"Leon! That's not right of you!"
"You make it big in Milan and you stop calling?"
Hachim Mastour's voice came through the phone with a mock-aggrieved tone.
"How are things going at Leoia?"
Leon heard Hachim's voice on the other end and smiled quietly, not taking the bait, asking about him instead.
"Ha! Leon! Let me tell you! I'm now the undisputed core of the Leoia squad!"
"And that's not all! I've become the hardest trainer in the whole team!"
"Ever since you left, I've been going out for laps every single day!"
"And you know what, my fitness is absolutely top-notch now!"
Hachim was practically glowing as he spoke on the other end.
To be fair, watching Leon dominate at AC Milan and become captain had stirred up no small amount of envy in Hachim.
But in Hachim's own words, their friendship had won out over all of that.
What Hachim was focused on now was getting back to Milan at the end of the season and fighting alongside Leon.
"Hachim! Don't push yourself too hard in training! Don't try to copy me!"
"I'm a bit of a special case."
Leon added a word of caution.
"Please! I'm not as reckless as you!"
Hachim's voice carried a dismissive snort from the other end.
"Right! I'll stop there! Wait for me next season and I'll carry you!"
"Milan can't function without me!"
"Oh, and there's a mysterious surprise waiting for you, but I'm not giving anything away yet!"
"Click."
Before Leon could ask another word, Hachim had already hung up.
Leon smiled and let it go.
As the best and only true friend from his difficult early days, their friendship was clearly one that would last.
As for the surprise, as long as it was not a nasty shock, that would do.
Leon figured it was probably just Hachim pulling a prank.
"System."
Leon called it up in his mind and opened the system interface.
After beating Roma in the last match, he was able to draw a Totti Badge.
"Draw!"
"Ding! Congratulations, host! Totti Badge drawn: [Long Pass Master]! Host's [Passing] attribute: 5 to 15!"
[Long Pass Master]: Long passes will never go badly off target.
Note: This means no obvious misfires, such as flying out of play; precision is still tied to the long passing attribute.
Not bad at all.
Leon felt he could probably slot into midfield at this point.
Though he still preferred the feeling of guarding his goal.
Leon scanned the other modules in the system and opened the Bond system.
The only player currently lit up inside it was Hachim Mastour.
Their bond value had reached 80. (Maximum: 100.)
Three tiers of bond effects had already been unlocked.
However, it was still shown as greyed out, and Leon could not yet view the details of the bond effect.
They would need to be on the same team, and it would cost 5,000 system points to unlock.
Next season, if Hachim could make it back to AC Milan and earn a place in the first-team squad, that bond effect would be something to look forward to.
Leon then checked the other AC Milan players and found all their bond values were still very low.
The highest was Mexes, whose bond value had reached 40.
But a bond value of 50 was required to activate a bond effect, so Mexes remained unlit for now.
The future was full of promise.
After browsing through the system, Leon felt a surge of confidence about what lay ahead.
Time to keep going out for laps and grinding system points through training.
The next match against Lazio was going to be another tough one.
On the 13th of April, the Lazio team bus pulled slowly to a stop in Milan.
The players stepped off one by one and walked into San Siro.
A 19-year-old Lazio player with a mohawk coolly ran a hand over his hair to straighten it.
"Keita! Nice hair!"
"Though I think your energy would be better spent on the pitch."
Klose, already 36, clearly had little patience for the younger players' unusual styles.
"You're right."
"In this match I'm going to break through the goal Leon is guarding."
"And I'll do it before Leon breaks the record."
Keita Baldé smoothed his mohawk with both hands, said nothing more to Klose, and walked straight into San Siro.
Klose shook his head behind him, resigned.
He could only hope.
AC Milan's victory over Roma in the last match had actually benefited Lazio the most.
Lazio had won their own home match 4-0 against Empoli.
That result had lifted them above Roma in the table into second place in Serie A.
It had given Lazio a glimpse of something real.
Roma had fallen behind in the chase for Juventus; Lazio had not.
However, AC Milan's recent momentum all but guaranteed this would not be a comfortable visit to San Siro for Lazio.
What concerned Klose even more was that AC Milan's goalkeeper Leon had now extended his clean sheet run to 900 minutes.
He was only 29 minutes short of the Serie A goalkeeping clean sheet record.
In other words, if Leon went just 30 minutes without conceding in the match against Lazio, he would break the 929-minute record set by Rossi.
Form this exceptional was difficult to ignore, and Klose genuinely worried whether Lazio could score against Leon.
He had to be honest with himself: he was not sure they could.
'Let's hope the fire of youth works a miracle.'
Klose put the thought aside and walked into the ground.
Keita Baldé was a product of Barcelona's La Masia academy.
Among the many players it had produced, he was clearly one of the more gifted.
But eager to get first-team minutes as soon as possible, Keita Baldé had ultimately given up waiting for an opportunity at Barcelona and chosen Lazio, who had promised him a starting role.
Last season, at just 18 years old, Keita Baldé had made 25 appearances for Lazio and scored 5 goals.
A very fine return.
This season Keita Baldé had gone a step further.
He had already scored 8 goals and added 5 assists.
Pace and explosive acceleration were Keita Baldé's most obvious qualities.
At the same time, having come through La Masia, his technical ability was also exceptionally refined.
That combination had made him the brightest young talent in Lazio's attack.
Klose might be worried about Leon's ability in goal; Keita Baldé had no such concerns.
When you are young, you just go for it.
Not long after the Lazio players had gone inside, the wave of supporters began arriving steadily at the ground.
As AC Milan's revival had taken hold, attendances at San Siro had risen noticeably.
For tonight's high-profile clash with Lazio, every one of the stadium's 80,000 tickets had sold out.
Berlusconi once again savoured the pleasure of a full gate.
How long had it been since San Siro had seen a full house?
"Dad! Is this San Siro?"
A young boy's voice rang out.
"Dad! Do you think we'll get to see Leon?"
"Will he remember me?"
Young fan Devin George from Sarria in Spain, holding his father Dave George's hand, walked slowly into San Siro alongside the tide of AC Milan supporters.
"He will."
"Leon will definitely remember you."
"You were his very first fan. He won't forget."
Dave George ruffled Devin's hair affectionately.
Back when Leon was still playing for Leoia in Spain, Devin George had already become his very first fan.
After Leon moved to AC Milan, Devin could only follow his matches through the broadcast.
But he had not missed a single one.
Now Dave George had taken advantage of a holiday to fly Devin over to Italy to watch Leon in person.
"I'm Leon's number one fan!"
"Nobody else can claim that!"
Up in the stands, with the match nearly ready to begin, Devin's excitement kept building.
Leon!
Go for it!
Devin waved his little hand.
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