent," Coach Trombetta said. "For today's meeting, we'll still utilize Italian. But afterward, you four can approach me, and I'll explain the entire content of the meeting to you. Okay?"

"Okay," Zachary and the other three responded.

"Good." Coach Trombetta smiled and turned his gaze away. He then faced Coach Allegri and started spitting out rapid Italian words that Zachary couldn't understand. He spoke for about three minutes before stepping back and taking his seat.

It was then that Massimiliano Allegri stepped forward. The newly appointed head coach of Juventus didn't voice any English words like his counterpart. Instead, he began vocalizing rapid Italian sentences while pacing back and forth around the room. He only completed his 'alien' speech about thirty minutes later when Zachary was almost dying of boredom. And without further ado, he dismissed his players to the training ground to commence practice.

At that moment, while most players were exiting the room, Zachary and the other three new signings who couldn't speak Italian hurriedly stood up and approached Coach Trombetta. Naturally, they wanted the trainer to explain the content of the meeting to them.

"You guys are quick to get here!" Coach Trombetta said after noticing them. "That's excellent. Let's sit in the corner and begin right away."

Without saying more needless words, the coach led the way to a table in the far corner of the tactics room. The four players, including Zachary, matched his step and soon settled on the seats opposite his.

"How is your first day at Juventus so far?" The coach asked after leaning back in his seat.

"A bit vexing as we can't understand anything," Patrice Evra was the first to respond.

"Everything at the club is interesting," Kingsley Coman was the next to reply. "The language barrier is the only issue."

"I also find everything refreshing except the language barrier issue," Zachary took the cue and responded.

"What about you, Álvaro?" Coach Trombetta chimed in again while looking at the only Spaniard in the group.

"Well," Morata said, "I'm only waiting for the training and the matches. All the rest of the activities, including the meetings, don't really interest me much."

"You've spoken like a true footballer." The assistant coach laughed. "But meetings are also important, especially if we want to get our tactics right on the field of play."

"True," Morata agreed before going silent again.

Coach Trombetta smiled and planted his elbows on the table. "Let's move on to the content of the meeting. In brief, there were three points that Coach Allegri talked about today. First, he introduced his vision for the club. He said he wanted all his players to be flexible, disciplined, and hard-working, whether on or off the field. He mentioned how he wished to win many domestic trophies and hopefully the Champions League during his tenure as the Juventus coach. He also urged all players to do their best and work with him to realize those lofty goals."

"Secondly, Coach Allegri explained the objectives of the upcoming pre-season tour of Asia and Australia. He repeatedly mentioned how he wanted to use the pre-season matches to straighten out his tactics and help his players attain top match fitness. He also advised the players to utilize the tour to build great team chemistry with teammates. And that way, they would find it easy to play matchless football and destroy all the other opponents when the Serie A season commenced."

"Thirdly," Coach Trombetta continued, "Allegri also described the team's training objectives for the next four days. He wants all players to concentrate on honing their physical fitness before the pre-season tour. Thus, all players will have to put a hundred percent effort into the gym sessions while also taking the time to go through drills, like agilities and cone work, with the intent to build fitness. And, of course, that means there will be limited or no ball work over the next four days. That summarizes the entire content of the meeting."

"Thanks for translating, coach," Evra immediately said. "But one thing I didn't get is the pre-season schedule. When are we departing for Asia and Australia? And which teams will we be facing during the tour? Can you shed some light on that?"

"Sure." Coach Trombetta nodded and fished a piece of paper from his shirt's pocket. "We plan to set off from Turin on Saturday. That's five days from now, on August 2nd. As for the schedule of the pre-season matches, you can take a look at it yourselves." He passed the paper to Patrice Evra, who perused its contents for a few seconds before passing it over to Zachary.

Zachary received the paper and focused on the contents. Without delay, his eyes started taking in the entire pre-season schedule of Juventus.

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*Scheduled Friendlies During the Pre-season Tour:

-> August 6th, 2014: Indonesia Super League All-Stars vs. Juventus (Match Venue: Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, Jakarta, Indonesia)

-> August 10th, 2014: Australia & New Zealand A-League All-Stars vs. Juventus (Match Venue: ANZ Stadium, Sydney, Australia)

-> August 13th, 2014: Newcastle Jets vs. Juventus (Match Venue: Princes Park Stadium, Carlton, Australia)

-> August 16th, 2014: LionsXII & S-League Internationals Select vs. Juventus (Match Venue: Singapore National Stadium, Kallang, Singapore)

*TIM Trophy (Round-Robin, three teams) Pre-season Matches:

-> August 23rd, 2014: Juventus vs. AC Milan (Match Venue: Mapei Stadium, Reggio Emilia, Italy)

-> August 23rd, 2014: Juventus vs. Sassuolo (Match Venue: Mapei Stadium, Reggio Emilia, Italy)

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