Greatest Of All Legends

Chapter 50  Individual Training

**4:56 pm**

Jason sat on the sidelines with a water bottle in his mouth as he reminisced on the earlier training session.

Most people watching the session would have thought that he was tearing up the pitch with his electrifying runs and nifty dribbling skills, but Jason who would have been the focus of their attention knew that immediately after the first run when he had managed to get through the first team's players easily because they had their guard down, doing it again had gotten a lot harder.

It wasn't to the point that it became impossible, but it got a lot harder than he expected and was especially physically demanding and Jason who thought he had put in enough work on stamina-building exercises ever since he woke up in this reality found himself wheezing because of the physical exertion he had to put himself through to get past the players.

Inevitably, his efficiency dropped the more tired he got until it reached the point where he didn't even bother dribbling past players because he knew that with how tired he was, he'd lose the ball immediately, so he opted for the nearest pass instead.

'This is quite troublesome,' he thought to himself. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

This was his first time against players of such a high level of standard, yet he felt like he could hardly keep up the moment they had their guards up against him.

What was to be noted was that this was a training match and the players were keeping their aggressiveness in check so it would be a lot worse if he was in an actual match.

He may not even be able to get past them at all.

Granted, the FC Porto team was at the top of the food chain in the Portuguese Primera Liga, so most of the other teams weren't at the same level in terms of players ability or skills, but he had to remember that the Portuguese league wasn't even one of the top five leagues in Europe.

At this point, his experienced mind didn't need anyone to tell him that he wasn't match-ready and still had a lot to do to adjust to playing at such a level.

Luckily, he had been training long enough to know that it wasn't that he didn't have the skill required, rather it was more like he had the skills but he needed to sharpen his skills and his movements to be able to adjust to such a level.

That was why he was still at the training ground doing agility, maneuverability, and reflex sharpening training at a period when all the other players had been released by the coaching staff over an hour ago.

Part of the squad had left at an even earlier time as the team had a Taca da Liga finals match against Braga the next day and the players who would be part of the squad traveling to the Estadio Municipal de Braga for the game had ended their training earlier to rest their muscles for the upcoming game.

The rest of the squad, Jason included, who weren't part of the match day squad were allowed to continue their training, but as early as an hour ago, the training grounds had been empty except for Jason and Roberto Carvalho, a fitness coach who was still helping Jason with his training.

Not being a part of the squad against Braga had not come as a surprise to Jason and he actually welcomed being left out because he knew that he wasn't ready and being part of the squad was likely to be more of a detriment to him than a good thing.

He could even get injured with his current condition.

But even though that was the case, being left out of the squad still left a bad taste in his tongue and he was currently using that as motivation to go harder at the drills so he could have his debut even a minute earlier.

"If you're still going to train, then it's best if you stand up and continue before your muscles cool off," Roberto, who was standing about a meter behind Jason advised.

"..." Jason nodded and with a groan stood up once again and jogged onto the pitch where cones had been arranged despite his legs feeling as heavy as lead.

He soon stood in front of the first cone and Roberto passed the ball to him as he was going to be maneuvering his way through the cones with a ball at his feet.

"Ready?" Roberto asked Jason who replied with a nod.

"Start!" he called while pressing on the stopwatch in his hand to begin a timer while Jason charged into the cones with the ball, dodging and weaving through the cones like his life depended on it.

He did a few back-and-forth laps of the course and only stopped when he felt like he couldn't move his legs at a quick enough pace anymore.

"I'm done," he managed to say as he let himself fall to the floor, his legs no longer feeling like they could support his weight.

"Okay, I'm guessing we're done for today?" Roberto asked as he clicked on the button that stopped the stopwatch and held out an electric hand-held massager* to Jason.

"Yeah, we're done," Jason breathed out as he collected the electric hand-held massager and put it on before holding it to his thighs, the ball-shaped spinning end of the massager giving a bit of relief to his tense and tired muscles.

"I admire your work ethic, but remember that you shouldn't push yourself too much even in training as that can cause muscle exhaustion that may lead to injuries," Roberto said, his eyes on the tired-looking Jason who slowly moved the hand-held massager up and down the full length of his legs.

"I'll take your words to heart coach," Jason replied with a glance at the fitness coach.

He also knew the risks that overtraining brought if it was not carefully, and he was all for avoiding the risks, but the benefits that the extra training would bring him could not be skimmed over as well so it was up to him to find the correct balance between training and resting.

With these thoughts, he continued massaging his legs while Roberto had some staff pack up the cones and other stuff used for training.

Soon enough, he was on his feet and walked towards the locker rooms where he wanted to put down his training equipment and have a bath and change.

He remembered to grab the bag he had brought with him and dragged it along on his shoulders to the shower rooms.