Football: King of Penalty Area
Ch. 07 - Life in Germany

27 May 2007, Leverkusen, Germany.

It has been more than three months since Raynaldi came to Germany, now he is able to speak German fluently and has some friends in Leverkusen. A month ago, Raynaldi decided to stay in Leverkusen's junior hostel a month ahead of schedule after staying with Leona for two months.

In addition, Raynaldi has also been enrolled in one of the schools that have collaborated with Leverkusen SC. Here Raynaldi can also see the uniqueness of the Education system in Germany that accommodates almost all the circumstances of their students.

Raynaldi himself entered one of the Realschule classes that will be taken until he is 17 years old or around Class 11 if in Indonesian High School. Here Raynaldi can see that the education system in Germany is actually very directional when compared to in Indonesia.

In Germany Education starts with Kindergarten or Kindergarten level which is Education for children aged 0 – 6 Years. After that they will receive an exam to see if they are ready to move on to the next level. If they pass the exam, they can proceed to Grundschule or SD, and if the student is not ready, they will be directed to the intermediate classes Schulkindergarten and Vorklassen.

Grundschule itself is the stage where children begin to learn various kinds of lessons ranging from German, Foreign Languages, Mathematics, Science and so on. This level of education lasts for 4 years, namely at the age of about 6 – 10 Years. Then continued with Sekundarstufe I (First Secondary School Equivalent) for 5 years, namely at the age of about 10 – 15 Years.

After completing Sekundarstufe I (First Secondary School Equivalent), then continued with Sekundarstufe II (High School Equivalent) which has been divided into several judges and the needs of the students, and the, before proceeding to the appropriate University with their major.

“Now I've been in this city for over two months.” Raynaldi let out a long sigh as he recalled everything that had happened to him.

Raynaldi is currently at a sports park in Leverkusen, Germany. The digital number on his watch still shows at 05:30 am and the sun begins to rise illuminating the city of Leverkusen.

It has been more than two months Raynaldi repeated the same activity, every rice he will go to this park before sunrise to do a morning run. Sometimes there will be some local residents who play futsal on the multi-functional field located in the middle of this park, because Raynaldi often play with them, he also began to get used to life in Leverkusen City.

As usual Raynaldi did a morning jog while waiting for some of his friends from the local community to play football together. The grass field in this park is quite wide and also has two wickets that can be moved.

It did not take long a dozen people came to the place where Raynaldi jogging. “Hai, Ray... Always early as usual?” A tall white man shouted to Raynaldi.

“Oh, Marin... You've come?” Raynaldi stopped his jog and approached Marin's group.

Marin Hoffman is the leader of this group, they usually play amateur football to spend free time and have fun. Two weeks ago, Marin and his team were playing with the rest of the football community and lacked players due to one of his men being injured while many of his team members were unable to come that day.

Finally Marin saw Raynaldi who dribbled while circling the field and invited him to join his team. After the game Raynaldi began to be familiar with Marin and his team, especially after knowing that Raynaldi was a junior player from Leverkusen SC initial awkwardness because the skin color bandage immediately disappeared.

“Does it matter if you come play with us today? Don't you have to start training tomorrow with the junior team?” Marin asked with a little worry.

“Alright, then.” Marin nodded and started directing her friends to start warming up.

The amateur match that Marin and his team will follow is a match to determine the priority of the use of this park. The first time Raynaldi heard it, he felt strange because isn't this park for the public? But Marin went on to explain that the priority meant that if the community that won the park rights would have a priority of choosing the time of use of the park, it did not mean blocking other communities from using the park.

After a while the other group came to the park, they were led by two people with a height of about 186 cm. Raynaldi recognized one of them as the goalkeeper of Leverkusen SC youth team, Mark Wagner.

“Hai, Ray... Turns out it was you, the person they were referring to.” Mark was a little surprised when he saw Raynaldi in the park.

“Well, I usually train in this park in the morning... But it's also a surprise to meet you here.” Raynaldi welcomes Mark.

“Hahaha... The last time we met more than two months ago, we were still playing in one team. But now be the opponent?” Mark laughed happily, for him Raynaldi's performance while taking the junior team trial is still imprinted. Although Raynaldi's technique is very standard but his finishing ability and the assessment of the situation in front of goal is outstanding.

Mark Wagner himself is one of the geniuses at the club even he is still selected in Germany U-17 despite only being a substitute goalkeeper. But it's not because Mark Wagner is weak, however, he is still 16 years old and the main goalkeeper of Germany U-17 is also a genius who has become the main goalkeeper of the club Berlin FC at the age of 17 years.

“Yes, this time we are opponents. But I will only play half the game, after all I still have to prepare myself for training tomorrow.” Raynaldi.

“Hehe... Unfortunately I will play full today, however I still need to move my body after two months almost without a match.” Reply Mark.

“OK, we'd better get back to our respective teams.” Raynaldi and Mark parted ways and returned to their respective sides of the team.

“Hai, Ray... Who's the big guy? It seems I've seen it but I don't really remember.” Marin who saw Raynaldi was quite familiar with Mark asked curiously.

“Name Mark Wagner, he is the main goalkeeper of Leverkusen SC youth team. If it is not wrong he was also selected to enter Germany U-17 as a substitute goalkeeper.” Answer Raynaldi.

“Oh, it turns out it's him... It was only fitting that his face looked familiar, apparently a member of the junior team. But for a child in his 16s with a height of almost 190 cm, isn't that outrageous?” Marin finally remembers Mark Wagner, but still feels a little shocked because of Mark's excessive height for his age.

“Well, I understand what you're thinking... Actually I was also surprised when I first heard that he was the same age as me.” Raynaldi recalled that when he first met Mark two months ago, he thought Mark should be a year or two older than him, but it turns out that Mark and himself are still the same age.

“Already, there is no point in discussing the height of others... Better we start the game soon.” Marin directed Raynaldi and the others to start the warm-up and start the match immediately.