Harbinger Of Glory

At the recognition, Maya couldn’t help but smile, nodding to confirm Leo’s thoughts before looking down and then back up.

"You actually remember me," she said as Leo, glad that he had been able to recognise her, smiled back.

"How could I forget? You were the first person to interview me. Sort of"

She laughed as she shook her head.

"I don’t think that even qualified as an interview."

"I had a recorder, a notebook, and absolutely no clue what I was doing from all that was happening that day."

At that, Leo shrugged.

"I wasn’t much better."

"So I guess it worked out."

She shook her head, still smiling, before looking at him properly.

For a second, she seemed to compare the almost pre-teen looking teenager she’d spoken to back then with the muscled and considerably taller person in front of her.

"It’s honestly nice seeing you here," she said.

"One of the first players I ever wrote about is now getting flown to London for an EA Sports shoot," she said and let out a quiet laugh.

"Funny thing is... that article never even got published."

Leo raised an eyebrow.

"What happened?"

"I left not long after," Maya said. "The company wasn’t really going anywhere. At least not for me."

She glanced around the studio before picking up the reporter pass she had on.

"I’d say things worked out alright in the end."

"Looks like they did," Leo said as he also glanced at it.

She smiled before letting the pass go.

"Not quite as well as they have for you."

Before Leo could respond, he turned to find Noah standing beside Kali, both waiting for him.

He nodded once at Noah before looking back at Maya.

"I should probably get going."

"Guess you should," she said before glancing past Leo and then waving warmly to Kali, who waved back.

"It was good seeing you again," she smiled warmly, something that Leo also replicated.

"You too."

He gave her a small nod before walking across the turf.

Kali immediately set off again, leading them toward another section of the studio.

Noah waited until they’d fallen a few steps behind before speaking.

"So..."

Leo glanced sideways.

"So?"

"Who was she?"

"Ah," he said before looking ahead.

"She’s an interviewer or reporter, something along those lines. She interviewed me back when I was playing for the Wigan U21 team, my first game actually."

"She interviewed me after the match, but apparently the article never got published."

Noah listened without interrupting before also looking ahead.

"Huh," he muttered while running his tongue across his teeth, all while Leo looked at him.

"What?"

His agent scratched lightly at the side of his jaw before answering.

"Nothing," he said, but there was just enough hesitation for Leo to know it wasn’t nothing.

"Noah," Leo said as the former sighed.

"All I am going to say is, be careful."

Leo’s brow furrowed, genuinely curious what his agent had to say.

"About what?"

"You’ve changed a lot in a short space of time," Noah said, gesturing slightly with his hand.

"People who barely knew you before suddenly have reasons to know you now."

There wasn’t any accusation in his voice, but he got his point across and well at that, as Leo let that sit for a moment before giving a small nod.

"I know, though I do not think she’s like that. Still, I will keep your words in mind."

Noah looked across at him and smiled.

"Happy you say that."

Afterwards, they caught up to Kali, and whatever Noah had been thinking about was left behind as the studio opened up in front of them once again.

Twenty minutes later, Leo walked back onto the set wearing the black-and-green EA Sports jersey.

This time the cameras were already rolling, and ahead of him, the table looked almost surreal.

Marcus Rashford sat on his left while Erling Haaland occupied the seat to his right, and across from him was Trent Alexander-Arnold, while further along sat Sam Kerr, Beth Mead and Morgan Rogers.

For a brief moment, Leo slowed as he got near the table.

Then he pulled out his chair and sat down, and once he did, the presenter wasted little time.

The session flowed more like a conversation than an interview, moving naturally between jokes, challenges and questions while the cameras floated around the table.

It didn’t take long for everyone to relax.

Haaland somehow spent the opening fifteen minutes acting personally offended by his own EA card.

"I refuse to believe this pace rating," he said, staring at the card as Rashford leaned over to look.

"I think that’s decent."

"Nah, I should be faster than that. 89? Why not at least add 2? I won the UCL last season for Christ’s sake!"

"I do not think that had anything to do with pace," Morgan Rogers tossed into the fray, but it got lost under Haaland’s feigned grumbling.

"So what more do you want?" the presenter said, smiling widely while Haaland set a Sharpie on his card plate.

"More," he voiced out before proceeding to change out his already overpowered 91-rated card into something that looked like an attempt at drawing the number eight instead of the infinity sign.

The entire table laughed as Trent shook his head.

"I’ve never seen someone complain about an elite card before," he said as eventually, the presenter picked up another card.

She smiled as she read it before looking across the table.

"Leo."

At that, Leo looked up sharply, wondering what was to come.

"This one’s for you," the reporter said the moment she met Leo’s gaze before she glanced back at the card.

"...Actually..." Her eyebrows lifted slightly.

"Before I ask this..."

She looked around the room.

"Do you have an unusually enthusiastic female fanbase that I should know about?"

Hearing that, Leo blinked.

"I... honestly wouldn’t know."

The presenter laughed.

"No?" she inquired, but Leo just shook his head.

"The only fans I’ve really met are Wigan supporters."

He shrugged.

"And this week a few kids told me they liked using me on FC 24 because I was fun to use!"

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