'Bullardinho' - My Story - The Prelude To An FM16 Story

Tracz said:
Great pre-story mate. The updates gonna be this regular through till fm16?
Click to expand...

Cheers pal. Yeah I would say so, I've got so many ideas for where my career could go. Hopefully I can keep people interested for that long :)
 

My 16th​ birthday had now been and gone and I had signed my first professional contract with MIllwall. After the FA Cup final several agents approached me to be my representative and I eventually agreed to allow a Mexican guy by the name of Rafael Romo to represent me, he seemed like a really nice and genuine man, very laid back. He agreed my new contract with the club:

Wage: £800 p/w
Contract Term: 1 Year
Appearance Fee: £60 per appearance
Goal Bonus: £60 per goal​
Additional Clauses: 2 Year contract extension (After 10 First Team appearances)

​

The past three months since the FA Cup final had been crazy, I was on the back page of every newspaper in England for weeks. There were stories ranging from me being ‘the future of England’s Three Lions’, I was going to be snapped up by several premiership clubs, at one point I even read a story saying I was seen in Barcelona and I would be moving to the Catalan club for a fee in the region of €12 Million, the publicity was crazy. My mother and Rafa told me I needed to just ignore everything I was reading and to just concentrate on my game and more importantly my education.

The new season was going to soon be upon us, the gaffer had told me I will be featuring a lot more this season so I needed to get my head down and train hard. He also wanted to make sure I knew the importance of staying grounded, “ignore the papers Matt, don’t let the pressure get to ya, you’re still just a kid” he would say to me.
My physical game had improved a lot over the summer, I had a growth spurt and was now almost six foot tall and I had also been doing a lot of gym work to build my core strength, I wanted to be ready for the start of the season and more importantly our first competitive match against Hungarian club Ferencvárosi Torna in the UEFA Cup Qualifying rounds.

I was chilling at home one afternoon after a pretty harsh Tuesday morning training session when my phone started ringing, ‘Wisey Calling’.

“Hi Dennis, what’s up”

“Hi Matt, sorry to bother you mate, I will keep it brief. I was just calling to say that unfortunately I will not be registering you for the first team this season mate”

“What.. Why?”

“it’s out of my hands mate, I tried to convince them not to but by the sound of it the deal is done”

“You’re not making any sense Den, deal? What deal?”

“A club has made an offer for you, and apparently the board just couldn’t it turn down, looks like you’re moving on to bigger and better things mate. I can’t say too much more, If I was you I would give Rafa a call straight away!”


 

As soon as I had finished on the phone with Dennis I rung Rafa, not only was I completely confused, I was angry and intrigued at the same time. I couldn’t believe people would just go ahead and organise a deal behind my back without me even being made aware, is this what football is really like? Unfortunately I got his voice mail.

“Hola, you are through to the mail for Rafa Romo, if you leave your name and number I will call you back as soon as I have finished agreeing the deals for the very finest players in the world, Saludos!”

“Rafa its Matt, What’s going? Why am I being told by Dennis there’s been an offer from another club for me? Shouldn’t this be something I should be involved in? Call me back please straight away"


Within minutes my phone was ringing, ‘Rafa- Agent Calling’


"Matt! Hola my friend!"

"Rafa! I take it you got my message, what is going on??"

"Calm down, calm down Matt, I want to make sure things were agreed between the two clubs before speaking with you my friend. I promise you Matt I have only your best interests in my heart."

"I don’t care Rafa, I should have been told as soon as the offer came in and been given the opportunity to choose for myself."

"I hear what you are saying my friend, but you not give me a chance to tell you what these club had to offer, believe me you are going to like it.."

"OK, go on then, this better be good though."

"Its Villarreal Matt, they are huge club in the Spanish top division La Liga, I am good friends with Mr Pellegrini and he asked me to recommend, you are my first choice, he has seen some videos and wants you in his side, he see’s big potential in you. He will be paying FC Millwall the sum of €7.5million for you, I will email a copy of the contract offer over to you but the basic is €10,833 a month, sound good no?"

