Soccer Supremo - A Sports Progression Fantasy

He grinned. ”I have been on edge, worrying about what political things you might say, but you have been strangely quiet on that front. While you are focused on the football, it is thrilling to wait for your next explosion. When I saw you had rented a butler to serve the discarded players - a butler as a punishment! You’re actually crazy - I had an out-of-body experience. I felt what it must have been like for the reporters in the old days. You have that phrase in Chester - he’s done what?! Yes, we are similar. It is like looking into a mirror, at times.”

Around us was a buzz of chat. Hundreds of decision-makers were deep in earnest conversations. What stunning transfers were being mooted for the first time? Which clubs were getting rinsed? Who would benefit from all the money sloshing around? I turned my full attention back to Paul Braun. ”What I like about the FC Hollywood thing is that you took all the money from sponsors and put it back into the team. You did what you did to build the club. I’m not trying to do it your way. I’ll make more from transfers than from all the commercial deals we ever make. I get publicity because I’m trying to do the right things and that puts me in conflict with the bad guys. You’ve got this enormous publicity machine here but how have you used it to make the world a better place? You do small things around the edges - it’s the 20-year anniversary of the gay fan club - but in comparison to what you could do, it’s a drop in the ocean. You’re Batman but you only go into Gotham once a year.”

”Dieter told me that when he asked you to do this role, you turned him down but changed your mind soon after. What happened?”

I frowned. It was amazing that he had asked that question. That was the exact right question at the exact right time. ”I decided that maybe I would be able to do something good.”

”On which of your favourite topics will you be preaching from your pulpit in my megachurch?”

”I’m not going to say anything political while I’m here. My focus is on winning games. If I win all these matches, my profile will be raised massively, permanently. Why speak when I can, you know, walk the walk?”

”Hmm,” he said, frowning. He didn’t believe me. He glanced up at the big timer. ”What do you think of the football club I built?”

”Tell me one thing first,” I said. ”Before Elversberg, you made me give you the starting eleven, and when you heard it, you told Fabian and the others to shut the fuck up whining and do what I said. That was because I was the only one looking out for Fabian, right? As a former player you wake up every day with pain all over your body and you like that I actually give a shit about player welfare. That was it, right? That’s why you decided to back me?”

”As I said, I welcome some chaos. When I discovered that you told the captain of Germany he couldn’t even train because of a phantom injury, my eyes filled with dollar signs.” Paul laughed so freely I had to join in. He continued. ”I was right. The amount of content generated by your decisions has been staggering. We have taken one hundred percent of the narrative oxygen since that first team sheet was finally revealed.” He smiled happily. ”Of course our best eleven would include Fabian Fromm, but as long as you won the match, what was the cost to us? The scenario we have scripted is perfect for a brief FC Hollywood sequel; when you leave and Basti returns, everything resets.”

”It was all a dream,” I said.

”Ha! Quite so. Dieter was convinced you would win five or six from the eight matches. We would be top of the table when you arrived and top when you left. In fact, you have exceeded expectations so far. No, the reason I made a point of backing you when you presented the line up... was the line up.”

”You agreed it was time to rotate the goalkeepers?”

Paul laughed. ”No, that is crazy. We don’t do that in Munich. But you do it, and you like tactical flexibility. We had two worries when it came to Max Best, the football manager. One, that you would not, perhaps, be too distraught if Bayern were to lose in spectacular fashion.”

I shook my head, smiling wryly. ”You thought I might throw a game?”

”No. But, perhaps yes. If you thought it would be funny, for example.”

”I can’t say I didn’t have a couple of daydreams about it. The Allianz Arena full of angry fans, red flares everywhere, the goals pouring in against us, me ordering stupid formations, people trying to get to the technical area to drag me away.”