Greatest Of All Legends

Chapter 80  Rest and Return

With the match over, the players gradually began to go back to the locker room to clean up and change in preparation for leaving the stadium and Jason wanted to follow after them as well but was blocked by some reporters who had approached him for an interview.

Not minding an interview, Jason didn't mind waiting around a bit to answer a few questions so he agreed to the interview.

With a mic in his face, a female reporter from CBS who looked to be in her mid-twenties asked the first question,

"You just had your debut, coming on in the 69th minute of the game and helping your team to stage a comeback with an assist and a goal. What did you feel like coming into the game?"

"Ahh, Not gonna lie, I was actually a bit nervous coming into the game as it was a very important game," Jason said with a wry chuckle.

"That's why it took me a little while to get into a comfortable stride, but I'm happy I was able to help the team win the game and make our fans happy," he continued without a hint of nervousness even though this was his first interview in this life.

"With your performance today, it's not an exaggeration to say that you've impressed your team's fans and probably some worldwide fans as well. Can we expect more of the same from you?" a second reporter who held a mic with the words ESPN boldly printed on it asked.

"I hope so… but one thing's for sure, as long as the manager gives me a place in the line-up I will do my best to help the team win games," Jason replied without a stutter.

"You scored your first goal on your debut and I have to add that it was a very impressive goal, but I do have to point out that your jubilation stood out a lot to me as well. It's quite a gentlemanly celebration that seems like it would tug at the heartstrings of a lot of female football fans around the world, don't you think?" the first reporter asked another question.

"I don't know, haha," Jason laughed a bit.

"To be fair, I don't even know who threw the rose, but as soon as I caught it, I just did whatever came to mind and that was what happened. There's not really a deep meaning to it or anything," Jason replied laughingly before telling them that he would not be answering any more questions and quickly walked away before they found another way to hold him back.

With a last wave to the traveling Porto fans, Jason walked into the tunnel and began making his way to the team's locker room.

On the way to the locker room, he met Otavio who was holding the man of the match award as he also made his way to the locker room.

Despite both of them having an assist and a goal during the match, Otavio ended up being named the man of the match over Jason, but Jason didn't feel any negative emotions over this as he didn't feel like it was something worth putting too much thought into, but overall, it was because he was too happy right now to care about something as little as that.

He had finally gotten his debut and not only was it in a Europa League match which was quite impressive, but he had also helped his team to stage a comeback and he had gotten his first goal and assist stat in his first game without even spending half an hour on the pitch, so how could he not be happy.

He even congratulated Otavio on the award.

As Jason and Otavio entered their locker room, both of them shared high fives with the whole team as they were both the facilitators of the team's comeback and they were praised by their teammates.

Sergio Conceicao also came in later and even without him saying anything… which he did, it could be seen by his facial expressions that he was happy with the team's display, especially with Jason.

His gamble had paid off in full and then some.

But not openly displaying any partiality, he praised the whole team's efforts and instructed them to quickly freshen up and pack up so that they could get a bit more time to rest tonight before heading back to Porto the following day.

The players followed the manager's instructions and quickly prepared to depart.

Their departure did not have as much fanfare as their arrival as they departed quietly and made their way to the Lindner Hotel Leverkusen BayArena where the players had a quick dinner before trudging tiredly to their beds.

The phenomenon of "being too excited to sleep" did not hold true for Jason as he fell asleep almost immediately after his body hit the bed, the mental and physical exhaustion finally catching up to him.

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Jason woke up a few minutes after 6 am, despite his phone alarm not ringing as he was already used to waking up at that time.

Getting out of bed with a yawn, he began to do a few yoga routines to help with his muscle exhaustion but even after doing Yoga for almost a full hour, his muscles still felt quite sore.

'There really is a difference between playing at the top level and playing below the top level,' Jason wondered thoughtfully.

He had only been on the field for just about twenty-five minutes which was not even up to a full half, yet he was this tired. It also needs to be said that he came onto the field when players of the opposing team were already exhausted after playing for seventy minutes.

'It seems I still need to work on my stamina and also to streamline my playing style to use as little energy as possible,' he decided, noting down the effects of his exhaustion that could have an adverse effect if left unchecked.

A few minutes later when Jason was already having his bathe and freshening up, Otavio woke up as well and started getting ready as well as the team would be heading back to Porto that morning.

The team soon got ready and had a quick breakfast before heading to the airport to get on the plane back to Porto.

On getting to Porto, the players weren't immediately dismissed and instead, headed to the CTFD Portogaia training center from the airport as they had a massage scheduled to help with the match recovery process.