Greatest Of All Legends - Chapter 68

Chapter 68: Post-Match Interview
The Porto players celebrated with the visiting fans before some of them began heading to the locker rooms to freshen up and prepare to leave as they were still going to head back to Porto that same evening.

However, some of the players and even the manager were blocked by reporters who hoped to interview them.

Sergio Conceicao was blocked by more than three reporters who immediately started barraging him with questions.

“Despite your team going behind in the first half by what we can all agree was a mistake from your players, the team still went on to pull off a very impressive comeback in the dying minutes of the game and help the team clinch the much needed three points to keep you need to stay at the top of the table. Can you tell us how you feel?” A man who looked to be in his late twenties asked while holding up a mic that had the words “Sport TV” on it.

“Without a doubt, I feel happy that we managed to secure the win despite the bumps we had to face, and while this was one of our more exciting wins, I would usually prefer if we could settle the game earlier and I’m sure the players and fans agree with me as well,” Sergio Conceicao replied to the first reporter before quickly turning to the next reporter who had a question.

This time the reporter was an older-looking man who looked to be in his forties and was from TVI,

“The goal scored by Vitoria de Guimares in the first half was obviously a mistake from Mattheus Uribe. Can you say if this was because of nerves from playing in a position he wasn’t used to and is that why you made the decision to bench him from the second half?” the second reporter asked, his question bordering obviously bordering the offensive line but Sergio Conceicao used to all sorts of questions from the media.

“Mistakes happen a lot in football so what happened isn’t anything new. Also, Mattheus is a very versatile player who wouldn’t have a problem coping with the position I assigned him to play,” Sergio Conceica quickly replied but before he could continue, the second reporter was already asking another question, “So why did you bench him immediately and not give him time to redeem himself?”

“My decision to substitute Mattheus had to do with the changes we made to our tactical setup after going behind and I believe that with the results from the match, my decision wasn’t wrong, was it?” Sergio Conceicao replied smartly, effectively shutting up the second reporter as he turned to another reporter.

“Today marks yet another day that the newest addition to the team, Jason Bolu hasn’t yet gotten an opportunity to get on the pitch and impress the team’s fans even now that he is finally a part of the line-up. Can you give us any information on the subject?” a female reporter who looked to be in her early thirties asked Sergio Conceicao while holding a mic with the “RTP” letters printed on it boldly.

“Jason is a very talented kid and he had not managed to get an opportunity on the field much earlier because he was adjusting to the new environment, but now I believe he is match-ready and should be able to feature in some of the coming matches,” Sergio Conceicao responded quickly, not giving away too much information.

“I’m sure the fans should be happy to hear that, but some of the fans couldn’t help but notice that you had previously had him warm up, but then ended up not bringing him on. Can you tell us the reason for that?” the female reporter quickly asked another question, hoping to have more entertaining content than a routine answer.

“Uhm… Football is a team sport and the whole team, including Jason, knows that. At that moment, the team had just had a man sent off and despite how talented Jason is, his talents don’t lean toward the defensive part of the game so the moment he saw what had happened, he came to ask me which of the defenders would take Diogo Leite’s place, and the result of his actions and the team’s efforts is a win,” Sergio Conceicao responded like this because he didn’t know any other way that he could respond without having the fans look at him as a manager who didn’t care about his players.

So he could only heap praises on Jason so as to not let the fans misunderstand the situation as most fans wouldn’t understand the reasons behind his tactical decisions.

“Wow, so Jason is not just talented, but also quite a team player. I’m sure the fans are looking forward to seeing him on the pitch in the club’s colors even more,” the female reporter exclaimed in surprise.

“And so are we at the club,” Sergio Conceicao responded with a slight smile before continuing here,

“Okay, I’ll not be taking any more questions, have a good evening,” Sergio Conceicao ended the interview and quickly walked off, not bothering to register the words of thanks from the reporters.

With the interviews out of the way, it wasn’t long before the Porto players began filing back into the team bus in preparation for their trip back to Porto.

Less than an hour later, the team bus was already on the road and was already heading back to Porto.

Some of the players, especially the ones who had played the full ninety minutes of the game were already finding it hard to keep their eyes open due to the exhaustion but the excited chats between the remaining players about the game kept them awake.

Jason as someone who didn’t even step on the field for a single minute after the pre-match warm-up didn’t have anything to add to the conversation so he stayed silent and contented himself with looking through his phone aimlessly but before long a surprised look appeared on his face when he saw his name.

He had been sent a notification to watch the video of the post-match interviews and surprisingly his name was part of the title.

“Porto’s head manager and team captain praises the selflessness and hard work of new signing,” is what the title read.

Jason couldn’t be more surprised as he hadn’t even played in the match so why was he the focal point of the post-match interviews?

He decided to watch the video to see what had happened and less than ten minutes later he was looking dumbfounded.

Apparently, the fact that he, a new signing of the club was warming up as if it was time for his debut, but then the decision being changed had somehow interested the fans, the reporters, and the various broadcasting media groups so the questions about him had been asked of all the Porto players that were interviewed.

This led to the current situation where he was praised by the team manager and his teammates.

His manager had called him selfless, his team captain had said he was very hardworking and went further to tell the press about Jason’s training habits of arriving early and leaving last, and Moussa Marega who didn’t know what to say about him had spoken of and slightly exaggerated how he had tore up the first team at the first training session and even the crossbar that Jason had hit on the very first day.

Jason couldn’t be more lost at the moment because everything they said about him wasn’t exactly true.

The manager’s claim that he was selfless was a lie as Jason himself knew that he wasn’t selfless and what had happened during the match was because he immediately realized that the manager couldn’t bring him on and leave a hole in the team’s defense so he had proactively decided to give up the spot before it was snatched from him because he couldn’t go against the manager’s decision anyway so there was no point in stubbornly holding on.

As for what Pepe had said about him being hardworking… well, it was kind of true, but that was because Jason knew that he wasn’t as talented as everyone thought him to be, rather it was because his starting line was different from others and he had to do a lot of extra training and learning new things to manage to hold on to this advantage.

If he was as talented as he was made out to be, then he would have become a top player in his past life even if he could not become a football legend.

The thing about him tearing up the first team at his first training session at the club was not completely correct as he was only able to do that because the first team had their guards down when they faced him that day.

Finally about the crossbar thing… how many times did he have to say that it was a fluke!!!

… Actually, he still hadn’t mentioned it, and even if he had, would people have believed him?

All in all, it had already happened so there was nothing much he could do to change it, but he was slightly worried.

The way his teammates and manager had praised him along with the media doing its best to blow up the matter had already made the Porto fans who knew about him have especially high expectations while the ones that didn’t know him would begin to take notice of him now.

If he didn’t hit the ground running after all this media hype, then he would immediately fall out of favor with the fans which could have a drastic effect on his career going forward, but at this point there was naught he could do apart from what he was already doing.