"Villarreal?! Really? I am not sure I would want to move to Spain, what will I do for school? What about my mum?"

"Do not worry Matt, I met with your madre, she will move also and the club have only the best schooling for you, speak with your mother, she and I think this will be very, very good for you. I told you I only have your best interest in my heart."

"Ok Rafa, I am going to need to speak with my mother about this, thanks!"

"Saludos, adios Matt"

 


After sitting down with my mother and discussing my options, we both decided that accepting the offer from Villarreal would be the best thing to do for my career (and her). I didn’t really know much about Pellegrini as this was his first job in Europe, apparently he had done some great work in the Americas though. I wasn’t the only forward that would be signing for ‘El Submarino Amarillo’ either, Diego Forlan had just signed from Manchester United, he hadn’t had a great time there but I was sure I could learn a lot from him and his experience. Another player I was looking forward to working with was Juan Riquelme, he had been on loan from Barcelona and looked like a fantastic player, I couldn’t wait to get a chance to train with him.


We flew into Valencia Airport and then took a chauffeur driven car to the Estadio El Madrigal. We was greeted by an English speaking Spanish man, he said he worked within the HR department at the club and he would be our translator for the day, apparently Manuel didn’t speak a word of English, which did scare me a bit.
Once I heard what Manuel and a few other members of the staff had to say, I was really excited to be making this move. He told me that youth would be important to him and should I get my head down, work hard and impress in the youth side, I would be assured opportunities in the first team.


Next we was shown around the Villa the club would be offering us upon arrival, apparently this would be a ‘gift’ until we were settled in the area and had found our self a place of our own. It was amazing, it was a secluded, large 3 bed villa situated by the cities port, it had a heated outdoor pool, huge terrace area, a gym and our own private tennis court, I literally couldn’t wait to live there. We were also shown around the local town of Vila-real, a city in the province of Castellon, it was great, it just felt like all the places you would usually go on holiday.

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Once the day was over, me and my mother went back to the hotel, she asked me whether I had made up my mind, I didn’t even need to think twice about it, I was moving to Villarreal!

 
My first few days at Villarreal were spent settling in to the new surroundings, things were done very differently in Spain. The clubs education centre had pretty good facilities and my tutor there seemed nice enough.
I was given my training schedule which would see me train predominantly with B team, although there were a few of the young first team players that were also training with us other than myself, two of those players were Santi (Cazorla) and Pepe (Reina), both were a bit older than me at 19 and 21 respectively but both had already had a taste of the first team and were considered great talents. It was an exciting time to be at Villarreal.


Within a week I had already had a chance to play my first ‘B’ game, it was a friendly against Alcorcon, a fellow Segunda side. The team on the day was a mixture of youth and experience, I started on the bench for the first half. Diego Forlan and Xisco started up front for us, Diego managed to net three goals before half time, at which point Xisco was brought off, he hadn’t made much of an impact.
Me and Diego instantly hit it off, creating several openings together along with Santi, we carved them opening 7-8 times, I managed to grab a goal and was involved in another three or four. I can’t remember the exact score now but I think it was nearly double figures, it was an amazing experience and I got to play with some really talented first team players.


 

It was now mid-September and results had so far been disappointing for the first team, a 2-0 loss in the season opener to Valencia, followed by a 0-0 draw to Real Sociedad and a 1-1 draw to Racing S. had left us sitting just above the relegation zone in fifteenth place with only 2 points. Many were of the opinion that this was due to there being a lack of cohesion in the final third, whilst new boy Forlan had played every minute of the La Liga campaign so far picking up the clubs only goal in the process, he had already played alongside three different players in Manuel’s preferred 4-4-2 formation, the ageing Sonny Anderson, youngster Xisco and Jose Mari, none of whom had managed so much a single clear cut chance between them.

