Football: King of Penalty Area
Ch. 79 - Three New Faces

Dubai International Airport, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Raynaldi got off the plane and was greeted by several Indonesian National Team staff who had been waiting for him in the VIP room.

“Hai, Ray. How was your flight from Germany?” Asked a young man in his 20s who greeted him.

“Hai, Malik. As usual, I only sleep when I'm on the plane.” Raynaldi answered kindly.

The person who picked up Raynaldi was the logistics staff of the Indonesian National Team, Malik. Although he has just graduated from college, Malik is a person who is able to speak 5 languages other than Indonesian, namely English, Spanish, Arabic, and Portuguese. You could say Malik is a language genius and his ability to organize logistics in the National Team is also very good.

“Then you should have a good condition now because you can rest on a flight here.” Malik.

“Oke, just chat it up. Come quickly to the hotel, I still need to adjust to the jetlag and the time difference.” Raynaldi immediately asked to return to the hotel. However, after flying for 10 hours, Raynaldi felt his body a little tired and affected by jetlag.

“Well, I'll take you to the hotel. All the players, coaches and staff besides me also just got up to 3 hours ago.” Malik took Raynaldi to a car that had been prepared by the airport and went to a hotel that had been rented by the National Team staff.

. . . . .

After getting to the hotel, Raynaldi met with many familiar faces and some new faces. He could see Rangga, Firman, and 3 tall men that he did not know, besides these three men also had European characteristics even though they still looked faint.

“Hai, my name is Radgar Sinaga. Are you Raynaldi? I heard you played in the German second league?” White male 199 centimeter tall with black hair and brown eyes.

“Iya, I was loaned from Leverkusen SC to Koln Athletics until the end of the season. Besides, Radgar. Are you a naturalizer?” Raynaldi would not want to ask about this new guy in the National Team.

“I am not a dual citizen, Indonesia-Netherlands. Actually, both my father and mother are also of Indonesian-Dutch descent. The difference is, my father chose to be an Indonesian citizen and my mother who always lived in the Netherlands when she was young chose Dutch citizenship.” Radgar kindly told me about himself.

“But because both of my parents spent a lot of time working when I was young, I was emotionally closer to my Indonesian grandfather. In February I got a call from Coach Frans to defend the national team.” Radgar Pungkas.

“Oh, I deserve not to hear news about you. If it is a dual-warganerasi it will be easier to process the existing administration.” Raynaldi nodded in understanding of Radgar's condition.

“Do you play in Europe or Indonesia, Radgar?” Ask Raynaldi.

“Oh, Ray. They're both the same as me, in a state of dual citizenship when they get a call from Coach Frans. The one on the right is named Mario Dembele and the one on the left is Marco Dembele. They are brothers, his father is Indonesian and his mother is of Indonesian-French descent. Their playing positions are centre-back and Mario is one year older than his brother.” Radgar introduced the two brothers.

Raynaldi also greeted the two brothers kindly, they look different from the typical white European Radgar. They have a slightly bright grain brown skin that is more similar to southeast Asian ethnicity, as well as black eyes and black hair that makes them almost no different from Indonesians.

Raynaldi also noticed Marco staring at him from the very beginning he came. Actually, Raynaldi also felt that he had met Marco somewhere, but he forgot about it. “Marco, right? Have we met before? I feel like I saw you when I was playing in the Leverkusen SC.” Youth Team

“I'm a player of the Munich Youth Team of 1906, maybe you don't remember any more than our last game was almost half a year ago. In addition, I was recently promoted to the Munich reserve team of 1906 II and played in 2.Bundesliga too. Although now I'm just a rotation player.” Marco shook Raynaldi's hand and reminded him.

“Ah, I remember. It was a game where I didn't score and made a hat-trick of assists.” Raynaldi remembers his fifth match in the youth team. At that time, Team Yunior Leverkusen SC faced Team Munior Munich 1906 and as a striker he was guarded by Marco.

The interesting thing in that game was Raynaldi only made 1 shot throughout the game but also made a hat trick assist. However, the reason he managed to make a hat trick assist was due to the negligence of defensive follow-up by team-mate Marco.

While Marco was guarding Raynaldi, his team-mates did not help to close the empty space he left behind. This makes Raynaldi easily exploits the existing empty space and creates 3 assists for his team-mates.

“That was a great match, unfortunately your teammates couldn't keep up to make a zoning defense and close the empty space you left.” Raynaldi said as he remembered it.

“Well, after that game the coach took me to the U-19 team and then joined the Munich reserve team of 1906 II after the winter break. They said, there is no point to play in the youth league anymore because of the less response from my teammates.” Marco still remembers his coach saying that he is a fast and felksible type of defender. He can close the opponent's moves but also needs a teammate who can keep the zone he left behind.

“We may compete again later.” Raynaldi.

Raynaldi turned his gaze to Mario and greeted. “Hai, Mario. What about you? Did you also play in Germany?”

“Before I also played in the Munich reserve team 1906 II, but only during the transfer last winter. I moved to the Swiss league and played for Lausanne in the Swiss Super League to get more playing time.” Mario answered kindly.

“May you succeed there and I think it's a good decision to go and get more experience. Players our age desperately need a formal match to find a style and position suitable for us to play.” Raynaldi cheers on Mario.

“Hey, you! It's almost time to get together!” The word of Huda reminds Raynaldi and the others.