Things carried on this way for the next couple of matches, in fact it wasn’t until October 3rd, match day 6 of the season that we finally got our first win, a 2-0 win at home to Zaragoza, this game was again down to the brilliant finishing of Forlan, who had again seen another two players partner him up front, taking him to a total of five different strike partners in 6 matches, surely if things carry on like this the manager may start to look at his options in the ‘B’ Team I thought?

Everything had been going well for me, I had managed to grab three goals in as many Segunda league matches, the boss had been along to watch one midweek match, he said to me after that match “very good, very good!”, whilst smiling and nodding his head, I was pretty chuffed. I had been training hard and was continuing to gain strength at an alarming rate, I was now bigger and stronger than most of the ‘First Team’ players, when we trained together, Riquelme would always joke around, running away from me whenever I ran towards him to tackle him, me and him got along well, he would often say it wouldn’t be long until I was taking his place in the squad, I hope not, I want to play alongside him.

I was really starting to settle in Spain, I was now used to playing football in front of crowds of two or three thousand on a regular basis and I was much more acclimatised to the physicality of the ‘adult’ game. Murmurs had been spreading throughout the club that I would soon be given my opportunity in the ‘first team’, I didn’t want to get my hopes up but a lot of people seemed sure my time would come soon. Shortly after Pellegrini called me up to train with the first team, after which he pulled me to one side (with the club translator):

“Matt, it is no secret that the club is struggling for a forward to partner Diego and I was impressed with your partnership with him during the pre-season friendly. I would like you to start with him this weekend against Mallorca, they are also struggling in the league and their defence is ageing, I feel you can exploit this”

I was delighted, as the boss had said, they were struggling in the league, but they still had some great players and as for ageing defence, I would be up against one of the best Spanish defenders in recent history, Miguel Nadal. At 38, he may not of had much in the way of pace but his game was built on his reading of the game and his strength. Despite the gaffers optimism, I knew this was going to be a hard game.

 
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It was the eve of my first La Liga experience and we had just arrived at the Iberostar Stadium, the atmosphere was electric, you could really feel the passion from the fans inside and outside, all around the grounds. Once we had all clambered off of the coach and settled into the teams suite, I spoke with Manual and he confirmed once again his intention to start me from the beginning, I couldn’t believe that I was just hours away from playing in an actual La Liga match.
The pressure I felt was incredible, not only had we been performing below expectations as a team so far this season but also we had been struggling in front of goal, in fact if it were not for Diego (Forlan), we would only have scored on one occasion all season. I spoke with Diego before the match and he gave me some great advice, he also told me I had nothing to fear and he thought we would work well together, that made me feel a little better.


The game was well under way, I hadn’t really had a chance to make much impact as Mallorca had much of the possession in the opening fifteen minutes, the ball had been played into me a few times but I was being marked tightly by Patrick Muller.
On the stroke of 18 minutes we gave away a free kick on the edge of our area, one that Luis Garcia despatched with ease, we were 1-0 down and things hadn’t been going our way up until this point.
We kept the ball for a good period of time after the restart, I got involved with a few cute touches and I played great cross-field ball to switch play out to Riquelme. There was now 24 minutes on the clock and we had continued to press since conceding, the ball was played into my feet from Marcos Senna with my back to goal, I had already looked up and seen Diego was moving around in the box waiting for me to play the ball to him, I shifted the ball to my right, running past a defender in the process, I was now on the right-hand side, just on the edge of the 18 yard box with two defenders in front of me, I had a yard or so of space and was urged to shout by every one of the 5,000 travelling supporters. I stopped the ball dead and took one final look up, I could see the keeper was deep on his line, I decided to clip the ball to the back post, there was just enough pace and bend on cross, the ‘keeper committed but just miss-read the flight of the ball, it fell perfectly on the head of an oncoming Forlan who gratefully headed home to equalise.


The team was now visibly lifted, I was playing on my adrenaline, my assist had really given me a confidence boost and I was beginning to really exert my influence on the match. I had continued to link up well with Diego and the defence were struggling to handle us both, so much so that they were now resorting to a physical game and I had consequently been on the receiving end of several hard tackles, one that in particular would be the end of my game, possibly my season.

 
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